Samsung Electronics came within a day of the largest work stoppage in semiconductor history: roughly 47,000 union members — a large share of its Korean workforce — were set to walk for 18 days starting May 21, just as its sold-out 2026 run of AI memory chips ramps up. On May 20 a last-minute tentative deal suspended the strike; members vote on it May 22-27. The fight underneath: whether Samsung must write a profit share into the contract, or leave bonuses to the chairman's discretion.

1. We Built the AI Boom — Put Our Share in Writing (Choi Seung-ho, NSEU)

Samsung's profit went up nearly eightfold on AI memory, and workers got a discretionary bonus, not a share.

This is no fair. The National Samsung Electronics Union, led by Choi Seung-ho, wanted 15% of operating profit allocated to bonuses, the 50% bonus cap scrapped, a 7% raise, and (the real fight) the formula locked into the contract rather than left to management's discretion. Samsung's Q1 operating profit rose nearly eightfold year-on-year on the AI-memory surge, and workers say none of it reached them.

Just look at Hynix. Rival SK Hynix agreed in 2025 to put 10% of operating profit into pay, locked by contract for a decade — payouts reported to average over $460,000 per worker — and roughly 200 Samsung staff defected there in four months. To the union, a one-time bonus isn't generosity; it's a way to avoid promising anything.

2. A Pre-Tax Profit Lock Is Just Too Much (President Lee Jae Myung, Samsung)

Contractually handing workers a slice of pre-tax profit usurps management and threatens the company as a whole.

Even shareholders don't get a guaranteed cut of pre-tax profit, so why would workers? President Lee Jae Myung said "even investors cannot expect systems to share operating profit before taxes," and warned that some unions had crossed the line, signaling Seoul could invoke emergency arbitration to halt a strike that threatens the economy. Management's offer was a profit share of about 13% of the chip division's profit — but without the contractual lock the union demanded.

An 18-day stoppage at the AI chokepoint is a national risk, not just a labor dispute. Samsung makes an estimated 36% of the world's DRAM and its 2026 AI-memory run is sold out; JPMorgan estimated a full strike could cut operating profit by $14-20.8 billion. Chairman Lee Jae-yong called workers "one family" and apologized to customers for the "anxiety and concern" — the message being that Samsung's edge over TSMC and Chinese rivals can't be held hostage.

3. The No-Union Era Is Over (Fortune, Jacobin)

The real story is that AI-memory scarcity just handed chip workers leverage they haven't had in decades.

For most of its history Samsung blocked unions. Under late chairman Lee Kun-hee's "no union" policy, Samsung was effectively union-free for decades; the NSEU staged the company's first-ever strikes only in 2024. That a sitting president now has to weigh in, and that management blinked at the deadline, shows how far the balance has shifted.

AI memory is the leverage. Because hyperscalers can't easily absorb a Samsung outage, Fortune describes an emerging "dividend revolution" in which chip labor can extract a profit share at the supply-chain chokepoint, with SK Hynix's contract becoming the template. JPMorgan's Jay Kwon put numbers on it: meeting the demands would cost an estimated 7-12% of operating profit. The picket lines didn't form this time, but the bargaining power is new.

Where This Lands

A near-eightfold profit jump gave Samsung's unions incredible leverage — especially since they make the chips responsible for the jump. But it may also be true that locking in a slice of pre-tax profit oversteps what any investor gets and endangers the country's most important company. In any event, Samsung's status as a no-union company is over.

Sources