SEOUL, South Korea: Workers at Samsung Electronics are set to begin a large-scale strike after negotiations over bonus payments collapsed between management and the company’s labour union, raising concerns about potential disruption to the global semiconductor industry.
The strike, scheduled to begin on Thursday, is expected to surpass a 2024 walkout that involved around 6,000 employees at the world’s largest memory chipmaker.
According to union representatives, nearly 50,500 workers are expected to participate in the 18-day strike following the breakdown of talks with company management.
The union has demanded that Samsung remove a bonus cap equivalent to 50 percent of annual salaries and allocate 15 percent of the company’s annual operating profits toward employee bonuses.
The dispute comes amid a massive artificial intelligence boom that has sharply increased global demand for semiconductor chips. Samsung’s shares have surged nearly 400 percent over the past year as the company benefited from rising AI-related business.
Samsung is a major producer of advanced memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems, data centres, smartphones and consumer electronics.
Company management rejected the union’s demands, arguing that accepting them could undermine the company’s management principles.
The labour union announced that it had accepted a mediation proposal presented by South Korea’s National Labor Relations Commission, but management refused the deal.
The dispute has triggered concern within South Korea, where semiconductors account for roughly 35 percent of national exports and form a key pillar of the country’s export-driven economy.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok recently warned that a prolonged strike could result in serious economic damage.
Samsung recently began mass production of next-generation HBM4 memory chips, considered crucial for expanding AI infrastructure globally.
