Around 40,000 employees of "Samsung" Electronics have launched a mass sit-in protest near the company's semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.
The "Operative Information Center-OMM", citing "Reuters", reports that this demonstration marks the largest labor action in the company's history, reflecting growing tensions between the tech giant and its workforce.
The primary demands and grievances of the employees include the following:
- Payment of bonuses equivalent to 15% of the company's annual operating profit, which is estimated at approximately $30 billion.
- Elimination of the significant disparity in bonus payments compared to rival company "SK Hynix". It should be noted that "SK Hynix" currently leads "Samsung" in the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for "Nvidia" artificial intelligence processors.
- Abolition of the current bonus cap, which is limited to 50% of the annual base salary.
According to the labor union, if their demands are not met, workers are threatening to begin an 18-day strike scheduled to run from May 21 to June 7. In response, company management has so far offered only 10% of the operating profit to be allocated to the wage fund.
Currently, "Samsung" management is continuing negotiations with the union. Industry analysts suggest that even a short-term halt in production could seriously jeopardize the manufacturing of artificial intelligence chips and disrupt the global semiconductor supply chain. "Samsung" Electronics, a cornerstone of the South Korean economy, is facing unprecedented pressure to maintain its competitive edge in the rapidly evolving AI hardware market while managing internal labor relations.
