A union vote held across five Kakao entities, including the company's headquarters, passed in favor of a strike on Wednesday. Concerns are mounting not only over the first all-out strike since Kakao's founding, but also over the possibility that the labor-management conflict could escalate into a full-blown dispute and ripple across the broader information technology (IT) industry.
The Kakao chapter of the Korean Federation of Chemical, Textile and Food Workers' Unions under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Kakao union) held a rally at Pangyo Station Plaza on Wednesday and announced, "The strike vote was passed in favor across all five entities. Now that we have secured the legal right to industrial action, we will share our plans for the struggle going forward." The rally drew about 700 union members, by the union's count, from a total of 12 entities, including Kakao headquarters, where wage and collective bargaining negotiations have broken down.
Suh Seung-wook, head of the Kakao union chapter, announced four joint demands at the rally: management reform and accountable governance, job security and a community-wide safety net, fair performance-based compensation and profit sharing, and the establishment of universal labor conditions and welfare systems. "These are joint bargaining demands separate from the wage and collective negotiations that each entity is conducting individually, and the specifics will be fleshed out through discussions with union members," the union said.
With the Kakao union signaling its determination to take a hardline stance, the prospect of a strike is growing more imminent. Four entities — Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin, and XL Games — have already secured the legal right to industrial action after labor-management mediation ultimately broke down, meaning they could launch a general strike at any time. Kakao headquarters would also obtain the right to strike if its second mediation session, which has been extended to the 27th, fails — raising the likelihood that the dispute will escalate into group-wide collective action.
The Kakao union's shift to a hardline campaign — a departure from the IT industry's traditionally passive stance toward labor disputes — is seen as having been influenced by the recent "performance bonus conflict" sparked by the Samsung Electronics union. The Kakao union has argued that "even though the company achieved record-high earnings last year, management is monopolizing the gains, while compensation flowing to rank-and-file members remains limited."
In future negotiations, however, the broader compensation system overhaul — rather than a simple distribution of performance bonuses — is expected to take center stage. With some affiliates posting losses and interests diverging across entities, insisting solely on uniform bonus payments could risk undermining momentum within the union itself.
The IT industry is closely watching whether the fallout will spread. With labor-management tensions building across the sector amid recent restructuring and organizational changes tied to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, analysts say the dispute could become a trigger for a chain of strikes. Indeed, the IT Committee of the Korean Federation of Chemical, Textile and Food Workers' Unions — which includes unions from Naver, Nexon, and Neople — also attended the rally on Wednesday to express its solidarity.
