According to the company’s labour union, production of foundry chips fell by about 58% during the overnight shift on Thursday, while memory chip output dropped by approximately 18%. The downturn followed coordinated absenteeism by unionised workers who participated in a wage protest earlier in the day.
The demonstration took place at Samsung’s factory complex in Pyeongtaek, located south of Seoul, where a significant number of employees gathered to demand higher pay and improved working conditions. Following the protest, many of these workers did not return for their scheduled overnight shift, which runs from 10 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday.
Samsung’s semiconductor facilities typically operate continuously on a 24-hour cycle, structured around three rotating shifts to maintain uninterrupted production of high-demand chips used globally in electronics, computing, and data infrastructure.
The union stated that the coordinated absence directly affected output during the affected shift, reflecting the scale of participation in the protest action. The disruption highlights the sensitivity of semiconductor manufacturing to labour availability, given the highly continuous and precision-driven nature of the production process.
Samsung Electronics declined to provide comment on the situation when approached.
The incident adds to ongoing discussions around labour conditions within South Korea’s advanced manufacturing sector, particularly in high-value industries such as semiconductor fabrication, where global demand pressures and intensive production schedules intersect with workforce concerns over compensation and working conditions.