Samsung faces 18-day strike threat
- Samsung Electronics workers rallied at the company’s Pyeongtaek chip complex on April 23 and threatened an 18-day strike starting May 21. - Union officials said about 40,000 members joined the protest, pressing Samsung to scrap bonus caps after reporting record first-quarter profit guidance. - Samsung’s union says a walkout could cut output and push customers toward rival foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (koreaherald.com)
Thousands of Samsung Electronics workers rallied at the company’s Pyeongtaek chip complex on April 23 and threatened an 18-day strike starting May 21. (abcnews.com) (koreaherald.com) The protest centered on pay and bonuses as unions accused Samsung of failing to share gains from the artificial-intelligence chip boom. Union officials said about 40,000 members attended the rally. (abcnews.com) The union represents about 74,000 workers and has demanded that Samsung remove caps on performance bonuses. It has also rejected management’s proposal to pay bonuses with restricted stock. (abcnews.com) (datacenterdynamics.com) Samsung’s chip plants matter because they make memory and foundry products used across data centers, phones and other electronics. Samsung and SK Hynix together produce about two-thirds of global memory chips, according to the Associated Press. (abcnews.com) The labor fight comes after Samsung told investors on April 7 that first-quarter 2026 operating profit would reach about 57.2 trillion won on sales of about 133 trillion won. The company said those figures were preliminary guidance under Korean accounting rules. (news.samsung.com) Workers rallied the same day SK Hynix reported all-time-high January-to-March revenue and operating profit, sharpening comparisons inside South Korea’s chip industry. Reuters, cited by multiple outlets, said Samsung workers pointed to a widening compensation gap with SK Hynix. (abcnews.com) (msn.com) Samsung has also gone to court ahead of the planned walkout. Data Center Dynamics reported that Samsung asked a court to block unions from what it called illegal activities during the strike period. (datacenterdynamics.com) Union leaders say a strike could cost Samsung more than 1 trillion won a day. The Korea Herald reported the union also claimed memory output fell 18.4 percent and foundry output 58.1 percent during a night shift after the Pyeongtaek rally. (abcnews.com) (koreaherald.com) Outside economists and industry watchers are focused less on one day of lost output than on customer trust. The Korea Herald cited an economist who said big clients could look to alternatives such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. if Samsung’s supply reliability comes into question. (koreaherald.com) The next test is whether wage talks produce a deal before May 21. If they do not, Samsung faces a longer labor confrontation at the center of its semiconductor business. (abcnews.com) (koreaherald.com)
