Samsung Workers Protest at Pyeongtaek Chip Plant, Demand Higher Bonuses

Thousands of Samsung Electronics workers protested on Thursday at its chip complex in South Korea, demanding higher bonuses and threatening to strike as the company sees record profits due to artificial intelligence driving up memory chip demand.

Holding signs and waving banners, the workers gathered at a factory compound in Pyeongtaek, amid a heavy police presence, shouting “make compensation transparent and remove maximum limits on bonuses!” Union representatives put attendance at around 40,000 members, though police did not state an official count.

The protest unfolded the same day that Samsung's main competitor, SK Hynix, reported its best-ever quarterly results — record revenue and operating profit for the first three months of the year, which the company credited to soaring global investment in data centres and AI infrastructure that drove up the demand for its memory chips.

Samsung, which together with SK Hynix produces about two-thirds of global memory chips, forecast earlier this month that its first-quarter operating profit would reach a record 57.2 trillion won (€33 billion).

Samsung’s union, which represents about 74,000 workers, says the company has failed to offer adequate compensation despite its strong performance. It has rejected the management’s proposal for bonuses of restricted stock and called for removing caps on bonuses.

If talks with management break down, the union has threatened an 18-day strike beginning May 21, estimating it would cost the company over 1 trillion won (€578 million) per day.

“We won’t stop this fight until our fair demands are met,” Choi Seung-ho, a union leader, said through a loudspeaker from atop a crane-mounted structure.

South Korea’s semiconductor makers have benefited from the AI boom but the war in the Middle East has clouded the future outlook, disrupting supplies of key materials such as helium that are crucial to chipmaking and pushing up energy costs.

But in a conference call on Thursday, Woo Hyun Kim, SK Hynix’s chief financial officer, said the company is closely monitoring the conflict but does not expect a meaningful impact on production.