SEOUL ― A minority labor union at Samsung Electronics representing its consumer electronics workers will ask a South Korean court to suspend the implementation of a pay deal that primarily benefits employees in the chip division, a lawyer said.
Two other unions at the world’s largest memory chip and TV maker, including its biggest union, voted to approve a pay deal this week that provides huge bonuses for workers in Samsung’s memory chip division, which has seen profits soar amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Samsung started shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip to customers, pulling ahead of rivals in distributing a new version of the product critical to AI data centers, which saw its shares soar higher.
The rollout is part of Samsung’s efforts to regain momentum in the HBM market after falling behind rivals like SK Hynix and Micron in supplying advanced AI memory chips, particularly to Nvidia.
Halting the vote
The Samsung Electronics Co. Union (SECU), which has about 13,000 members, mostly from the company’s smartphone, TV and home appliances divisions, had initially filed an injunction to suspend the vote.
The approval of the 11th-hour government-mediated agreement averted a planned 18-day strike, but meant some employees outside the chip division did not fare as well.
Now that the vote has passed, SECU will ask the court to suspend the implementation of the pay deal, a lawyer for the union said in a court hearing on Friday.
Legal counsel for SECU said they would submit documents next week revising the injunction request, and expect a court to make a ruling within a month.
