General strike averted Samsung union accepts agreement on record bonuses
The South Korean technology group Samsung has averted an impending general strike with a billion-euro bonus deal. The trade union accepted a compromise that provides for high wage increases and enormous performance bonuses. Employees in the profitable semiconductor division in particular could benefit massively.
27.05.2026, 06:59
27.05.2026, 07:38
SDA
Members of the Samsung trade union have accepted the management's compromise proposal for annual bonuses of several hundred thousand euros per head. According to the union, more than 70 percent of members were in favor of accepting the management's offer, which recently averted a general strike at South Korea's largest company.
The company-wide agreement includes an average wage increase of 6.2 percent and the distribution of 10.5 percent of company profits to the workforce. According to forecasts, this year's bonuses for employees in the particularly profitable semiconductor division alone could amount to up to 600 million won (around 340,000 euros). More than half of Samsung Electronics' employees work in the semiconductor division.
Previously, around 48,000 unionized employees at the world's largest producer of memory chips had threatened an 18-day general strike. The background to this was a conflict over the amount of bonus payments to the workforce after the electronics giant achieved record profits in the wake of the boom in artificial intelligence. The operating profit for the first quarter of the year alone amounted to 57.2 trillion won (just under 33 billion euros) - around eight times that of the same period last year.
