Workers at Samsung’s Device Solutions (the company’s semiconductor arm) had been threatening to strike back in May, but their union and the company signed a deal that opened the door to very large performance bonuses. However, that is not the end of the story, as another union representing a different branch is now unhappy with the bonus disparity.
Samsung’s Device eXperience (DX) division builds smartphones, TVs, and home appliances. Their union is planning to hold a rally near the Samsung Electronics Suwon plant on July 16.
The reason is simple — workers in the non-chip divisions are expected to receive bonuses of KRW 6 million. Meanwhile, their peers at the DS division are looking at bonuses that are a hundred times larger — KRW 600 million.
As an early form of protest, DX workers wore black to work last month. Now, 2,000–3,000 of them (from a total of 28,000 in the union) are expected to rally in front of the Suwon plant next week.
“We plan to hold a rally during this year’s wage talks to protest the unfair sidelining of the DX division,” said one representative.
Samsung DX workers showing up to work in black clothes as a form of protest
Samsung Electronics is expected to report an enormous 18x increase in operating profit for Q2. According to Reuters, the second quarter of this year (April–June) likely saw Samsung rake in KRW 86 trillion in operating profit ($56.4 billion), up from KRW 4.7 trillion in Q2 2025.
This growth was largely driven by DRAM, HBM, and NAND chips. And per its agreement with its workers, Samsung will distribute 10.5% of the DS operating income as performance bonuses for employees in the semiconductor division. We will get more details when the Q2 report comes out.
