The Samsung Biologics chapter of the Samsung Group labor union launched the strike on Friday, Labor Day, after 13 rounds of wage talks since December collapsed without a deal. The union has vowed to walk off the job through May 5.
Workers are demanding a 14 percent average pay raise, a one-off bonus of 30 million won per employee, and 20 percent of operating profit to be distributed as performance pay. Management has countered with a 6.2 percent wage hike, leaving the two sides far apart.
The projected hit of 640 billion won amounts to about half of the company's first-quarter revenue of 1.26 trillion won. Samsung Biologics warns that biopharmaceutical manufacturing relies on a continuous, nine-stage process in which a single interruption can spoil entire batches of living cells, forcing them to be discarded as waste.
Ahead of the walkout, the company filed for an injunction to block the strike. A South Korean court last month barred industrial action only on the final three stages — concentration and buffer exchange, drug-substance filling, and buffer manufacturing — while allowing the union to halt the other six. Samsung Biologics appealed the same day, arguing the entire production line must be tightly controlled.
Negotiations have grown increasingly bitter. "We are keeping the channel for dialogue open," the company said on April 28, three days before the strike, while the union countered that management showed "no real intent to talk." Tensions flared further when the union chapter chief took personal leave during a partial walkout on April 28-30.
Industry observers warn that supply-chain disruption could erode Samsung Biologics' standing with global clients, who may shift orders to overseas rivals if delivery deadlines slip.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulators place heavy emphasis on process integrity, meaning even minor disruptions typically trigger full batch disposal regardless of actual quality outcomes.
The walkout underscores deepening labor unrest across the Samsung empire.
Affiliate Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chipmaker, faces an 18-day general strike from May 21 through June 7, with tens of thousands of workers demanding bonuses tied to 15 percent of operating profit — a sum that could reach 45 trillion won. The South Korean government has cautioned that a stoppage at the chip giant could ripple through the broader economy.
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