At a time of chip shortage, Samsung Electronics, the world's largest semiconductor company, may usher in the first workers' strike in 53 years.
According to media reports, due to the failure to reach an agreement with the management on the salary issue in 2021, Samsung Electronics Trade Union recently filed an arbitration application with the National Labor Relations Commission of South Korea. If the arbitration agreement cannot be reached within 10 days, the trade union will have the legal right to strike.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of SamSung China said in an interview with the reporter of Securities Daily: "(this incident) does not affect Samsung's business in China at present."
Samsung's semiconductor business revenue surpassed Intel in 2021, making it the world's first semiconductor manufacturer. If workers strike and some production is interrupted, it will undoubtedly have a great impact on relevant industrial chains and relevant enterprises under the situation of chip supply shortage.
why face a large-scale "strike"?
Samsung Electronics Trade Union recently issued a statement that it has submitted an arbitration to the National Labor Relations Commission of South Korea and will have the right to strike in the future because it failed to reach an agreement with Samsung executives on salary.
It is reported that the first negotiation began in October last year. The Samsung Electronics Trade Union proposed that the company should increase the annual salary of each employee, take 25% of the group's operating profit and pay bonuses and special leave rights to employees.
It is understood that the program is for all employees of Samsung Electronics. At present, Samsung Electronics has 114000 employees. Samsung Electronics has 4500 employees in the trade union, accounting for about 4% of the total number of employees.
However, this request failed to receive a positive response from Samsung's management.
According to relevant news, at present, the two sides of the negotiation are in a stalemate, and the Samsung Electronics Union is trying to break this situation with a strike. Samsung Electronics Management said it would continue to negotiate with workers, but refused to accept the Union's request. "We are aware that the negotiations can no longer be carried out. The actions we will take in the future depend on Samsung's willingness to negotiate," the trade union representative said
The outbreak of this incident was not accidental. The semiconductor industry has developed rapidly in the past two years, which has benefited Samsung for many years. In 2021, Samsung's semiconductor business achieved a huge growth in revenue, surpassing Intel in the first place with a scale of US $73.1 billion. "In the context of the company's abundant profits, Samsung employees have been worried about whether the salary and welfare improvement of Samsung's basic employees match the substantial growth of business." A person close to Samsung Electronics said.
The executives of Samsung Electronics have benefited from the performance growth dividend, and the salary has increased significantly in recent years. It is reported that the total remuneration of 11 directors of Samsung Electronics reached 33.7 billion won (about 195 million yuan) in 2020, double that of 2019. In 2020, the operating profit of Samsung Electronics reached 36 trillion won, at a high level. In 2021, the operating profit reached 51.63 trillion won.
\u3000\u3000 "In the final analysis, Samsung's possible large-scale strike is due to the exposed shortcomings of its management system and problems at the management level. Samsung has always adopted a family management mode, lack of international and transparent management mode, and is internally determined in terms of salary system and assessment methods. Samsung's senior salary has always been at a high level, and has doubled in recent years, but at the grass-roots level There is little change in employees, and it is difficult to implement incentive rules. For a long time, the salary of Samsung employees has been based on the high growth of performance. Once there is a problem with performance, it will directly affect the treatment. " Jiang Han, senior researcher of Pangu think tank, told the reporter of Securities Daily.
Major general Ding, founder of nail technology, "From the perspective of unbalanced salary system, Samsung did not pay attention to the interests of basic employees in salary incentive. At the same time, this time, Samsung did not balance the relationship between the future development of the enterprise and the actual interests of employees, and there are still great deficiencies in the timely response to the demands of front-line employees, so that it can only respond passively after contradictions appear, which also reflects its role in enterprise management There are problems such as insufficient flexibility and predictability. "
can industrial chain shocks be avoided?
Considering that the global semiconductor supply chain is still fragile and the tight chip supply situation will continue for at least six months, the shutdown of Samsung factory will have a negative impact.
At present, Samsung has a complete industrial chain in the fields of panel, semiconductor and mobile phone, and occupies a pivotal position in the supply of these fields in the global market. Samsung is one of the world's large-scale smart phone manufacturers. It maintains high production in processors, OLED panels and CMOS image sensors upstream of the industrial chain, affecting mobile phone manufacturers all over the world. At the same time, Samsung has laid out circuit boards, lenses, resistors and other components for many years, and Samsung SDI's battery business also has a place in the world.
In today's increasingly important and scarce chips, Samsung also has an important voice in the global semiconductor industry chain. In 2021, Samsung's semiconductor business revenue ranked first in the world. Many manufacturers around the world cooperated with it and relied on its chip capacity. In terms of semiconductor technology, Samsung already has chips with advanced processes such as 5nm and 4nm comparable to TSMC. At the same time, it is also involved in memory chips, base station chips, automobile chips and so on.
Jiang Han believes that: "There is no doubt about Samsung's influence and competitiveness in the semiconductor and panel markets. In recent years, the main employees of its trade union also come from semiconductor and other industries. For industrial chain enterprises, Samsung is not only a consumer but also an important raw material producer. If Samsung fails to solve the possible strike in a short time, or even stop production, it will lead to more chip supply Increase tension, which directly causes the shock of the industrial chain. "
"According to the current assessment, the negotiation between Samsung Electronics and the trade union may reach an agreement in a compromise way, but after the strike occurs and a compromise agreement is reached, there is still uncertainty about whether there will be new demands again in the future and cause a wider range of labor and capital contradictions, which has a negative impact on the expectation of stabilizing the supply chain. Chinese industrial chain manufacturers should respond in advance." Sources close to Samsung Electronics said.
