More than 6,500 Samsung employees went on strike: demanding higher wages and performance adjustments, which will affect chip production

July 8 news, more than 6,500 Samsung Electronics workers went on strike today, demanding higher wages and performance adjustments. South Korean union leaders hope that this three-day strike protest will convey these messages to Samsung.

Talks between the two sides over pay and vacation time broke down last month, and Samsung's largest union is planning a strike after weeks of preparation, marking an escalation from a one-day walkout in early June - the first in Samsung's 55-year history.

According to previous reports, the two sides' disputes mainly focus on the following two points:

• The salary increase is too low: The National Samsung Electronics Workers' Union in South Korea believes that the 5.1% increase is too low and demands that the salary increase be increased to 6.5%.

• Performance bonus system: The labor union asked Samsung Electronics to adjust the measurement standard for performance bonuses from economic value added (net operating profit after tax minus capital investment) to operating profit, the same as SK Hynix and LG Electronics.

"Our goal in this strike is to disrupt production," said union leader Sun Yumu. The union said most of the workers who took part in the strike on Monday were chip assembly line workers.

Bloomberg said that Samsung is at a critical moment and cannot afford internal turmoil or production chaos. In May this year, Samsung suddenly replaced the head of its semiconductor division and is now trying hard to convince Nvidia to use its high-end AI memory chips. In addition, Samsung occupies about 20% of the global DRAM market and about 40% of the NAND flash memory market share. Any operational disruption may have a chain reaction.

A Samsung representative declined to comment.