The ongoing feud between Samsung Electronics’ device-making and chipmaking divisions has intensified amid growing anger over a nearly 100-fold compensation disparity. Employees in the smartphone and home appliance sectors, primarily within the Device Experience (DX) division, are protesting after only chipmaking Device Solutions (DS) division workers received performance incentives of up to 600 million won (US$402,900) under a wage agreement reached in May.

The Samsung Electronics Company Union (SECU), mostly composed of DX division employees, has become the company’s second-largest trade union with 28,569 members, representing about 55% of the DX workforce of 51,700. SECU plans to hold a rally under the slogan “same company, same rights” at Samsung’s Suwon plant in Gyeonggi province on Thursday, July 16th, 2026, to demand management address the compensation gap.

A day earlier, the National Samsung Electronics Union, with 22,700 members, set up a memorial altar at the Suwon plant, marking what it called “the day the DX division was confirmed to have been abandoned by management and declared dead.” The union argued that the DX division’s operating profits historically funded investments in the chipmaking business, yet DX employees have now been excluded from performance incentives despite a booming chip industry.

Although Samsung’s DX and DS divisions operate as separate entities within the company, the recent wage agreement has exacerbated divisions and strengthened silo mentalities between the two groups.

Sources