According to reports, Samsung Electronics is facing the largest strike crisis since its establishment. As salary negotiations finally broke down,The Samsung Electronics Union Joint Struggle Headquarters, which represents approximately 89,000 employees (accounting for more than 60% of the company’s total workforce), announced that it will hold a general strike vote from March 9 to 18.If the vote passes, the union plans to hold a member rally on April 23 and hold an 18-day nationwide general strike from May 21 to June 7.
The core of this dispute lies in the fairness of the performance bonus (OPI) system. The union demands that the upper limit of 50% of the annual salary of the excess profit performance bonus (OPI) be abolished and that operating profit replace economic value added (EVA) as the calculation basis.
Industry insiders revealed that the bonuses for employees in Samsung’s semiconductor department are significantly lower than those of employees at the same level at competitor SK Hynix. An employee with an annual salary of 100 million won can receive an OPI bonus of about 50 million won at Samsung, while at SK Hynix it may be as high as 150 million won.
After more than eight months of negotiations, the two sides broke down at the beginning of this month. South Korea's National Labor Relations Commission announced that mediation had been suspended and the union had obtained legal strike status.
To ensure strike participation,The union even stated that it will establish a list of members who will continue to work during the strike, and will give priority to those on the list in matters involving forced transfers, dismissals, etc., and plans to reward employees who report "uncooperative" behavior.
Samsung is currently working hard to supply HBM4 memory for Nvidia's next-generation AI accelerator. Due to the long production cycle and complex process of high-bandwidth memory, the strike node in May is likely to disrupt the shipment rhythm, leading to a decrease in yield or output.
