Samsung Electronics Union Loses Majority Status as Membership Falls to 58,270

Samsung group-wide union’s Samsung Electronics chapter has about 58,000 members

Total falls below the roughly 64,500 needed to keep majority status

The Samsung Group-wide Labor Union’s Samsung Electronics chapter, the first union in the company’s history to secure majority status, has lost that position. The change followed a wave of departures by members in non-semiconductor businesses after the 2026 wage and collective bargaining agreement was concluded.

As of 3 p.m. on June 4, the union had 58,270 members, according to labor circles. It needs about 64,500 members to retain majority-union status, leaving it short by 6,230. The total had stood at 65,290 as of 10 a.m. on June 3.

The union was the first at Samsung Electronics to win majority status since the company was founded. Membership has been declining since reaching about 76,000 on April 7. It first topped 70,000 in late March and briefly expanded further before sentiment shifted sharply. As of June 4, membership was down by about 17,000 from its peak.

The exodus gathered pace during the process of handling a tentative wage agreement. Membership fell to 73,300 on May 8 and continued to slide. On May 18, members learned that the union leadership had revised its rules to provide position allowances amounting to several thousand dollars a month, prompting another wave of withdrawals.

On May 27, membership dropped to 69,935, falling below 70,000. That was the day voting ended on the tentative wage agreement put forward by the group-wide union and the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union, and the labor deal was finalized.

A key driver of the departures was the gap in bonuses among business divisions. Samsung Electronics management and labor had agreed earlier to establish a special management performance bonus for the Device Solutions, or DS, division, which oversees semiconductors. Under the agreement, the memory business was set to receive an average of about $434,000 per employee, while the Device eXperience, or DX, division, which covers non-semiconductor operations, was set to receive about $4,340.

That divide also showed up in the vote on the tentative agreement. At the group-wide union, whose membership is concentrated in the DS division, 80.6% voted in favor. Support at the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union was 21.1%. At Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng, which held its own vote because it had no voting rights on the tentative agreement, 99.5% of members voted against it.

The wage agreement was nevertheless finalized. Departures from the group-wide union then accelerated.

Other unions, by contrast, are expanding quickly. Membership in the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union rose from about 16,000 on May 20 to 20,968 as of 9 a.m. on June 4. Donghaeng also grew from about 2,600 members at that time to 21,390 as of June 4.

Kim Dae-young, Hankyung.com reporter, kdy@hankyung.com