A week after Samsung Electronics hit a $1 trillion market value , the company's largest union is preparing an 18-day strike that could disrupt the AI memory chips that contribute to that valuation. The wage gap with SK Hynix is the spark. The bonus formula is the battle.
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Samsung Electronics sent a letter to its two largest unions on Thursday morning, asking them to return to the bargaining table. Two days of government-brokered talks collapsed the previous night. The strike, called by the Samsung Electronics National Union, is scheduled for May 21 and is planned to last 18 days.
The union's response, given through spokesman Choi Seung-ho, was clear: there is no point in continuing the dialogue without institutionalization and transparency. Choi stressed that the type of bonus should be included in the employment contract, in numbers, rather than offered as lump sum payments.
The issue isn't whether Samsung pays more. Management has already offered a one-time bonus for 2026 and proposed a profit share equal to about 13% of the chip division's operating profit.
The union is pushing for a 15%, 7% increase in base pay and the removal of the existing cap that keeps performance bonuses at 50% of base salary. The difference is small, but the principle is significant.
The benchmark is SK Hynix, which agreed last September to remove its bonus cap and distribute 10% of annual operating profit directly to staff, locked in for ten years.
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Samsung employees, observing their colleagues at smaller competitor HBM receiving a structural portion of the same AI euphoria, are demanding the equivalent in their own contracts.
Samsung’s negotiating position is complicated by the fact that the $1 trillion valuation it passed on May 6 is almost entirely due to its chip division. Semiconductor operating profit accounted for about 94% of the company’s number for the first quarter of 2026, with the bulk coming from the HBM and server DRAM lines that the union is threatening to shut down.
A strike at the Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong, where these chips are produced, would significantly impact Nvidia's supply chain. The Korean prime minister has called an emergency meeting on the dispute. The Central Labor Relations Commission is asking both sides to return to mediated talks on Saturday.
Samsung said in its letter that it remains open to negotiations. However, the union responded that the letter did not change anything because it did not include the type of bonus.
The NSEU has about 36,000 members and represents about 30% of Samsung Electronics' workforce. More than 50,000 workers are expected to join if the strike goes ahead, drawn from the NSEU and four smaller unions.
The 2024 strike, the first in Samsung's 55-year history, lasted about 25 days and included a one-day symbolic action followed by an indefinite extension. The 2026 plan is shorter, more organized and comes at a time when the company is more vulnerable to short-term production losses than ever before.
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The battle is no longer over whether Samsung workers will get more money. It’s over whether the bonus will be written into the contract or left to the chairman’s discretion. That distinction, the union says, represents the difference between a lump sum payment and a structural stipend, a concession already made by SK Hynix.
