[비즈한국] Protests by employees in the Device Experience (DX) division, which oversees Samsung Electronics' finished product businesses, are moving to the front of Chairman Lee Jae-yong's residence. The collective action, which began with the "black clothing" commute campaign in June and continued with rallies at the Suwon complex in July and near the Samsung Electronics Seocho office in August, is now expanding to the vicinity of the group leader's home. The union even displayed an advertisement in New York’s Times Square, opposing workforce "efficiency" measures tied to the transition to artificial intelligence (AI).
While the demands may appear varied on the surface, they are rooted in growing dissatisfaction among DX division employees. During this year’s wage negotiations, a new "special management performance incentive" was created for the Device Solutions (DS) division—the semiconductor unit—funded by 10.5% of the business performance agreed upon by labor and management. Meanwhile, DX employees were provided with company stock worth 6 million won per person, sparking a controversy over compensation gaps. The Samsung Electronics Labor Union "Donghaeng" (meaning "Walk Together"), primarily composed of DX employees, is demanding 1,000 shares of company stock per employee and the creation of a company-wide shared performance fund.
The Donghaeng union plans to hold a launch ceremony on September 18 and begin rallies and solo demonstrations near Chairman Lee's residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The union intends to continue these actions long-term without a set end date. They have also stated that they will proceed with solo protests on days when rallies are not officially registered.
The union’s demands are primarily threefold: the provision of 1,000 company shares per DX division employee, the creation and distribution of a company-wide performance fund based on a set percentage of overall company performance, and the application of a uniform basic salary increase rate across the entire company. The Donghaeng union argues that since the high profits generated by the DX division in the past were reinvested into other businesses like semiconductors to enhance Samsung Electronics' overall competitiveness, it is unfair to distribute compensation based solely on current individual business unit performance. Even during the August rally at the Seocho office, the union stated, "We are not simply asking for what the DS division gets," adding that they are willing to verify the data if the company provides objective criteria for evaluating contributions.
1,000-share demand roughly totals 13 trillion won… actual shares received were 22
The demand for 1,000 shares of company stock represents a significant amount in terms of monetary value.
Last July, Samsung Electronics provided company stock as a performance bonus to 49,345 employees in the DX and CSS business teams. The company disposed of 1,083,434 shares to fulfill the agreement made in May to provide stock worth 6 million won per person. The payout was set at 22.65 shares per employee, with 22 provided as full shares and 0.65 as cash for fractional shares.
However, these 49,345 employees cannot be equated with the entire DX staff targeted by the Donghaeng union's 1,000-share demand. According to the union, as of June 18, the total number of employees in the DX division was 51,717. If one were to assume that 1,000 shares were given to every one of these employees, 51,717,000 shares would be required. Applying the closing price of Samsung Electronics on September 4 (255,500 won), this would amount to approximately 13.2137 trillion won. This is merely a rough estimate, as the number of employees may have changed since then, and the union has not provided a specific total monetary request.
Compared to the actual number of shares distributed by the company in July, the gap is massive. Each employee received 22 shares, with 0.65 shares settled in cash. Based on the closing price of 318,000 won on July 6, the value of those 22 shares was 6,996,000 won. Adding the 173,920 won paid in cash for the fractional shares, the total value was approximately 7.17 million won.
The reason the union is demanding 1,000 shares—far more than the 22 shares actually received—is that they are not basing their demand solely on this year's DX performance. The union argues that the profits earned by the DX division during boom years were used to strengthen overall company competitiveness, such as in semiconductors, rather than being distributed as performance bonuses. They contend that the 1,000-share figure represents the compensation for those past contributions.
On the other hand, there is criticism both inside and outside the company that the demand for company stock worth well over 10 trillion won is excessive. In particular, Samsung Electronics’ labor and management already finalized this year's wage negotiations in May, following government mediation. Since then, the Donghaeng union and others have filed for injunctions in court to challenge the validity of those wage negotiations, but their claims have not been accepted. Critics argue that there is a lack of procedural justification for re-demanding issues that have already been settled.
10.5% special incentive for DS based on business results… 6 million won in stock for DX
The catalyst for the full-scale outbreak of dissatisfaction among DX employees was the May wage negotiations.
Samsung Electronics' labor and management agreed to utilize 10.5% of the "business performance" selected by both parties as a source for special management performance incentives for the DS division. This is a bonus separate from the existing Over-Profit Incentive (OPI). The structure stipulates that the criteria for determining "business performance" will be decided through separate labor-management consultations.
