SK hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Icheon — Sung Hyung-ju 2026.07.29
Employees at SK hynix (000660.KS) are moving to form a united labor union spanning both production and technical-office workers. The effort has taken shape as internal opposition grows over the company’s move to reopen negotiations on a bonus system agreed to last year.
The employees recently set up a preparatory group and began the process of establishing the union, according to industry sources on the 9th. Within three days of launching the group on the 5th, more than 3,500 people joined — about 10% of the roughly 35,000 total workforce.
The united union submitted its registration application on the 8th and expects to launch officially as early as next week. SK hynix currently has a technical-office union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and a union of full-time workers at its Icheon and Cheongju sites under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, each conducting its own wage and collective bargaining talks.
The immediate driver behind the united union is a dispute over performance-based pay. Last year, management and labor at SK hynix agreed to remove the cap on profit-sharing bonuses — funded by 10% of operating profit — and to keep that system in place for 10 years. Under the arrangement, 80% of the bonus is paid in cash that year, while the remaining 20% is deferred over two years.
Opposition among employees spread, however, after management was reported to have proposed during this year’s negotiations to pay part of the bonus in company shares subject to a lockup period restricting their sale. There is also said to be strong discontent over the decision to put the bonus system agreed to last year back on the negotiating table.
“There are people looking to create a new union independent of SK hynix’s existing unions,” an industry source said.