A Weak Union, a Record Samsung: ₩350 Trillion This Year
Samsung Electronics earned 107 trillion won in operating profit in the third quarter of this year. It is the first company in the world to top 100 trillion won in a single quarter.
After the 50-trillion-won range in the first quarter and 89 trillion won in the second, the total through the third quarter is already about 250 trillion won. For the full year, about 350 trillion won is expected.
For a long time, Samsung was a company with a weak union. Instead of labor fights, it put its energy into technology and factory investment.
In 2025, overseas sales were about 216 trillion won and domestic sales about 22 trillion won. It earns ten times more abroad.
Put simply, every time Samsung sells a chip, dollars flow into Korea.
Those dollars get spread right across Korea. Through taxes, domestic factory investment and work for suppliers, the money circulating in Korea is estimated at about 50 to 70 trillion won in the third quarter alone, and about 170 to 230 trillion won a year. Add employee salaries and it is far bigger.
Companies with strong unions tell a different story.
Frequent strikes stop the factory. When the factory stops, there is nothing to sell. When there is nothing to sell, overseas customers go to companies in other countries.
Dollars that should have come in simply don't.
The wage increases a union wins go to that company's members.
In fact, when labor costs rise, the company cuts new hiring. It's good for those already inside, but the door narrows for young people trying to get in.
The bigger problem is factories leaving the country altogether.
If labor costs keep rising and strikes are a constant worry, the company builds its next factory abroad instead of in Korea.
Then the jobs and taxes that should have been created in Korea are created overseas.
The money the company earned gets invested in someone else's country instead of Korea. That is how dollars leak out.
This year's results owe a lot to memory prices rising because of AI. But even in the same boom, the company whose factories keep running without a stop takes a bigger share.
Having a union is not automatically bad. But German unions are known for making concessions when their companies are struggling, so that everyone survives together.
Now Samsung's union is growing too. Whether Samsung, after earning 107 trillion won, keeps bringing dollars home or lets them drain away through labor fights is something to watch.
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After the 50-trillion-won range in the first quarter and 89 trillion won in the second, the total through the third quarter is already about 250 trillion won. For the full year, about 350 trillion won is expected.
For a long time, Samsung was a company with a weak union. Instead of labor fights, it put its energy into technology and factory investment.
In 2025, overseas sales were about 216 trillion won and domestic sales about 22 trillion won. It earns ten times more abroad.
Put simply, every time Samsung sells a chip, dollars flow into Korea.
Those dollars get spread right across Korea. Through taxes, domestic factory investment and work for suppliers, the money circulating in Korea is estimated at about 50 to 70 trillion won in the third quarter alone, and about 170 to 230 trillion won a year. Add employee salaries and it is far bigger.
Strong-union companies leak dollars abroad
Companies with strong unions tell a different story.
Frequent strikes stop the factory. When the factory stops, there is nothing to sell. When there is nothing to sell, overseas customers go to companies in other countries.
Dollars that should have come in simply don't.
The wage increases a union wins go to that company's members.
In fact, when labor costs rise, the company cuts new hiring. It's good for those already inside, but the door narrows for young people trying to get in.
The bigger problem is factories leaving the country altogether.
If labor costs keep rising and strikes are a constant worry, the company builds its next factory abroad instead of in Korea.
Then the jobs and taxes that should have been created in Korea are created overseas.
The money the company earned gets invested in someone else's country instead of Korea. That is how dollars leak out.
Does Samsung's union think about the nation?
This year's results owe a lot to memory prices rising because of AI. But even in the same boom, the company whose factories keep running without a stop takes a bigger share.
Having a union is not automatically bad. But German unions are known for making concessions when their companies are struggling, so that everyone survives together.
Now Samsung's union is growing too. Whether Samsung, after earning 107 trillion won, keeps bringing dollars home or lets them drain away through labor fights is something to watch.
