Government-mediated pay talks between Samsung Electronics and its largest labor union ended without an agreement early on May 13, 2026, ahead of an 18-day strike planned for May 21 through June 7. The dispute centers on performance bonuses.
The National Labor Relations Commission oversaw negotiations from May 11 to May 13. The union is seeking to formalize a performance bonus equivalent to 15% of operating profit and remove the current bonus cap.
Samsung’s reported position was to retain its existing bonus system, discuss formal changes later and offer special rewards for excess performance to provide compensation at or above competitors’ levels.
At rival SK hynix, a tentative agreement reached on September 1, 2025, provided for removing a performance-bonus cap and allocating 10% of annual operating profit to bonuses. Final approval depended on union members’ assent at the time.
Memory supply and pricing pressures
Samsung said its memory business set quarterly revenue and operating-profit records in the first quarter of 2026, citing AI demand and higher selling prices despite limited memory supplies.
In a March 31 forecast, market researcher TrendForce projected that conventional DRAM contract prices would rise 58–63% from the previous quarter in the second quarter of 2026. It forecast a 70–75% increase in NAND flash contract prices over the same period.
TrendForce said suppliers were shifting DRAM capacity toward high-bandwidth memory and server applications, while allocating more NAND capacity to enterprise SSDs. It also described reduced shipments to PC manufacturers and module makers and limits on NAND supply for client SSDs, adding pressure to consumer memory and storage supplies.
Those forecasts predate the planned strike and concern chip contract prices. They do not establish how a Samsung stoppage would affect the retail prices of RAM kits and SSDs.
Song Heon-jae, an economics professor at the University of Seoul, estimated potential losses from a large-scale strike at about 1 trillion won a day, roughly $670 million. He also put potential losses, including reduced production yields and quality problems associated with production-line shutdowns, at up to 30 trillion won.
Government supports further dialogue
On May 13, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said the government would support efforts to resolve the dispute through dialogue. “There is still time before the planned strike,” Kang said. Kang did not directly answer whether the government would invoke emergency arbitration.
Under South Korean labor law, the labor minister can order emergency adjustment for large-scale strikes and certain other industrial disputes when there is a present danger of serious harm to the national economy or people’s daily lives. Once announced, the decision requires industrial action to stop immediately and prevents its resumption for 30 days. The National Labor Relations Commission must begin mediation, and the law provides for subsequent referral to arbitration.
Union chief Choi Seung-ho said emergency arbitration would “only delay the strike a little” and give the union “more time to prepare.”
