Samsung Electronics Union Chief Survives Confidence Vote With 87.5% Mandate, Eyes Separate DS Chip Bargaining in 2027
Samsung Electronics' (005930.KS) largest labor union has reconfirmed its chairman with an 87.5 percent approval rate, clearing the way for a more aggressive push to carve out the chipmaking arm as its own bargaining unit in next year's negotiations.
The Samsung Electronics Labor Union — known in Korean as the 삼성그룹 초기업노동조합 삼성전자지부 (SELUN) — said on Monday that chair Choi Seung-ho survived a week-long confidence vote held from June 24 to June 30, with 33,550 of 38,336 ballots cast in his favor. Turnout stood at 70.8 percent of the union's 54,165 registered members.
Why the vote was called
Choi called the confidence referendum himself, saying he would take personal responsibility for the outcome of the 2026 wage talks. Samsung Electronics and the union reached an 11th-hour deal in May that averted a threatened strike, agreeing to a 6.2 percent average pay raise alongside performance bonuses. The deal was ratified by members at the time, but the bonus structure that followed triggered a backlash.
Workers in Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) division — which houses memory and foundry operations — stand to receive between KRW 210 million and KRW 600 million (USD 152,000–435,000) in total compensation enhancements under the agreement. By contrast, colleagues in the Device eXperience (DX) division — which covers smartphones and home appliances — received a performance bonus of approximately KRW 6 million (USD 4,350). The asymmetry fuelled a wave of membership cancellations: SELUN's headcount peaked at roughly 76,000 during the height of wage negotiations and has since fallen to 55,200 as of June 30 — a decline of more than 27 percent in about a month.
2027 target: A separate chip bargaining unit
With his mandate renewed, Choi has signalled that the union's central objective for 2027 will be to have the DS division recognised as a standalone bargaining unit with a dedicated negotiating committee and formal employee-representative status. If Samsung's management declines to recognise the DS unit as a separate entity, Choi indicated the union would pursue independent negotiations rather than the group-wide bargaining framework used in 2026.
The move reflects a structural tension inside Korea's largest employer: memory and chip workers — whose variable pay swings sharply with semiconductor cycle profits — increasingly feel their interests diverge from those of consumer-electronics colleagues whose pay is more stable but lower.
Investment context
Samsung Electronics shares (005930.KS) have been under pressure from foreign selling, which hit an all-time single-day net sell record of KRW 7.7 trillion (USD 5.6 billion) in late June. Management has not publicly commented on the union's 2027 bargaining agenda. The DS division is Samsung's largest profit engine and the unit whose output is most sensitive to labour disruptions.
Sources: Korea Herald · Korea Times · Korea Herald — majority loss · Japan Times
