May 21, 2026
SEOUL – With a full-scale strike at Samsung Electronics just a day away, labor and management returned to the negotiating table Wednesday afternoon, only hours after talks collapsed, as Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon stepped in to broker a last-minute compromise.
The Labor Ministry said the negotiations differ from the earlier post-mediation process led by the National Labor Relations Commission, describing them instead as autonomous talks between labor and management arranged and supported directly by the labor minister.
Tensions had been escalating after the NLRC’s post-mediation efforts broke down early Wednesday, raising fears of a full-scale strike. But both sides continued signaling a willingness to keep negotiations open to avoid a complete breakdown, allowing talks to resume roughly four hours later.
Industry observers said the possibility of a last-minute agreement remains, as the two sides are understood to have narrowed differences considerably during the mediation process.
Despite reaching broad agreement on major issues such as maintaining caps on OPI bonuses and institutionalizing a special incentive system, the talks ultimately collapsed over how to distribute the bonus pool across Samsung’s semiconductor business divisions.
According to the NLRC, the union accepted the commission’s proposal, while Samsung Electronics withheld approval, saying it needed additional time to review the terms.
According to industry sources, the union demanded that 70 percent of the bonus pool be distributed equally across divisions and 30 percent tied to business-unit performance. Such a structure would guarantee sizable bonuses even for loss-making divisions such as Foundry and System LSI, where many union members are concentrated.
Samsung, however, reportedly pushed for a more performance-oriented structure, favoring a 40:60 split weighted toward business-unit results. The company argued that excessively narrowing the compensation gap between profitable and loss-making divisions could undermine Samsung’s long-standing performance-based culture and weaken accountability.
Samsung said the proposal conflicted with its core compensation principle.
“If the company gives up the principle that compensation should be based on performance, it could have negative effects not only on Samsung Electronics but also on other companies and industries,” the company said.
Still, Samsung said it would continue efforts to settle through additional mediation or direct negotiations.
With around 50,000 union members expected to join the walkout beginning Thursday, Samsung Electronics has already moved to secure minimum staffing levels, underscoring concerns that a prolonged strike could disrupt round-the-clock semiconductor production.
Earlier this week, the company sent an official notice to the union requiring 7,087 employees to remain on duty each day during the strike period from Thursday through June 7. The notice followed a court ruling that partially accepted Samsung’s request for an injunction ordering the union not to interfere with safety and security operations during the strike.
Samsung is also understood to have entered emergency response mode ahead of the planned walkout, preparing contingency measures to stabilize semiconductor production if disruptions intensify.
Sources said the company has taken precautionary steps at its Pyeongtaek semiconductor campus in Gyeonggi Province to protect wafers from potential disruptions in automated logistics systems. The company is also reportedly considering limits on wafer input and possible adjustments to its production mix centered on advanced chips such as high-bandwidth memory.
Some industry analysts have warned that losses from a prolonged strike at Samsung Electronics could reach as high as 100 trillion won ($67 billion).