{"id":414073,"date":"2026-04-23T20:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414073\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:53:09","slug":"samsung-workers-rally-call-for-larger-share-of-ai-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414073\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung workers rally, call for larger share of AI profits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About\u00a040,000 <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/samsung\/t-19109949\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Samsung<\/a>\u00a0Electronics workers rallied on Thursday,\u00a0demanding\u00a0a larger\u00a0share of\u00a0the company&#8217;s booming profits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unions warned they could launch an 18-day strike if their demands are not met, potentially disrupting the production of chips necessary to feed the growing AI industry.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/south-korea\/t-63357867\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Korean<\/a> giant\u00a0said it would continue\u00a0efforts to reach a swift agreement in ongoing wage negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What are\u00a0Samsung unions demands?<\/p>\n<p>Samsung unions said the company failed to offer an adequate pay package\u00a0despite its strong performance. Samsung&#8217;s shares have surged nearly 300% over the past year, driven by demand for AI chips.<\/p>\n<p>The unions want\u00a0Samsung to remove\u00a0the\u00a0cap on bonus pay, among other demands.\u00a0The cap is currently set at 50% of the annual base salary.<\/p>\n<p>The unions say\u00a0that a chip division employee earning\u00a076 million won ($51,000, \u20ac44,000) would receive a 2025 bonus\u00a0of 38 million won ($26,000, \u20ac 22,000).\u00a0This is less than a third of what a worker in a similar role at rival company\u00a0SK Hynix would receive. Last September,\u00a0SK Hynix\u00a0agreed to scrap\u00a0its\u00a0bonus cap.<\/p>\n<p>SK Hynix is the\u00a0direct rival of Samsung Electronics.\u00a0The two South Korean companies\u00a0<a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/south-korea-invests-big-in-becoming-a-global-chip-leader\/a-68073870\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">produce together\u00a0about two-thirds of the world&#8217;s\u00a0memory chips<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SK Hynix overtook\u00a0Samsung to become Nvidia&#8217;s main supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"76912828\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76912828_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" alt=\"Wide shot of hundreds of members of the Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU) chant slogans while holding up pickets on April 23, 2026.\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\"\/>This\u00a0union-led protest took place at\u00a0largest single semiconductor manufacturing site globally in\u00a0Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 23, 2026.Image: Jung Ui-Chel\/Matrix Images\/picture alliance<\/p>\n<p>Strikes threaten AI chips supply<\/p>\n<p>Samsung has rejected union demands to remove the bonus cap but says it will offer additional funding so memory division workers, who develop memory chips, earn more than competitors this year.<\/p>\n<p>If talks fail, unions plan an 18-day strike starting May 21. They say a halt of production\u00a0could cost the company more than 1 trillion won ($700 million, \u20ac600 million) per day.<\/p>\n<p>Even a short disruption could damage customer trust and take years to recover from, Samsung officials say.<\/p>\n<p>Chipmakers have benefited from the AI boom, but the Middle East conflict has raised concerns about supply chains. The crisis has restricted access to key materials such as helium and pushed up energy costs.<\/p>\n<p>Samsung, long known for resisting unions, saw its\u00a0<a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/samsung-union-in-south-korea-declares-indefinite-strike\/a-69611785\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first-ever worker strike in 2024.<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Edited by: Alex Berry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About\u00a040,000 Samsung\u00a0Electronics workers rallied on Thursday,\u00a0demanding\u00a0a larger\u00a0share of\u00a0the company&#8217;s booming profits.\u00a0\u00a0 Unions warned they could launch an 18-day&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-414073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}