[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] “Donghaeng,” a labor union composed primarily of employees from SamsungElectronics’ Device Experience (DX) Division, is holding a rally in front of Jay Y. Lee’s residence to demand the elimination of the compensation gap with the Device Solutions (DS) Division.

According to industry sources on the 5th, the SamsungElectronics “Donghaeng” Union plans to begin with a launch ceremony on the 18th and continue holding rallies and one-person protests near Chairman Lee’s residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. No specific end date has been set. The union plans to conduct one-person protests on days when rally permits have not been obtained.

The Donghaeng Union claims that the DX division was marginalized during the SamsungElectronics wage negotiations settled last May. At that time, management and labor agreed to establish a special management performance bonus funded by 10.5% of the semiconductor business’s profits. This led to complaints among DX employees that the compensation gap with the DS division, which handles semiconductors, had become excessively wide.

To resolve this issue, the Donghaeng Union is demanding the allocation of 1,000 shares of company stock per DX employee, the establishment and distribution of a common fund based on a certain percentage of company-wide performance, and the uniform application of base-up raises across the entire company.

The union argues that its demand for 1,000 shares of company stock is not unreasonable, given that during the DX division’s previous boom period, employees did not receive additional performance bonuses in exchange for the company’s investments in strengthening company-wide competitiveness—including in the semiconductor sector. It is also advocating for the introduction of a system where a portion of company-wide profits is set aside as a common fund and distributed based on the performance of each business division.

This is not the first time the Donghaeng Union has taken collective action. Following a rally at the Suwon plant last July, they held another rally on the 21st of last month near the SamsungElectronics Seocho Building in Seocho-gu, Seoul. According to police estimates, approximately 2,000 people attended the rally, claiming that the deterioration in the DX division’s profitability stemmed from management’s failures and demanding a responsible compensation plan and better communication.

However, some in the business community point out that the demand for 1,000 shares of company stock is excessive, given that the collective action took place after labor-management wage negotiations had already been settled and amid deteriorating profitability in the DX division. Furthermore, during the negotiations, the Donghaeng Union did not advocate for additional compensation for the DX division or the issuance of company stock.

Subsequently, the 2026 wage agreement—drafted following mediation by the Ministry of Employment and Labor—was approved by a 73.7% majority in a union member vote and is currently being implemented as planned. The Donghaeng Union participated in the joint bargaining team alongside the Super-Enterprise Union and the National SamsungElectronics Labor Union (Jeonsamno) in early May of this year but voluntarily withdrew from the team, citing the joint bargaining team’s failure to address pending issues in the DX division.

If the company were to pay the union’s demands to the 50,214 employees in the DX division, the cost to the company—based on SamsungElectronics’ closing stock price on the 4th—is estimated to reach approximately 12.8 trillion won.