SisaWeek reporter Kwon Sin-gu The Blue House on May 21 expressed gratitude to both labor and management after Samsung Electronics and its union reached a tentative agreement in additional talks. With the general strike originally scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. put on hold, the Samsung Electronics union plans to hold a membership vote on the deal from May 22 through May 27.
In a May 21 press release, Blue House chief spokesperson Kang Yoo-jung thanked both sides for what she described as a “magnanimous decision for the country and its people,” and credited the outcome to the efforts of government officials, including Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon, who mediated until the end.
Earlier, labor and management met the previous morning at the Central Labor Relations Commission in the Government Complex Sejong for a second post-mediation session but failed to reach an agreement. The union said it accepted the commission’s adjustment plan, but the company rejected it, causing talks to collapse. The company argued that acceding to the union’s excessive demands would undermine core management principles.
With concerns about a general strike mounting a day before it was scheduled, the government stepped in. President Lee Jae-myung, speaking at a Cabinet meeting and emergency economic session at the Blue House the day before, warned the union: “It’s fine to press for your interests, but isn’t there an appropriate limit?” Later that same day, Minister Kim Young-hoon summoned both sides to the Gyeonggi Employment and Labor Office at 4 p.m. and presided over negotiations.
After roughly six hours of intensive talks, the parties produced a tentative agreement that resolved the dispute. They agreed to retain the existing Over-Profit Incentive (OPI) and to create a separate “special management performance bonus.” The special bonus will be funded by 10.5% of business performance, with no cap on the payout rate. Forty percent of the fund will be allocated to DS as a whole, while the remaining 60% will be distributed variably by business unit performance. Loss-making units will receive 60% of the common payout rate calculated from the division’s pool. All of these performance bonuses will be paid entirely in treasury stock.
Upon reaching the tentative agreement, the Samsung Electronics union suspended the planned general strike. The union will determine whether to ratify the deal via a yes-or-no vote of all members from May 22 through May 27. Choi Seung-ho, chairman of the trans-company union’s Samsung Electronics branch, apologized in a statement, saying, “We apologize to the public for the concern our internal conflict caused.” Samsung Electronics said it would take a humble approach to build a more mature and constructive labor-management relationship and prevent a recurrence.
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