Two days before Samsung Electronics’ strike warning, its share price falls 8.61%

Labor tensions at Samsung Electronics are escalating as the announced strike date approaches. The union is demanding that 15% of operating profit be paid as performance bonuses. It also called for this arrangement to be made a system implemented every year.

The company is rejecting the union’s demands, calling them excessive. At the time of writing, the strike date announced by the union was two days away. If the strike goes ahead, disruption to semiconductor production lines is being cited as a possibility.

The union estimated that a shutdown of semiconductor production lines could result in direct losses of 30 trillion won. It presented this figure as the scale of potential damage to the company’s sales and customer deliveries from a production stoppage. Samsung Electronics is the central company in domestic semiconductor production.

Samsung Electronics shares, amid growing strike concerns, fell on 15day 8.61%; after the weekend, they rose by 3.88%. Shares that had recently continued to hit new highs moved sharply after news of labor-management conflict.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said the government would consider all possible responses, including emergency mediation. He also called for an agreement between labor and management. The government thus publicly addressed the possibility of production disruptions.

The headline included the phrase “debt incurred by Samsung Electronics for displays amounting to 20 trillion won.” The issue was discussed not only in relation to wages and performance bonuses, but also in connection with financial burdens within and outside Samsung Electronics.