三星打響第一槍，韓國財閥們「集體破防」了

Original Source: Wall Street CN

Samsung’s chip workers have waited a long time for this day.

On May 27, 48,000 Samsung employees voted to approve a compensation agreement: they will take 10.5% of Samsung’s semiconductor division’s pre-tax operating profit as a special bonus. For some memory chip workers, including retroactive bonuses, the amount received reaches as high as $416,000. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said at a cabinet meeting last week, clearly defining the nature of the matter: "Even investors only receive dividends from after-tax net profit. How can workers take the money before taxes are paid?"

Even the president felt the workers had "cut in line." But Samsung had no choice but to accept this outcome.

SK hynix First Cracked the Door

The story begins with SK hynix.

Over the past two years, HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) has become the scarcest component in AI infrastructure. No matter how powerful Nvidia’s GPUs are, they cannot run without HBM. SK hynix has captured the largest share of this market, with Samsung playing catch-up. SK hynix’s profits have subsequently soared — its full-year operating profit for 2026 is expected to approach nearly 250 trillion Korean won, equivalent to $170 billion. Under its rules, 10% of operating profit is directly distributed to employees. This year, the average bonus per employee is expected to reach 600 million Korean won, roughly $430,000, equivalent to 2,964% of base salary.

Samsung’s chip workers did the math and started jumping ship.

According to Samsung’s labor union, employees are "leaving in droves" for SK hynix. This isn’t just about money; the gap in pay sends a clear signal: SK hynix won this round of the AI memory race and can afford such compensation; Samsung has fallen behind in HBM and cannot. The talent drain, in turn, slows Samsung’s technological catch-up, creating a vicious cycle.

By this year, the situation had become untenable. 48,000 workers threatened an 18-day strike. In Q1 2026, Samsung’s DS division posted a single-quarter operating profit of 53.7 trillion Korean won, exceeding its total for the entire year of 2025. It could afford the bonuses, but it could not afford the 18-day停工(shutdown).

Thus, the agreement was signed. Samsung became the second major South Korean company to formally link a fixed percentage of operating profit to employee bonuses in writing.

Cutting in Line Before Tax: An Arrangement Unprecedented in Global Corporate Governance

What truly unsettles the business world about this agreement is not the amount, but those two words: pre-tax.

Conventional logic dictates: a company earns money, pays taxes first, and from the remaining net profit, a portion is retained and a portion is distributed to shareholders. Employee bonuses are calculated as costs, deducted from revenue, separate from profit distribution. Now, Samsung workers are receiving a fixed percentage directly deducted from operating profit (pre-tax). Their distribution priority places them after the tax authorities but before shareholders.

Kim Ki-chang, a law professor at Korea University, stated this violates the "long-standing practices of global corporate governance." President Lee Jae-myung put it more bluntly: investors’ dividends come from after-tax net profit; how can workers take precedence over shareholders?

SK hynix actually did the same thing earlier, but it didn’t cause such a stir at the time. Samsung’s scale is different — in 2010, Samsung’s sales alone accounted for 22% of South Korea’s GDP. What Samsung agrees to effectively becomes the industry standard in South Korea.

The Federation of Korean Industries issued a statement with unusually strong wording: "Samsung's special circumstances should not be generalized by labor groups and promoted across the entire industry." This statement itself reveals the problem: they know they can't stop it, so they can only say "don't copy it."

Three Variables Converged; This Time the Chaebol Couldn’t Stop It

For decades, the Korean chaebol system suppressed labor using three things: opaque profits (workers didn’t know how much the company made), weak unions (unionization rate was only 13% in 2024), and limited legal protections (strikes were costly, and companies could seek damages).

This year, cracks appeared in all three simultaneously.

The AI chip boom made the profits of Samsung and SK hynix completely transparent — every quarterly earnings report revealed to the world exactly how much these two companies earned. Armed with these figures, workers gained the leverage to demand more. When SK hynix’s single-quarter profit exceeded Samsung’s total annual profit for some years, workers could say "I want 10%," and management could no longer play the "the company has no money" card.

The "Yellow Envelope Law," effective this March, shifted the power dynamic. This law expanded the definition of "employer": any entity with "substantial control" over workers' labor conditions, even without a direct employment relationship, could be required to negotiate. Within two days of the law's enactment, 100,000 union members from subcontractors submitted collective bargaining demands to parent companies. It also legalized strikes targeting mass layoffs or factory closures. The chaebol’s best tactic for suppressing unions — "if you strike, I’ll shut down the factory" — became legally ineffective.

