In July 2024, South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics suffered its first large-scale strike in its 55-year history. This strike, involving thousands of workers, not only posed a challenge to Samsung's own operations, but also attracted widespread attention from the global chip supply chain. In this article, China Exportsemi Web will try to explore the reasons behind the strike, the possible impact, and its far-reaching significance to the global semiconductor industry.
Behind the Samsung Electronics Strike:
The Samsung Electronics strike was initiated by the largest internal union organization, involving 6,540 employees, mainly from the semiconductor department. The main demands of the workers include wage increases, improved salary transparency, and compensation for economic losses caused by the strike. Although Samsung management said that the market situation was not conducive to meeting these requirements, the workers chose to fight for their rights through strikes.
Impact of the strike on Samsung:
According to the preliminary performance report released by Samsung Electronics, sales in the second quarter of 2024 were 74 trillion won (about 390 billion yuan), an increase of 23.31% year-on-year; operating profit was as high as 10.4 trillion won (about 54.8 billion yuan), a sharp increase of nearly 15 times year-on-year. However, the strike may cast a shadow on these impressive performance figures. Any interruption of semiconductor production lines may lead to huge economic losses, and it takes a lot of time and cost to resume production.
Figure: What impact will Samsung's biggest strike have on the global chip supply chain
Tension in the global chip supply chain:
Samsung Electronics occupies an important position in the global semiconductor market, and the fluctuation of its memory chip prices directly affects the costs of global electronic equipment manufacturers. According to data provider TrendForce, in the second quarter of 2024, DRAM chip prices rose by about 13% to 18% from the previous quarter, and NAND flash memory chip prices rose by 15% to 20% from the previous quarter. The strike may exacerbate the market's supply and demand imbalance and further push up chip prices.
Trends in the labor movement in the technology industry:
The Samsung Electronics strike is a microcosm of the labor movement in the technology industry. With the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, low-skilled workers are at risk of being replaced by machines. However, this also provides opportunities for the transformation of the labor market. Some traditional industrial workers have achieved a leap from low-skilled jobs to high-skilled jobs through learning and training. Governments, enterprises, universities and other parties are working hard to help industrial workers increase their skill reserves and improve their employment competitiveness.
Conclusion and Outlook:
The Samsung Electronics strike is not only a direct confrontation between labor and capital, but also a profound reflection of labor-capital relations, technological progress and changes in the employment market in the era of globalization. It reminds us that while pursuing technological innovation and industrial upgrading, we must pay attention to the rights and interests of the labor force and the needs of transformation. In the future, how to balance technological development with changes in the labor market, protect the rights and interests of workers, and maintain the competitiveness and sustainable development of the industry will be a common challenge faced by the global technology industry.
