As recently as late May, Choi Seung-ho was hailed as a hero. Rallying workers at Samsung Electronics?to demand a greater share of profits, the union leader secured a staggering windfall, particularly for some semiconductor workers who were promised bonuses of roughly $400,000 this year.
The celebration was short-lived. Workers in less lucrative sections were furious over their much smaller bonuses, in some cases a mere 1% of what their memory-chip colleagues won. Some began showing up to work in black clothes and masks to signal their discontent.
¡°It¡¯s too bad that the outcome left some people unhappy,¡± Choi said in a recent interview, days before he put his leadership to a vote of confidence. He kept his job, with 88% of union members voting last week to support him, but only after the departure of thousands. He¡¯s now left commanding a highly fractured organization: his union¡¯s latest membership, at under 55,000, has fallen to less than half of Samsung¡¯s domestic workforce, meaning it¡¯s lost its power to be the single negotiating channel with management.
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