Taiwan's Micron Taoyuan Labor Union announced today (7th) that it has officially obtained the legal right to strike and the right to set up strike picket lines.
[Reporter Lin Yiru/Taipei Report] Taiwan’s Micron Taoyuan Labor Union announced today (7th) that after six days of strike voting, the counting of votes was completed yesterday (6th) evening, and it officially obtained the legal right to strike and the right to set up strike picket lines. The union stated that the strike time has not yet been decided. If it decides to launch a strike later, it plans to adopt a "surprise strike" and notify members by text message.
A total of 2,258 people were registered for the Micron Taoyuan union's strike voting list, and the actual number of voters was 2,012, including 1,994 yes votes, with a turnout rate of 89.1%. The union stated that the actual follow-up strike schedule still needs to be discussed between cadres and members. Micron is currently required to propose a specific profit-sharing plan at the board of directors meeting on October 8-9 and conduct reciprocal negotiations with the union.
The union pointed out that employees shared the company's share of economic downturns in the past, but when AI demand drove the memory industry boom and company operations improved, employees lacked a clear profit-sharing system. Therefore, they proposed the establishment of a profit-sharing mechanism linked to the company's actual profits. The current global employee performance bonus IPP system is one of the union's main demands.
The union pointed out that taking 2025 as an example, global employee IPP achievement performance was 93.9%, which translates into approximately 2.3 months of performance bonuses for front-line employees in Taiwan, which was later adjusted to 2.6 months. According to the information disclosed by Micron, the CEO’s cash performance bonus for the same year was equivalent to 32.4 months’ salary. Although the cash bonus titles and assessment systems for front-level employees and management are different, the company is still required to explain the basis for the distribution of rewards.
In terms of stock rewards, the labor union pointed out that in the past, about 40% of employees in Taiwan were able to obtain restricted stock units (RSU), and the allocation standards lacked transparency. In September this year, Micron announced that its employee RSU coverage would reach 100%, with the minimum amount being US$6,000 and being distributed over four years. However, the union still requires the establishment of a long-term benefit sharing system so that employee rewards can be linked to the results jointly created by the company.
The union put forward four major demands, the core of which is to establish an employee profit sharing system based on 15% of operating profits. The union also pointed out that Micron used to implement a system of allocating 10% of net profits quarterly to pay employee dividends, which shows that profit sharing is not unfeasible in memory manufacturing. However, now it concentrates huge benefits on a few senior managers.
Micron will hold a board of directors meeting from October 8 to 9, U.S. time. The union also calls on the board of directors to address the demands of grassroots employees and propose specific plans. If no clear response is received after the board of directors, the union will discuss further actions with officials and members. In addition, the union plans to call on employees to participate in street rallies in the form of a "suggested holiday" on October 19, but the official strike date has not yet been announced, and the arrangement of the strike picket lines is still subject to internal discussions.
