Samsung union holds 21 May strike date as Monday mediation opens in Sejong

Choi Seung-ho entered the National Labor Relations Commission in Sejong and said he would participate in good faith in a second mediation round. The union leader had been preparing to meet Samsung on 7 June after members ended an 18-day strike, but the schedule advanced by three weeks. Between appearances, Samsung’s chairman Lee Jae-yong bowed and apologized for the worry and anxiety caused by the dispute, and the president posted that labor and management rights should both be respected. Samsung also returned with a revised proposal after previously insisting its earlier offer was the proposal. The core issue remains whether an AI memory cycle profit arrangement becomes a workforce share guaranteed in employment contracts or remains at the chairman’s discretion. The meeting is the third government-mediated round in two weeks, focused on the bonus formula and decision authority.

"Choi Seung-ho walked into the National Labor Relations Commission building in Sejong on Monday morning, about 110 km south of Seoul, and told reporters he would 'participate in this second round in good faith'. The head of Samsung Electronics' largest union, on Friday's evidence, had been preparing to talk to the company on 7 June, three days after his members ended an 18-day strike. By Monday, the calendar had shifted forward by three weeks, and the picket-line clock had moved to three days."

"None of these changes is the question on the table, which is whether the AI memory cycle Samsung is profiting from translates into a workforce share that lives in the employment contract, or one that lives at the chairman's discretion. The Sejong meeting is the third government-mediated round in two weeks. The bonus formula is what it has always been about. It is not about whether workers get more money; it is about who decides, and where the decision is written down."

"Between those two appearances, three things happened in public. Samsung's chairman Lee Jae-yong bowed his head on Saturday and apologised, in the formal Korean register reserved for chaebol leaders speaking to a national audience, for the 'worry and anxiety' the dispute was causing. The country's president, Lee Jae-myung, posted on X that 'in South Korea, which has adopted the basic orders of democracy and free market economy, labour should be respected as much as companies, and corporate management rights should also be respected as much as labour rights'. And Samsung, having spent ten days saying its previous proposal was the proposal, came to the table with a different one."

"Samsung has offered a one-time payment for 2026 plus what its negotiators have variously described as 'about 13%' of chip-division operating profit; the union has held out for 15%, plus the removal of the existing cap tha"

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