Yang Hyang-ja, Gyeonggi Province governor candidate of the People Power Party, speaks in an interview with The Korea Herald on Friday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald) An imminent strike threat is the latest illustration of how Samsung Electronics' decadeslong "no-union" policy left the tech giant vulnerable, according to the main opposition People Power Party's candidate for Gyeonggi Province governor, Yang Hyang-ja.Samsung Electronics — which runs chip manufacturing bases in Gyeonggi cities like Giheung, Yongin and Pyeongtaek — has missed the opportunity to build a culture that embraces unions. This in turn has exposed the company to a possible strike at a critical time, the Samsung Electronics executive-turned-politician said."If Samsung is an international company, it should have established a labor-management culture on par with global standards early on," Yang told The Korea Herald in a recent interview at the National Assembly in Seoul.Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong officially ditched the "no-union" policy in 2020, after its executives were convicted of union busting schemes."Samsung had long been running its business in an environment where no union existed. That is why Samsung’s management ended up lacking experience (in dealing with its union)," she said."The situation is becoming much worse as (Samsung's management) keeps taking wrong steps."In return for a "no-union" policy, Samsung offered its employees a merit-based pay system in which employees were paid based on their performance.Now, amid an artificial intelligence boom in which Samsung has been reaping enormous profits, Samsung has been at odds with its labor union for months over how to calculate bonuses.The deadlock persisted as management rejected the union's call to lift the bonus ceiling, set at 50 percent of annual salary, and reset the basis for calculating bonuses.Given that semiconductors are categorized as national strategic assets, the internal rules on how to distribute what Samsung defines as “excess corporate profit" to its workers "need to be fixed," she said.Global supply chain disruption is imminent. Yang said the impact will also be spilling over to small- and mid-sized companies that are part of the semiconductor ecosystem, as they will be forced to adjust their investment plan in ongoing projects.Urging the government to "minimize damage to affected SMEs," Yang said the public sector's responsibility to mediate in the dispute was growing."How can a person without an understanding in the global supply chain assume the role of Gyeonggi Province governor?" Yang said."If the deadlock persists, the public sector has to step in," added Yang, who had 28 years of experience as a semiconductor worker in Samsung. "But who in the government has an understanding about what it is like to work at Samsung?" Yang Hyang-ja, the People Power Party's candidate for governor of Gyeonggi Province, is seen on a hunger strike near Samsung Electronics' chip plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. (Courtesy of Yang's office) The interview was held a few days before Yang started a hunger strike Monday evening to call for a pay dispute resolution.Having joined Samsung Electronics as a worker shortly after her graduation from high school in 1986, Yang rose up to assume an executive position in 2014 and entered politics in 2016.During her time as the lawmaker from 2020 to 2024, Yang led a move to come up with a legal definition of "national strategic industries" and their incentives for investment.She floated a bill to allow the country to designate them as national high-tech strategic industries for greater protection. Another bill Yang proposed has also allowed such designated industries to be subject to increased tax incentives for their facility investment.Stressing the importance of preventing supply chain disruptions in key industries like semiconductors, Yang said workers dedicated to strategic industries, as defined under the Act on the National High-Tech Strategic Industries, should be under "a separate labor rule" from the Trade Union Act."Labor laws should not be uniformly applied (to chip workers)," Yang said.Joining the liberal Democratic Party to start politics in 2016, Yang quit the party in 2021 and joined the minor conservative Reform Party in 2024, which she quit in 2025 to join the major conservative People Power Party.A member of People Power Party's supreme council, Yang was selected in early May as the People Power Party's candidate for Gyeonggi Province governor election.Yang will be contending with the Democratic Party's Choo Mi-ae, a six-term lawmaker who beat the incumbent Kim Dong-yeon in party contest and quit her lawmaker post to run for the election, and Cho Eung-cheon of the Reform Party.