20/05/2026

WEDNESDAY | MAY 20, 2026

8

Samsung, union narrow gap

o Govt threatens emergency arbitration

KB analyst Jeff Kim has estimated that an 18 day strike could disrupt supplies of DRAM memory by 3% to 4% and NAND memory by 2% to 3%, which would likely fuel price increases. For many investors, rather than the potential strike itself, the biggest issue is whether Samsung caves in to the demand to have bigger bonuses written into contracts, resulting in permanent increases in labour costs. “The point is how they negotiate the formalising of pay increases,” said Lee Seung yub, a portfolio manager at Seoul-based hedge fund Quad Investment Management. The union has demanded Samsung abolish a cap on bonuses that stands at 50% of annual salaries, allocate 15% of annual operating profit to bonuses and formalise this in contracts. Samsung has proposed that memory chip workers receive one-off bonuses this year that would top those of SK Hynix employees, while the bonus cap would stay in place. – Reuters

had made concessions, they remain stuck on two key issues but declined to elaborate. “There is some possibility that an agreement could be reached,” he told reporters. Samsung declined to comment. A union representative said the union was coming up with a plan to satisfy its members. While the threat of the strike has put South Korea on edge, investors have been heartened after the government threatened over the weekend to step in and order emergency arbitration. That would prevent the strike from going ahead for 30 days while the government mediates talks. “The reality is that all of our citizens are worried about this, considering the ripple effects that a Samsung strike could bring,” Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan told parliament on yesterday. South Korean business groups have also urged the union not to proceed with the strike.

SEJONG: Samsung Electronics and its union have narrowed some differences, a mediator in their talks said yesterday, as the government and business groups pile on pressure to avert a strike. The two sides are seeking to hash out a deal on bonus payments before nearly 48,000 workers walk off the job for 18 days tomorrow. A strike of that magnitude and length has the potential to inflict significant damage on South Korea’s economy as Samsung accounts for almost a quarter of the country’s exports. Park Su-keun, chairman of the National Labour Relations Commission, which is mediating the talks, said that while both sides

US ends cases against Adani WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Monday moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against billionaire Gautam Adani, while also settling alleged Iran sanctions violations involving one of his companies. The resolution of outstanding cases against one of the world’s richest people came after Adani’s attorney, who is also a personal attorney of President Donald Trump, said last month his client wanted to invest US$10 billion (RM39.7 billion) in the United States but could not do so while the cases proceeded, according to a source familiar with the matter. It is the latest example of Trump’s Justice Department abandoning a high-profile case brought under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. Adani has an estimated worth of US$82 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Adani had been accused of agreeing to pay US$265 million in bribes to Indian government officials so a subsidiary of Adani Group, Adani Green Energy, could win approval to develop India’s largest solar power plant, and then misleading US investors by providing reassuring information about the company’s anti-corruption practices. Prosecutors said he and his alleged co conspirators raised more than US$3 billion by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors. The Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing. Adani is the company’s founder and chairman. Earlier on Monday, the US Treasury Department said Adani Enterprises, part of Adani Group, had agreed to pay US$275 million to resolve alleged sanctions violations, in which Adani Enterprises had bought shipments of liquefied petroleum gas from a Dubai-based trader purporting to supply Omani and Iraqi gas that had actually originated from Iran. Adani Enterprises has also ceased imports of LPG into India and created a head of compliance role to ensure it follows Treasury Department guidance. The US Securities and Exchange Commission separately settled a civil lawsuit against Adani over an alleged scheme to bribe Indian government officials, court records showed last week, although the move is subject to court approval. – Reuters Adani has an estimated worth of US$82 billion. – REUTERSPIC

Taiwan lawmakers voting on the impeachment motion yesterday. – AFPPIC

Taiwan opposition lawmakers fail to impeach president TAIPEI: Taiwan’s opposition lawmakers made a failed bid yesterday to impeach President Lai Ching-te, after the number of votes in favour of the motion fell well short of the minimum required. Both sides have accused each other of violating the island’s constitution. Opposition legislators have described Lai as “dictatorial”. DPP lawmaker Wu Szu-yao said on Monday the KMT and TPP “are coordinating with external hostile forces to manipulate Taiwan’s political struggles”.

coexistence” with the opposition parties. But divisions remain deep. A key point of contention between Lai’s government and the opposition has been over how much to spend on defending the island against a potential attack. The KMT and TPP rejected the government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (RM157 billion) in spending on critical weapons, that included US arms and domestically procured drones and other munitions. Instead, after months of political wrangling, the opposition parties passed a budget of NT$780 billion for US arms only. – AFP

Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party have been locked in a bitter conflict with the two opposition parties that control the parliament since he took office in May 2024. Lawmakers from the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) launched impeachment proceedings after Lai and his premier refused to sign off on a revenue-sharing Bill passed by parliament.

Fifty-six lawmakers supported impeaching Lai and 50 were against it. The number of votes in favour was below the minimum two-thirds of the 113-seat parliament needed for the motion to succeed. Premier Cho Jung-tai vowed yesterday to “continue to push for reconciliation and

EU-China spacecraft takes off on mission to probe solar winds KOUROU: A joint European-Chinese spacecraft blasted off into orbit yesterday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the Sun slam into Earth’s magnetic shield. northern or southern lights. To find out more about this little-understood space weather, the van-sized Smile spacecraft is tasked with making the first-ever X-ray observations of the Earth’s magnetic field.

data to the Bernardo O’Higgins research station in Antarctica. But the spacecraft will be 121,000km above the Earth when it swings over the North Pole – an orbit which the European Space Agency says will allow the mission to “observe the northern lights non-stop for 45 hours at a time for the first time ever”. – AFP

French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America. Fifty-five minutes later, Smile detached at 700km of altitude to make its own way to an extremely elliptical orbit thousands of kilometres above the surface of our planet. Smile will be at an altitude of 5,000km when it flies over the South Pole, allowing it to transmit

The spacecraft achieved lift-off on a Vega-C rocket at 0352 GMT (11.52am in Malaysia) yesterday from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou,

Particularly fierce solar storms can knock out satellites, threaten astronauts – and create dazzling auroras in the skies known as the