The Division That Makes Samsung's Chips Is Squeezing the One That Sells Phones

Workers in Samsung Electronics' device division — the part that makes Galaxy phones, tablets, televisions and appliances — have been protesting over how performance bonuses were split, in a dispute that exposes a widening gap between the chip business and everything else.

The Donghaeng Union held a rally outside Samsung's Suwon campus on 5 November; organisers estimated about 10,000 people. The demands were specific: cash compensation, an apology over the earlier bonus decision, and a joint bargaining structure for the 2027 wage talks.

The grievance is straightforward. Samsung created a special performance bonus for the device solutions (DS) division, which makes semiconductors, and left the device experience (DX) division out of it. Under the agreement reached with other unions in May, DS employees could receive up to 600 million won each, funded by 10.5% of the division's operating profit. DX employees received Samsung stock worth roughly 6 million won.

The financial backdrop makes the politics harder. In results published on 29 October, DX posted third-quarter sales of 52.1 trillion won, up 8% on the previous quarter, and an operating loss of 800 billion won — its second consecutive quarterly loss. The memory business, meanwhile, is booming on higher chip prices.

Those two facts are connected, and the workers say so. Rising memory prices raise the cost of building phones, televisions and appliances, and Samsung has not sold enough extra units to offset the increase. The division that buys the chips is being squeezed by the division that makes them.

The dispute goes back to May, when Donghaeng walked out of the joint bargaining group on the grounds that talks were focused on semiconductors and did not represent DX staff. Management then reached a wage agreement with the other unions.

Union spokesperson Kim Bo-ra said the priority is less the size of the compensation than a channel for negotiating it, and warned that if the 2027 talks are again led by a DS-centred union, DX employees could go two years without being properly represented. A sixth union is now forming, which will make the company's bargaining table more crowded rather than simpler.