Thousands of Samsung Electronics employees protested at the chip complex in ’, South Korea on Thursday, demanding higher bonuses and threatening to strike as the company made record profits as artificial intelligence increased its demand for memory chips.
Workers with banners in their hands and waving banners gathered under heavy police presence at a factory compound in Pyeongtaek’ and shouted, "“, make compensation transparent and remove maximum limits on bonuses!"
Union representatives said the turnout was about 40,000, while police did not specify an official number.
The protest came on the day Samsung’'s main competitor, SK Hynix’, announced its best quarterly results so far: Record revenue and operating profit for the first three months of the year is owed to the company's growing global investment in data centers and AI infrastructure to drive demand for memory chips, he said.
Samsung, which together with SK Hynix produces about two-thirds of global memory chips, estimated its first-quarter operating profit earlier this month to reach a record 57.2 trillion won (€33 billion).
The Samsung syndicate, which represents about 74,000 workers, says the company has failed to provide adequate compensation despite its strong performance. He rejected the administration's proposal for bonuses for limited stocks and called for the lifting of ceilings on bonuses.
If negotiations with management failed, the union threatened an 18-day strike from May 21, ’, estimating that it would cost the company more than 1 trillion won (578 million euros) per day.
Union leader Choi Seung-ho said via a loudspeaker at the top of a crane-mounted structure, “We will not stop this struggle until our fair demands are met.
South Korea’'s semiconductor manufacturers benefited from the artificial intelligence explosion, but the war in the Middle East’ overshadowed the outlook for the future by disrupting the supply of essential materials such as helium, which is vital for chip making, and raising energy costs.
But in a conference call on Thursday, Woo Hyun Kim, chief financial officer at SK Hynix’, said the company was closely monitoring the dispute but did not expect any meaningful impact on production.
