![\"Samsung](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/002465b2-614.jpg\"\/)
\nSamsung workers chant slogans during a rally ahead of the now postponed strike <\/p>\n
A group of Samsung Electronics shareholders have today vowed legal action against a tentative deal between the South Korean chip giant and its largest labour union that averted a major strike.<\/p>\n
The last-minute agreement on bonuses – which union members will vote on – was struck last night, with plans for an 18-day strike from today put on hold until further notice.<\/p>\n
The dispute takes place against the backdrop of a global artificial intelligence boom that has turbocharged Samsung’s business, while boosting national growth and the stock market.<\/p>\n
Around 50,500 workers had been set to walk off production lines as anger flared over how the company distributes its massive profits.<\/p>\n
Under the tentative deal between Samsung and its union, wages will rise and special bonuses will partly be paid in company stock over 10 years.<\/p>\n
That is conditional on the chip division achieving more than 200 trillion won ($130 billion) in operating profit each year between 2026 and 2028, then 100 trillion won until 2035.<\/p>\n
The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters, a shareholders’ group, today staged a rally protesting the deal, near the residence of Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong.<\/p>\n
Negotiations over operating profit-linked bonuses were not passed in a shareholders’ resolution, and therefore have no “legal validity” under the current commercial act, they said.<\/p>\n
The group vowed to “use all legal means available” to “block any company fund disbursement” based on the deal if it is concluded by “bypassing” these required procedures.<\/p>\n
Union vote<\/p>\n
Samsung memory chips are found in everything from consumer electronics to computer processors – with its next-gen, high-bandwidth models used to scale up AI data centres.<\/p>\n
Samsung in April said first-quarter operating profit soared roughly 750% year-on-year, while its market capitalisation topped $1 trillion for the first time this month.<\/p>\n
The prospect of a strike had raised concern over the economic impact on South Korea, where semiconductors account for about 35% of exports.<\/p>\n
\nSamsung workers chant slogans during a rally ahead of the now postponed strike <\/p>\n
The labour union said yesterday that all of its members – around 70,000 staff – would participate in a vote on the tentative deal to be held between May 23 and May 28.<\/p>\n
The South Korean government hailed the outcome of last-hour negotiations, which were mediated by the labour minister.<\/p>\n
The tentative deal introduces a new bonus pool for employees in the chip division, equivalent to 10.5% of the division’s business performance, with no payout cap.<\/p>\n
Of the total bonus pool, 40% will be allocated across the division as a whole, while 60% will be distributed based on the performance of individual business units.<\/p>\n
The union had argued that workers at rival South Korean chip giant SK hynix received bonuses last year that were more than three times larger than those paid at Samsung.<\/p>\n
The union’s lawyer said Samsung has seen a talent drain to its rival and a rise in union membership due to what workers describe as a “lack of transparency” in the bonus system.<\/p>\n
Samsung shares surged today, up 8.2% in afternoon trade in Seoul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of Samsung Electronics shareholders have today vowed legal action against a tentative deal between the South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-459711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459711","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=459711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}