Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and its labor union reached a dramatic last-minute agreement just before a planned strike, ending a dispute over the distribution of semiconductor performance bonuses. The two sides reached an accord in additional negotiations following a post-mediation session presided over by Employment and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon at the Gyeonggi Regional Employment and Labor Office on Thursday. After failing to agree on the bonus distribution method during the second post-mediation session earlier in the day, the labor and management successfully coordinated their positions in afternoon talks brokered by Minister Kim, and the strike was suspended.
It is a great relief that Samsung Electronics has averted the threat of a general strike. The outcome carries significance because both sides made concessions out of a shared sense of crisis that "a strike means mutual destruction." However, this performance bonus dispute should not be dismissed as a one-off bout of measles. A fundamental measure to prevent recurrence is needed. To continuously secure its super-gap competitiveness, Samsung Electronics must turn this crisis into an opportunity to fundamentally overhaul its performance bonus system and labor-management culture.
Above all, the union's unreasonable demand for "N% of operating profit" as a bonus, along with its insistence on large bonus payments even for loss-making divisions, must not be allowed to remain a spark that damages labor-management relations. A company's operating profit is generated within a complex web of interests including investment, research and development (R&D), maintenance of future employment, and responsibility to shareholders. It defies common sense for a union to attempt to claim this preemptively through institutional means backed by collective action. In particular, the extreme self-interest displayed by the Samsung Electronics super-corporate union has caused great disappointment among the public, exposing the true face of an entrenched union that has degenerated into an "interest group." This is also why President Lee Jae-myung delivered a strong message targeting the strike at a Cabinet meeting on the same day, stating, "The three labor rights were not granted to allow collective force to be exercised for the benefit of only a few people."
When excessive bonus demands are repeated at large corporations with high salaries, polarization in the labor market deepens and companies' investment capacity diminishes. Nevertheless, the reason large corporate unions can openly apply such pressure lies in institutions tilted toward unions, such as the Yellow Envelope Act. The government must move away from the outdated framework that views "unions as the labor weak" and quickly establish a balanced framework for labor reform. Samsung Electronics must enhance its super-gap technological prowess to fend off China's semiconductor pursuit externally, while internally building overwhelming semiconductor competitiveness through the principle that "where there is performance, there is reward." It is time for Samsung Electronics' labor and management to tighten their shoelaces once again and run together toward a greater leap forward.
