Realmeter poll finds 7 in 10 respondents oppose planned 18-day walkout; activist shareholders threaten dual lawsuits

Members of Samsung Electronics' union coalition raise placards reading "Abolish the bonus cap" during a rally outside the company's Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex in Gyeonggi Province, April 23. (Newsis)
Members of Samsung Electronics' union coalition raise placards reading "Abolish the bonus cap" during a rally outside the company's Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex in Gyeonggi Province, April 23. (Newsis)

Three weeks before Samsung Electronics' largest union plans to halt the world's biggest memory chip operation for 18 days, the dispute is quickly expanding beyond the company.

Three factors have lined up against the strike at once. The Suwon District Court on Wednesday set its ruling on Samsung's injunction request for sometime between May 13 and 20, meaning the decision could arrive just one day before the walkout begins. Polling firm Realmeter released a survey showing 69.3 percent of South Koreans consider the strike inappropriate. And a shareholder activist staged a protest at the courthouse, threatening to sue both Samsung's management and its union if the strike disrupts operations.

In the Realmeter poll, only 18.5 percent of respondents called the strike a legitimate exercise of workers' rights. The automated phone survey of 1,000 adults conducted April 27-28, commissioned by the industry-focused Energy Economy Daily, had a 4.6 percent response rate, a level that tends to skew toward respondents with stronger views on the subject.

Opposition still cleared 60 percent in every region and age group, reaching 80.7 percent in Gwangju and the North and South Jeolla provinces.

Asked what worried them most about a Samsung shutdown, South Koreans ranked damage to the country's chip industry reputation first. (Realmeter)
Asked what worried them most about a Samsung shutdown, South Koreans ranked damage to the country's chip industry reputation first. (Realmeter)

Asked what worried them most about a potential shutdown, 33.3 percent named damage to Korea's chip industry reputation, while 25.9 percent pointed to ripple effects on parts suppliers and the wider economy.

The numbers behind the dispute are unusually large, even for Samsung. The union coalition, formed by three in-house unions, wants 15 percent of operating profit paid out as bonuses with the existing cap removed. Applied to this year's projected operating profit of roughly 300 trillion won ($202 billion), that works out to about 45 trillion won, more than Samsung's 2025 R&D budget of 37.7 trillion won and four times the 11 trillion won the company paid last year to its 4.2 million retail shareholders, the largest shareholder base of any company listed in Korea.

The union's reference point is SK hynix, which agreed last September to set bonuses at 10 percent of operating profit with no cap, and which paid out an average bonus equivalent to nearly 30 months of base salary in February.

Samsung has offered a 6.2 percent wage increase and bonuses tied to 10 percent of operating profit, according to Bloomberg, which the union rejected while seeking a 7 percent wage hike.

A placard reading "30 trillion loss to Samsung's factories, 300 trillion to its future, 3,000 trillion to Korea" is held by Min Kyung-kwon, leader of the Korea Shareholder Activism Headquarters, during a solo protest outside the Suwon District Court in Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. (Newsis)
A placard reading "30 trillion loss to Samsung's factories, 300 trillion to its future, 3,000 trillion to Korea" is held by Min Kyung-kwon, leader of the Korea Shareholder Activism Headquarters, during a solo protest outside the Suwon District Court in Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. (Newsis)

Outside a courthouse in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday, Min Kyung-kwon, head of the Korea Shareholder Activism Headquarters, staged a one-person protest. "Performance belongs not only to management and the union, but to shareholders as well," Min told reporters.

He said the group would pursue managerial liability against the company and consider third-party rights claims against the union if the strike disrupts operations. Hong Ji-na, an attorney for the union, told reporters after the closed hearing that the union has no plan to occupy facilities and that essential strike activities are being mischaracterized as an occupation.

KB Securities estimates an 18-day shutdown would cut global DRAM supply by 3 to 4 percent and NAND flash by 2 to 3 percent, given Samsung's 36 percent and 32 percent respective market shares.

Industry sources told local media that several Big Tech customers have begun inquiring about supply continuity since the union's April 23 rally in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, drew nearly 40,000 participants, according to the union.

A second court hearing is set for May 13.


mjh@heraldcorp.com