Until now, Samsung Electronics management has managed not only to ignore the demands of the union, which were put forward at the beginning of the year, but also to declare the inability of the employees’ strike to significantly affect the company’s production activities. Meanwhile, the determined protesters threaten to disrupt the production of HBM chips, which are in high demand on the market, with their actions.
Image source: Samsung Electronics
As noted Bloombergunion leaders are now calling on workers at a Samsung plant involved in HBM production to join the strike. Several hundred workers at the Pyeongtaek plant that makes this class of memory took to the streets on Thursday and Friday to participate in the strike. The union representatives leading the protest are arguing that the potential damage to such an important line of business for the company should make Samsung management more accommodating in terms of higher wages.
At a time when Samsung is trying to become a trusted supplier to Nvidia, such risks may be significant enough for the company’s management to pay attention to the protesters’ demands. Although Samsung is the world’s largest maker of memory chips, in the HBM segment the company lags far behind smaller South Korean company SK hynix, which controls half the market. Samsung shares lost up to 4% in price on Friday morning, but such movements were observed in Asian markets as a whole, so it is not a clear reaction to the actions of the union. Samsung management expressed hope that it will be able to resume negotiations with the protesters, and that the latter’s actions will not affect the company’s ability to fulfill its obligations to customers. Experts expect that even in the conditions of highly automated production of advanced components like HBM, the need for personnel for quality control remains, and the actions of personnel participating in the strike may affect the quality of manufactured products, at a minimum.
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