SEOUL, September 18 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics employees in its non-chip businesses took their protest over a widening compensation gap with semiconductor workers to Chairman Lee Jae-yong's doorstep Friday, seeking direct dialogue with the company while signaling room for compromise on their demand for 1,000 company shares per employee.
The Donghaeng union, whose membership is concentrated in Samsung's Device eXperience (DX) division covering consumer electronics and mobile devices, launched a sit-in near Lee's residence in Hannam-dong, central Seoul, after earlier rallies in Suwon and near Samsung's headquarters in Seocho, southern Seoul.
About 40 union members attended Friday's rally, a modest turnout than at its previous demonstrations.
The move to Hannam-dong appeared intended to carry more symbolic weight than demonstrate numbers.
The residential neighborhood offered far less room for protesters than the sites of the union's earlier rallies in Suwon in Gyeonggi Province and the Seoul headquarters in Seocheo.
Lee was not at home at the time, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His presence, however, was not central to the protest. The union's aim was to bring its months-long campaign directly to the chairman's doorstep after what it described as repeated failures to get management's attention.
"We came all the way here because our voices are no longer being heard inside the company," Lee Yong-hoon, the union's welfare director, told a press conference after the rally.
The union said it had already pressed its case through a July rally in Suwon, an August demonstration in Seocho and an advertisement in New York's Times Square, but had yet to receive what it considered a meaningful response from management.
Its demands Friday centered on three issues: establishing a direct dialogue channel between Lee and employees, creating a framework allowing DX workers to participate in joint wage bargaining and ending what the union calls an "intentionally created loss-making narrative" surrounding the DX division.
"Please create a dialogue table where the chairman and workers on the ground can speak directly," Lee said.
"We will remain here until we get an answer."
Mindful of the risk of alienating residents and the wider public, the union kept the rally restrained in the affluent Hannam-dong neighborhood.
"This is a residential area, so we have to keep our voices below 60 decibels," Park Hyuk-jun, Donghaeng's public relations director, told participants before speaking.
Park repeatedly invoked Lee's late father, former Chairman Lee Kun-hee, chanting, "Chairman Lee Kun-hee, we miss you," in a pointed reference to what the union described as the current management's continued silence.
"We cried out together in Suwon and Seocho, and today we have gathered here in Hannam," Park said. "The management remains silent."
Other speakers directed their appeals explicitly at Lee Jae-yong.
One union member questioned why employees had been forced to come to the chairman's private neighborhood rather than resolve the dispute through the company.
"This isn't the company gate or headquarters," he said. "Why did we have to come all the way here? Because the door to dialogue has been closed."
The union said it plans to maintain the protest site until a meaningful and sustained channel for dialogue is established with Lee or senior management.
"If a dialogue table is established and we can continue communicating, we believe that could mark the point at which we end the sit-in," Lee Yong-hoon said.
The conciliatory language suggested some room for compromise in a dispute that has increasingly centered on the gulf between Samsung's booming semiconductor business and workers in its consumer electronics operations.
The union has demanded 1,000 Samsung Electronics shares for each DX employee, but Lee said Friday that the figure itself was not necessarily the only basis for negotiation, putting greater emphasis on recognition of the compensation disparity and a channel for employees to participate in discussions.
The protest also comes during Donghaeng's leadership election, adding uncertainty over how long the action will continue under the next executive team.
The current leadership plans to maintain a presence at the Hannam-dong site at least through the end of September, according to a union official. Members will rotate through the site, while some officials are expected to remain for extended periods.
The current leadership's term expires at the end of September, with a new executive team taking office Oct. 1.
Candidates in the union election also attended Friday's demonstration, which means the protest would carry over into the next leadership, said Lee Yong-hoon."Whoever heads the union, the fight goes on," he said.
1,000-share demand open to negotiation
The protest marks the latest escalation of a dispute that intensified after Samsung reached a wage agreement in May that introduced an additional performance-based compensation scheme for its Device Solutions (DS) division, which houses its semiconductor operations.
DX workers have argued that the arrangement widened the compensation gap within Samsung Electronics despite decades of earnings from the company's smartphones, televisions and home appliances having helped finance investments across the company, including in semiconductors.
Donghaeng has previously demanded that each employee receive 1,000 Samsung Electronics shares as compensation for what it sees as DX's historical contribution to the company's growth.
On Friday, however, the union clarified that the figure should not be viewed as a fixed negotiating threshold.
Lee said the union had arrived at the 1,000-share figure by attempting to estimate the value of past excess profits generated by DX that it believes were subsequently invested in DS.
"The 1,000 shares themselves are not what's important," he said. "If the company presents a reasonable calculation and explains to us in a way we can accept that our contribution amounts to this much, we are willing to accept that."
The remarks suggest room for negotiations over the size and form of compensation if Samsung management agrees to recognize DX's historical contribution and establish a formula the union considers credible.
Donghaeng seeks joint bargaining despite union split
The union also renewed its demand for joint bargaining between Samsung's DX and DS workforces despite an increasingly visible split between their respective unions.
Samsung Group's Super Enterprise Union's Samsung Electronics branch, the company's largest union and one dominated by DS workers, has said it plans to negotiate separately from DX beginning with the 2027 wage talks.
Donghaeng rejected the idea that the two sides are headed for a complete break.
"Our goal is One Samsung — to negotiate with the company with one voice," Lee said. "We are not seeking conflict or mutual criticism with the Super Enterprise Union."
The union also disputed criticism that it voluntarily abandoned this year's joint bargaining group.
Lee acknowledged that Donghaeng left the group but said the decision came after repeated clashes with Super Enterprise Union Chairman Choi Seung-ho, who, according to Donghaeng, repeatedly dismissed DX's demands and told the union to leave if it continued raising them.
"We did leave, but it was not a choice we made voluntarily," Lee said.
He said Donghaeng would continue seeking a joint bargaining framework ahead of the next round of wage negotiations.
Another flashpoint is how Samsung calculates the performance of individual business divisions.
Donghaeng alleged Friday that Samsung's management accounting gives management discretion over how profits and costs are allocated among businesses, arguing that DX has consequently been portrayed as a drag on profitability and denied adequate compensation.
The union described this as an "intentionally created loss-making narrative."
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