SEOUL, July 16 (AJP) - "This is not an issue of money," shouted Koo Jung-hwan, secretary-general of Samsung Electronics' Donghaeng union, before more than 5,000 employees gathered outside the company's Suwon campus Thursday, exposing a widening divide that increasingly mirrors South Korea itself, where the AI-driven semiconductor boom is creating winners and losers even within the country's biggest company.
The demonstration, one of Samsung's largest labor rallies in recent years, underscored a growing internal rift as workers in its Device eXperience (DX) division protested what they described as unprecedented discrimination in this year's wage agreement. The dispute has become a symbol of how the AI chip boom is reshaping not only global technology markets but also corporate hierarchies, compensation and morale inside companies that once shared success more evenly across businesses.
Dressed in black union vests and carrying placards reading "Same company, same rights," employees packed the road outside Samsung Digital City, the company's sprawling Suwon headquarters where its Galaxy smartphones, televisions and home appliances are developed and produced.
Organizers abandoned plans for a march after the crowd grew so large it stretched toward the entrance of the campus. Police estimated attendance at about 5,000, while the union claimed around 7,000 workers had joined the protest.
"Do you think we came here just for a few shares?" one union official shouted from the stage.
"We are here because the value of DX workers' blood and sweat has been ignored."
For many workers, Thursday's rally was about far more than the size of this year's bonuses. They argue that Samsung's consumer electronics businesses spent decades acting as the company's shock absorber whenever the notoriously cyclical memory chip business fell into downturns. While smartphones, televisions and home appliances generated steadier earnings through repeated boom-and-bust cycles in semiconductors, they say the latest compensation package overwhelmingly rewards today's AI-driven chip windfall while overlooking the divisions that helped sustain Samsung through leaner years.
"DX employees have been left asking themselves whether they are really Samsung Electronics workers at all," another speaker told the crowd.
The frustration stems from this year's wage settlement, which introduced a special management performance bonus for employees in Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) semiconductor division.
Workers in the highly profitable memory business are expected to receive payouts estimated at as much as 600 million won ($430,000), according to union officials and industry estimates, reflecting Samsung's record semiconductor earnings driven by soaring demand for AI memory chips.
DX employees, meanwhile, received 22.65 Samsung Electronics shares, worth about 6 million won, as part of the agreement.
The disparity has become a symbol of what many employees describe as a two-tier Samsung — one powered by AI memory chips and another struggling for recognition despite helping build Samsung into one of the world's best-known consumer technology brands.
"The company's remarkable achievements today were built on the blood, sweat and dedication of DX employees as well," Donghaeng said in a statement.
"Instead, management created extreme discrimination in compensation between business divisions, leaving DX workers with a profound sense of exclusion and relative deprivation."
A Samsung Electronics official told AJP the company had earmarked roughly 17 trillion won for performance-related bonuses tied to its latest business results.
Instead of easing tensions, however, the scale of the payout has only deepened resentment among employees outside the semiconductor division.
"We are not against our colleagues in DS," Donghaeng policy chief Baek Soon-hwan said.
"Our problem is with management, which designed a wage agreement that excluded DX."
The emotional tone of the protest reflected years of accumulated frustration.
One veteran employee, identifying himself only as a member of Samsung's 1990 hiring class, drew loud applause after describing how the latest negotiations had shaken his confidence in the company.
"Watching this unfair wage agreement, I felt as though my 37 years at Samsung had been erased," he said.
"I have never experienced the company treating its employees with such indifference — beyond indifference, almost with ridicule."
At one point, thousands of workers raised their fists and chanted, "Chairman Lee Kun-hee, we miss you," invoking Samsung's late patriarch as a symbol of what many said was a corporate culture that valued contributions across the company rather than concentrating rewards in a single business.
The protest also reflected rapidly shifting labor politics inside Samsung.
Donghaeng, formed mainly by DX employees in late 2025, has grown from roughly 2,000 members at its launch to about 28,500, according to the union, although the figure could not be independently verified.
Many members joined after leaving Samsung's previously dominant super-enterprise union following dissatisfaction with this year's wage negotiations.
Donghaeng is demanding compensation equivalent to 1,000 Samsung Electronics shares for every DX employee, the establishment of a separate company-wide compensation pool ahead of the 2027 wage negotiations and the cancellation of this year's wage agreement.
Meeting the first demand alone would require roughly 49.35 million Samsung Electronics shares, worth nearly 13.7 trillion won based on the company's July 8 closing price.
Industry officials, however, say the demands are unlikely to gain traction because Donghaeng itself participated in the joint bargaining committee until negotiations concluded in May. They also warn that a payout of such magnitude could provoke shareholder opposition at a time when Samsung is trying to revive the competitiveness of its smartphone, television and home appliance businesses while maintaining leadership in AI memory chips.
Ironically, the semiconductor division receiving the richest rewards is far from unified itself.
Separately on Thursday, Samsung's largest labor organization, the super-enterprise union, released a survey suggesting morale remains fragile in struggling parts of the DS division despite generous bonus payouts.
Among 8,297 union members surveyed, 81.5 percent of foundry employees said they were highly likely or very likely to leave the company within the next two years. The figure stood at 75.4 percent in the System LSI division and 60.6 percent at Samsung's semiconductor research institute.
By contrast, only 32.7 percent of employees in the memory division — expected to receive the largest bonuses this year — expressed a strong intention to leave, the second-lowest level after Samsung's AI Center.
"The survey reflects the sense of crisis felt by employees on the ground," said Choi Seung-ho, head of the super-enterprise union.
"The company must take these findings seriously and quickly introduce effective measures to prevent further talent outflow."
The union said it would establish a policy committee representing each semiconductor business unit to prepare a broad package of demands for the 2027 wage negotiations, including measures covering housing, working conditions, industrial safety and retention of key talent.
As darkness fell over Samsung Digital City, workers slowly dispersed toward nearby bus stops after nearly three hours of speeches and chants.
Before leaving, an organizer posed one final question from the stage.
"Where do we go next?"
"Seocho!" thousands shouted back in unison, referring to Samsung Electronics' headquarters in southern Seoul.
Donghaeng said it was preparing another rally outside Samsung's Seocho headquarters unless management responded to its demands, suggesting that what began as a dispute over bonuses is becoming a defining test of how Samsung shares the rewards of the AI era — and a reflection of the widening disparities emerging across South Korea's chip-led economy.
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