Overview
- The largest Samsung union restated its demand for a 15 percent profit-based cash bonus and removal of the payout cap, warning the state-led mediation could collapse without a firm guarantee.
- Government-brokered talks are the last formal channel to prevent an 18-day walkout the union has scheduled at the company’s chip plants.
- Samsung earlier offered to tie bonuses to 10 percent of the chip unit’s operating profit with strict caps for loss-making units, an offer the union rejected when talks broke down in March.
- Analysts estimate a strike could trim global supply by 3 to 4 percent for DRAM and 2 to 3 percent for NAND, and they expect factories would need extra weeks to restore full output after any stoppage.
- The union has grown to about 74,000 members concentrated in the chip division, yet internal strains prompted roughly 2,500 mostly consumer-division members to withdraw.