Samsung's Largest-Ever Strike Begins Tomorrow! Fabs Forced to "Slow Down" Preemptively to Protect Themselves

According to the latest reports from South Korean media, labor negotiations between Samsung Electronics and the union broke down again today (May 20). The Samsung Electronics union has officially announced that it will proceed with the general strike as planned tomorrow (May 21). Management has explicitly rejected the strike proposal. Calls from Samsung shareholders for an emergency arbitration process are growing increasingly urgent.

Samsung Electronics issued an official statement saying that although the company accepted most of the union's demands regarding the scale and content of performance bonuses, the union continues to demand that the company provide socially unacceptable compensation to loss-making business divisions. This directly violates the fundamental corporate management principle of "performance-based rewards." Samsung explained that abandoning this principle would not only negatively impact Samsung Electronics itself but also have adverse effects on other domestic companies and the entire industry.

The union has stated that it will not stop seeking reconciliation even during the strike. Currently, both sides have not completely ruled out the possibility of future dialogue.

Defense Under Court Injunction: Setting Minimum Staffing Levels

Facing the imminent wave of strikes, Samsung Electronics has sent an official letter to its super-enterprise union, demanding strict compliance with the temporary injunction ruling issued by the Suwon District Court in South Korea on May 18.

To ensure the strike does not "affect production volume or cause damage to production materials," Samsung has drawn a strict bottom line: the minimum number of employees required to maintain production line operations during the strike is approximately 7,087. Among them, the Memory Business, the core operation, has been allocated 2,454 slots, broken down as follows: 1,964 for the Technology Team, 120 for the FAB (wafer fabrication) Team, 144 for the Post-FAB Team, and 76 for the EDS (Equipment Solutions) Team. Samsung plans to establish daily rotation schedules based on this staffing configuration during the strike period from May 21 to June 7.

Fabs Forced to "Cool Down": Preventing Irreversible Equipment Damage

Semiconductor manufacturing has extremely high requirements for continuity and cannot be stopped and restarted like an ordinary factory. According to industry insiders, Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) division has initiated emergency defensive measures to prepare for potential sudden labor shortages and production interruptions.

Samsung has already begun restricting new wafer input on some production facilities and is accelerating the transfer of work-in-progress (WIP) on the production lines to relatively stable process stages. This preventive operation, known in the industry as "Cooldown," aims to reduce factory operating loads in advance to prevent expensive wafer scrap and damage to precision manufacturing equipment caused by sudden power/water outages or manpower shortages. However, once wafer input restrictions are implemented, a decline in production volume is almost certain.

Strategic Adjustment: Prioritizing High-Value Chips

With production capacity expected to be constrained, Samsung is reassessing its production priorities. It is reported that Samsung plans to maximize the use of limited manpower and production capacity during the strike, prioritizing the production of high-value products such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory).

The current period is a sensitive time for the global semiconductor industry, with investment booms in the AI server field driving strong demand for DRAM, HBM, and enterprise SSDs. If the strike proceeds as scheduled and production adjustments continue, Samsung will not only face direct revenue losses and delivery delays but may also suffer an incalculable blow to its long-established market credibility due to yield fluctuations and customer delivery defaults.