Choi Seung-ho, head of the Samsung Electronics branch of the Samsung Group Employees’ Union, speaks to reporters after a court hearing at Suwon District Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on May 13. (Yonhap) Samsung Electronics' largest labor union has lost its majority status just two months after winning legal recognition, as workers in the company's non-chip division quit to protest a wage deal that favored semiconductor employees.The Samsung Electronics branch of the Samsung Group Employees' Union had 58,270 members as of 3 p.m. on Thursday, according to the union. That is down by nearly 18,000 from more than 76,000 at the end of April, when it held a rally to vote on a strike.Samsung Electronics had 128,881 employees as of the end of last year, meaning a union must have at least 64,440 members to hold majority status. The union had secured recognition from the Labor Ministry in April as both the majority union and the legal employee representative after rapidly expanding during wage negotiations. It has now fallen below the threshold in just two months.The setback comes after Samsung and the union reached a 2026 wage agreement last month, averting a planned walkout. The deal grants a special management performance bonus worth 10.5 percent of operating profit to the Device Solutions division, Samsung’s semiconductor business.Memory workers are expected to receive an average of 567.1 million won ($366,900) each. Foundry and system LSI employees, despite belonging to the same chip division, are set to receive about 161.5 million won. Workers in the Device eXperience division, which covers smartphones, home appliances and TVs, will get just 6 million won under a separate co-prosperity scheme.The gap has fueled anger among non-chip and non-memory workers, with some saying they will quit a union that “only takes care of memory workers.”Rival unions are absorbing the fallout. The National Samsung Electronics Union has grown to 20,960 members from about 16,000 on May 20, while Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng has surged to 20,923 from around 2,600.“Employees disappointed by the DS-centered negotiations are moving to other unions,” an industry official said. “With the loss of majority status, the union is likely to lose leverage both in talks with management and in coordinating with rival unions.”The Samsung Group union is now trying to contain the rupture by pursuing separate bargaining tracks for the DS and DX divisions. It also plans to hold a confidence vote on Chair Choi Seung-ho on June 17.