At the time, media outlets calculated potential compensation by assuming the DS division’s operating profit would serve as the performance indicator. Projections suggested that an employee in the Memory Business Unit with a salary of 100 million won could receive up to approximately 600 million won combined from the special incentive and OPI, while employees in the System LSI and Foundry units could receive around 200 million won. These figures are estimates based on assumed future performance and calculation methods, and actual payouts could differ.
The same special management performance incentive system was not applied to the DX division. Instead, it was decided that DX and CSS business team employees would be provided with company stock worth 6 million won. As Samsung Electronics' stock price subsequently rose, the total value per person (based on the July 6 closing price for 22 shares plus cash for fractional shares) reached approximately 7.17 million won.
This discrepancy even shifted the landscape of the union. According to the Donghaeng union, as of June 18, it had 26,117 members, exceeding half of the 51,717 DX division employees at the time. DX employees held campaigns in business sites in Gangdong (Seoul), Gumi, and Suwon, wearing black clothing or masks to protest the compensation gap.
The intensity of the collective action gradually increased. A rally held near the Suwon complex on July 16 saw an estimated 7,000 participants according to organizers. At that time, the union officially demanded, for the first time, compensation equivalent to 1,000 shares per person and the creation of a shared performance fund.
About a month later, on August 21, the venue was moved to the front of the Samsung Electronics Seocho office in Seoul. Estimates of attendance ranged from 2,000 (police) to 4,500 (organizers). The union claimed that the decline in the DX division's profitability was not the fault of employees but resulted from management’s decisions, and they demanded direct communication with the executives.
Now, they have taken it a step further by announcing a long-term rally near Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s residence. The target of their collective action has shifted from the company's business sites and offices to the group leader himself.
DX union even heads to New York Times Square… Raises issues beyond incentives, including 'workforce efficiency'
The union's complaints do not stop at compensation.
On the 5th (local time), the Donghaeng union displayed a 15-second advertisement on a billboard in New York's Times Square. The video featured the phrases "GREAT PRODUCTS BEGIN WITH PEOPLE" and "WE ARE STILL HERE" in both Korean and English. The ad was broadcast every hour on the 35th minute starting from midnight that day.
What the New York advertisement specifically took issue with was not the performance incentives, but the company's AI transition and workforce management. The Donghaeng union stated that Samsung Electronics is subdividing tasks and measuring efficiency to determine "necessary" headcount as part of its AI transition, arguing that AI should not be used as a tool for staff reductions. In response, the company clarified, "The AI transition and staff reductions are not true."
The Donghaeng union also demanded verification of whether personal information of its members was leaked in connection with the so-called "blacklist" allegations that emerged from the Samsung Electronics branch of the Samsung Group's supra-enterprise union. Therefore, viewing the New York advertisement merely as a move to publicize the 1,000-share demand internationally is not entirely accurate. It is closer to the truth to see the labor-management conflict, which began over compensation gaps, as having expanded to include issues of workforce efficiency, organizational management, and the protection of union members' personal data.
The stark difference in the performance environments of Samsung Electronics' DX and DS divisions is also part of the conflict's background. In Samsung Electronics' Q1 business report, the DX division's operating profit was 2.9677 trillion won, while the DS division's was 53.6633 trillion won. While simple comparisons are limited because these figures include internal transactions, the trend of company profits being concentrated in the semiconductor division this year is clear.
The more the company reflects business unit-specific results in compensation, the wider the gap in how DS and DX employees perceive their situations becomes. Although Samsung Electronics' labor and management finalized wage negotiations before the total strike this year, the controversy over equity in compensation between business units has actually escalated since the agreement.
The possibility that the Donghaeng union's demand for 1,000 shares will be accepted remains unclear. The scale exceeds 10 trillion won even by simple calculation, and this year's wage negotiations are already concluded. On the other hand, the Donghaeng union demands the creation of a company-wide shared fund, arguing that performance should not be distributed based solely on one year's performance of a specific unit.
The backlash from DX employees, which began with the black clothing commute in June, has spread through the Suwon complex and Samsung Electronics' Seocho office to New York's Times Square and the vicinity of Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s home. If the company and the union cannot find a separate solution by the 18th, when the long-term rally in front of Chairman Lee’s residence is scheduled to begin, the internal compensation conflict at Samsung Electronics could potentially drag on for more than three months.