Samsung meeting transcripts show memory workers offered incredible 607% bonus worth $477,000, while logic chip staff get as little as 50% — union says misbalance 'creates a retention crisis the company cannot afford'

Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong bows in a public apology. .

Internal Samsung wage negotiation transcripts obtained by Reuters show the company proposed bonuses of 607% of annual salary for its memory chip division in March, while offering workers in its loss-making foundry and System LSI businesses between 50% and 100%. The documents, part of hundreds of pages of meeting minutes, offer a detailed look at the internal fractures driving Samsung toward what would be the largest strike in its history, scheduled to begin on Thursday.

Samsung's Device Solutions division houses three businesses under one roof: memory, System LSI, and foundry. The first is printing money on the back of AI-driven HBM demand, while the other two have posted combined operating losses running into the trillions of Korean won.