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Samsung union rally met with counterprotest by shareholders

Published: 23 Apr. 2026, 17:31 Updated: 23 Apr. 2026, 19:13

A Samsung Electronics shareholder holds a counterprotest in front of the company's Pyeongtaek campus main gate in Gyeonggi on April 23. [YI WOO-LIM]

On the day that tens of thousands of Samsung Electronics union members began a rally in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, the chipmaker's shareholders also took to the streets in front of the company's manufacturing factory to argue that the union's "malicious" demands will do nothing but harm the company's rosy growth outlook.

“Samsung stands with five million shareholders,” read the banner that Min Gyeong-kwon, a retail investor of Samsung Electronics, brought to counterprotest.

As Samsung's union members held a large-scale rally nearby, shareholders took to a microphone to oppose the union rally. The union and management have been clashing over bonus demands and threats to pause production.

“Demanding that Samsung Electronics hand over 45 trillion won [$30.4 billion] out of the 300 trillion won it has earned as bonuses is no different from the demands of a predatory creditor,” Min said. “Threatening to stop factory operations is effectively taking the assets of millions of shareholders hostage.”

Min was joined by an office worker surnamed Lim, who had taken leave from work in Daejeon, along with a counterprotester surnamed Noh from Asan, South Chungcheong.

Min directly criticized the union’s planned collective action to halt factory operations during a semiconductor boom.

“After seeing remarks at last week’s union rally at the Seocho office [in Seocho District, southern Seoul] about stopping semiconductor plants, I could no longer just stay and watch online,” Min said. “Once a semiconductor plant is stopped, it requires astronomical costs and time to restart the plant. The real owners of the factories, as registered, are the shareholders who hold stakes. Actions that directly damage shareholders’ assets cannot be justified.”

“I am not blindly supporting the company. I agree that union activities are necessary. But labor and management should seek coexistence through dialogue without resorting to plant shutdowns. We should not kill the goose that lays golden eggs,” Min added.

Protestors gather at a strike in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on April 23. [KIM KYOUNG-ROK]

The protesters also criticized the fact that the union’s requested bonuses are four times the total shareholder dividends, with a banner reading, "Samsung shareholder dividends 11 trillion won, Samsung employee bonuses 40 trillion won?"

“I hold only a very small amount of Samsung Electronics stock. I came not as a shareholder but as an ordinary citizen,” Noh, who retired last year after working in manufacturing for 33 years, said.

“Korea has only recently reached a level where people can comfortably live as a top-10 global economy, and it makes no sense to shut down factories and cause losses of 30 to 40 trillion won just because business is booming at the moment. From the perspective of ordinary people, the union’s demands create a sense of relative deprivation.”

Banners featuring the faces of Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong with mocking nicknames are displayed in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi on April 23. [YI WOO-LIM]

Meanwhile, union members began gathering at the Pyeongtaek campus from the morning, with picket signs, water, energy bars and vests — the de facto uniform of organized labor action — distributed near the main gate. Flags reading “Victory for the all-out strike” lined nearby roads, as the eight-lane road inside the campus was blocked.

Banners depicting Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman and CEO Jun Young-hyun and President and head of Samsung Electronics’ Device eXperience division Roh Tae-moon were laid on the ground with mocking nicknames.

The rally drew about 34,000 participants, according to police estimates, and about 40,000, according to union estimates.

A strike is planned from May 21 to June 7.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YI WOO-LIM [[email protected]]