SEOUL, May 15 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics and its overarching labor union are waging a war of nerves to settle their dispute on their own under competing deadlines, as the government signals it may invoke a rarely used emergency strike suspension authority.
The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), the company’s largest labor group, sent an official letter to Vice Chairman and Device Solutions chief Jun Young-hyun on Thursday, giving management until 10 a.m. Friday to present an acceptable proposal on the company’s reward system.
The union demanded concrete measures to improve transparency in the Overall Performance Incentive (OPI) system, remove payout caps and institutionalize clearer compensation standards. It warned that failure to provide a specific response by the deadline would lead to a lawful general strike scheduled for May 21.
Samsung management has maintained a relatively calm public posture while internally emphasizing operational discipline and production stability.
According to industry sources, Jun recently warned executives against complacency, describing the current AI-driven semiconductor upcycle as the company’s “last golden time” to restore fundamental competitiveness.
Rather than relying on strong first-quarter earnings, Jun reportedly urged executives to maintain a humble “super supplier” mindset to preserve long-term customer trust. He is also understood to have stressed the need for uninterrupted chip production and stable operations regardless of external uncertainties, including the looming strike threat.
With the deadline quickly approaching, attention is focused on whether Samsung management will offer a last-minute compromise to prevent what could become the company’s most disruptive labor action in decades.
The government has meanwhile escalated its rhetoric amid concerns over broader economic fallout.
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Kim Jung-kwan issued one of the strongest warnings yet late Thursday, saying emergency mediation could become unavoidable if the union proceeds with its planned strike.
“Samsung Electronics’ importance to the Korean economy cannot be overstated,” Kim wrote on X, describing the company’s semiconductor business as a strategic national asset.
He warned that disruptions to continuous wafer-processing lines could cause as much as 100 trillion won ($74 billion) in economic damage, affecting roughly 1,700 partner firms and inflicting potentially irreversible disruption on global supply chains.
“As industry minister, I believe emergency adjustment measures would become inevitable if a strike occurs,” Kim said.
Emergency mediation is a rarely used government intervention that can suspend strike action for up to 30 days if authorities determine a labor dispute poses a serious threat to the national economy or public welfare.
Kim’s remarks drew particular attention because they were noticeably more forceful than those of Prime Minister Kim Min-seok and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, both of whom have stressed dialogue while warning that “a strike must never happen.”
The dispute is increasingly being viewed as more than a conventional wage negotiation, emerging instead as a critical test of labor stability at South Korea’s largest company during a pivotal moment in the global AI semiconductor race.
Share prices fell 1.6 percent to 291,250 won amid waning sign of breakthrough.
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