SK hynix was the third piece of the puzzle. It did the same thing before Samsung and, instead of being crushed, ended up with higher profits, more talent, and a better stock price. This broke the most important psychological barrier for the chaebol: "No one has ever done this before." Now someone has, and it worked well, and other unions noticed.

The convergence of three variables simultaneously is not a coincidence; it’s structural.

Samsung’s 10.5% Becomes the Starting Line for Others

The ink on the agreement was barely dry before unions across the country adopted it as a floor, not a ceiling.

A coalition of unions from five Kakao subsidiaries demanded 13-15% of operating profit, significantly higher than Samsung’s rate, threatening a general strike if unmet; the labor-management committee is currently mediating. LG Uplus and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries were even more direct, demanding 30%, nearly three times the Samsung deal. Employees at Samsung’s own biopharmaceutical division have already been on strike for five full days, demanding 20%. Management hasn’t budged an inch, and workers have refused overtime and holiday shifts, settling in for a protracted struggle.

None of the unions following this lead are from chip companies; they don’t have the profit margins of Samsung’s DS division. But their logic is: if Samsung gave it, why can’t we get it?

The psychological defenses of the chaebol shattered the moment Samsung signed.

An even more critical change occurred on the legal front. The Yellow Envelope Law, effective this March, essentially blocked the channels for companies to sue striking unions for damages. In the past, the chaebol’s most effective move to suppress unions was "if you strike, I’ll sue you and bankrupt you" — some unions had been ordered to pay billions of won in damages. That card is no longer effective. The cost of management’s continued hardline stance has shifted from "unions pay the price" to "both sides will wear each other down"; the balance of leverage has changed.

Within two days of the law’s enactment, 100,000 subcontractor union members across South Korea submitted collective bargaining requests to parent companies. Workers had waited a long time for this door to open; once it did, it couldn’t be held shut.

Of course, this isn’t a battle where the chaebol collapse at the first touch. The opposing arguments have substantive basis: Samsung and SK hynix’s concessions were founded on the extraordinary backdrop of surging AI profits; the profit foundations of Kakao, LG Uplus, and Hyundai Heavy Industries aren’t as thick. Whether a 30% demand can realistically be achieved at the negotiating table is doubtful. Samsung Biologics’ management has held out for five days of strike, proving that not all chaebol will follow Samsung’s path.

Even if non-chip companies ultimately negotiate 10% or 15%, instead of 30%, it would be an outcome unprecedented in the decades-long history of the Korean chaebol. A union demanding 30% and getting 15% is entirely different from getting nothing at all in the past.

The outcome of the Kakao negotiations will be the first litmus test for how far this story can spread. If it concludes with any form of profit-sharing agreement, the "collective collapse of the chaebol" is confirmed. If negotiations break down and the strike is suppressed, Samsung remains an isolated case, and this fire won’t spread for now.

Samsung’s Stock Price Rose, But the Market Missed the Most Important Thing

On the day the agreement was finalized, Samsung Electronics’ stock price rose 8.5%, hitting an all-time high.

The market priced in the "removal of strike risk"—the threat of an 18-day production halt vanished, production continuity was restored. Combined with optimism for AI chip demand fueled by Nvidia’s strong earnings report, Samsung had reason to rise.

However, the long-term cost pressure of the 10.5% has not yet been fully priced in.

If Samsung’s DS division maintains its Q1 2026 single-quarter operating profit of 53.7 trillion Korean won throughout the year, the bonus pool would approach nearly 20 trillion Korean won (approximately $14 billion). Part of this is paid out in the form of treasury shares, alleviating immediate cash pressure, but the dilutive effect of treasury shares is real, and the long-term erosion of earnings per share and return on equity is unavoidable.

The watershed moment will be the profit guidance for the second half of the year. If Samsung DS’s H2 profit remains high, the market will gradually digest the cost pressure, and repricing will focus on progress in catching up with HBM. If profit growth slows combined with the bonus cost, medium-term pressure will become more apparent in valuations.

SK hynix faces the same cost equation, but its pricing power, derived from its technological edge in HBM, is stronger, allowing higher costs to be covered by even greater profits — for now, it remains the more resilient player in Korea’s chip sector.

Three things to watch next: The Kakao negotiation result, the first test of whether the domino effect will hold; Samsung DS’s H2 profit guidance, which will determine the actual weight of the 10.5% cost; and the trajectory of the Samsung Biologics strike, which signals the speed of loosening within the chaebol system itself.

Samsung fired the first shot. The bullet is already in the air. Whether the Korean chaebol can hold onto their respective purses will be known in the coming weeks.