Strike risk severely hit Samsung's stock price, top executives rarely visit trade unions to push for resuming negotiations.

Senior management of Samsung Electronics visited the leader of the company's largest union on Friday evening in a rare move, in an attempt to restart the stalled wage negotiations. Earlier, with the mediation of the South Korean government, the negotiations between the two sides had broken down earlier in the week. On Friday, Samsung's stock price fell by 8.6% on the South Korean stock market, highlighting investors' increasing concerns about the potential disruption of the operation of the world's largest memory chip maker by the strike. The union had previously threatened to go on an 18-day strike starting from May 21 if their demands were not met. The union stated that Jun Young-hyun, head of Samsung's semiconductor business, along with three other senior executives, visited the union office in Pyeongtaek, a city in southern Korea. Pyeongtaek is where Samsung's massive semiconductor manufacturing plant is located. In a statement on Friday, Samsung said, "We will see the union as one big family, one community of fate, and engage in dialogue with an unconditional open-mindedness. We earnestly urge the union to consider the concerns of the public and the national economy and actively participate in the dialogue as soon as possible." The labor dispute comes at a critical time for Samsung's chip business, which accounted for over 90% of the company's total operating profit in the first quarter. Later on Friday, Samsung expressed willingness to resume negotiations, while the union leaders responded that negotiations could continue if the management came up with a solution that meets the core demands of the union. With the increasing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, profits in the semiconductor industry have grown significantly. The union has been urging Samsung to expand the distribution of performance bonuses. The union leaders have requested Samsung to remove the existing bonus cap, allocate 15% of operating profit for employee bonuses, and formally include these terms in the labor contract. Samsung has proposed allocating 10% of operating profit for bonuses and providing an additional one-time special compensation plan beyond industry standards. Company executives believe that the union's demands are unsustainable in the long term.