The new threat to the chip industry: Worker unrest
SEOUL—Inside the cavernous factories of Samsung Electronics, rows of white machines pump out memory chips around the clock, with help from just a few workers. Until this month, Kim Jae-won was one of them. Now he is on an indefinite strike with thousands of colleagues in South Korea.
They sit on the front lines of an issue affecting semiconductor makers globally: With the industry growing in importance and investment pouring in, how much of the bonanza should go to workers? Kim is a member of a labor union at Samsung demanding greater pay and benefits from the world’s largest memory-chip maker, which is also spending roughly $45 billion on two new production plants and a chip-packaging facility in Texas with backing from the Biden administration. In the U.S., unions are trying to organize employees at several chip plants whose owners are set to receive government money, including from the 2022 Chips and Science Act. Samsung says the strike isn’t affecting production at its three chip-manufacturing sites in South Korea.
It says it will continue to ensure no disruptions occur. On Tuesday, the two sides held their first round of talks since the strike began, without reaching a resolution. “We hope the situation can be resolved as soon as possible," a Samsung spokeswoman said.
The 24-year-old Kim is an engineer responsible for detecting equipment failures and replacing parts, among other tasks. Samsung’s factories run around the clock, pumping out the kind of chips used in products such as smartphones, computers and data servers. A typical eight-hour shift often involves five maintenance issues or more, Kim said.
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