THE FIRST MASSIVE STRIKE OF THE HUMAN RACE IN THE AGE OF AI CAME FROM THE FACTORY THAT BUILT IT

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011

AI MAY BE ABLE TO REDEFINE THE FUTURE, BUT IT HAS NOT YET BEEN ABLE TO PAY FOR THE DIGNITY OF WORK。

On 20 May, Samsung electronics entered into wage negotiations with trade unions on the verge of breaking down. The union was supposed to start a strike for 18 days from May 21st. At the end of the day, a temporary agreement was reached between the parties, and the strike was temporarily suspended, which was then put to the members of the union to vote. But the real problem does not disappear。

The strike is not new to us。

Those things were equally heavy, either at old industrial bases, in the car supply chain, or in foreign trade factories with cheap physical strength, where the keywords were always low in pay and debt. At first, people were taken for granted as a durable waste and placed in various projects called "the big picture". It was not until the days were overstretched that people suddenly realized that they had not been transformed into iron pieces, and then raised their backs from the cold order and made a human noise。

But this is different。

This time, it's a Samsung electronic worker。

THEY ARE NOT WORKERS WHO HAVE RETREATED FROM THE TIDE OF GLOBALIZATION, BUT THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE AI SUPPLY CHAIN AND THE CLOSEST TO "THE FUTURE." IN SAMSUNG, THE GIANT WITH THE GLOBAL SEMICONDUCTOR LIFELINE, IS BEING PRESSED BY HIS OWN WORKERS。

A STRIKE ENDANGERING AI WORLDWIDE

THIS STRIKE IS PRECISELY STRANGLING THE THROAT OF THE GLOBAL AI INDUSTRIAL CHAIN。

TOGETHER, SAMSUNG AND SK HERCULES PRODUCE ABOUT TWO THIRDS OF THE WORLD'S STORAGE CHIPS。

STORAGE CHIPS USED TO BE IMPORTANT, BUT NOT A SEXY BUSINESS. UNTIL AFTER AI CAME, IT SUDDENLY BECAME THE LAND OF WAR. LARGE MODEL TRAINING, REASONING, DATA CENTRE EXPANSION, NOT ENOUGH GPU ALONE, DATA TO BE FED, STORED, PULLED OUT AT HIGH SPEED, AND THEN HBM AND SO ON。

According to KB Securities Analyst Jeff Kim, this 18-day strike could disturb 3 to 4 per cent of the global DRAM supply and 2 to 3 per cent of the NAND supply. Although not yet at the end of the world, it is enough to tighten the nerve of price expectations, customer discharges, cloud company costs and technology units。

The Korean government has become even more difficult. Because Samsung is not an ordinary company, it's more like a display of Korean power。

As reported by the Korea Federation, semiconductor exports account for about 35 per cent of South Korean exports, which reached a record high of $21.99 billion in the first quarter of 2026, of which semiconductor exports grew by 139 per cent to $78.5 billion each year。

SAMSUNG ITSELF ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE MARKET VALUE OF KOREA'S KOSPI. IN OTHER WORDS, IT IS NOT JUST AN ENTERPRISE’S PROFIT STATEMENT, BUT SOUTH KOREA’S EXPORTS, STOCK MARKETS, EXCHANGE RATE EXPECTATIONS, AND THE COUNTRY’S BACKGROUND STORY。

More importantly, AI came too suddenly. In the past, South Korea spoke of technology power, mobile phones, panels, cars, home appliances, semiconductors. Global narratives are now re-washed by big models, with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic at the center of the spotlight, a group of large model companies in China, and a large calculator like Ingweida. Of course, Korea wants to be a sovereign AI, and the government is promoting national AI infrastructure, and Nvidia has announced the deployment of more than 260,000 AI chips in Korea. But South Korea is well aware that the model alone makes it very difficult to create overwhelming international influence in the United States and China。

WHAT IT REALLY HOLDS IS THE TOUGHER, HEAVIER, LESS SEXY PATH: THE STORAGE CHIP, HBM, DRAM, NAND, ADVANCED MANUFACTURING, AND THE BOTTOM SUPPLY CHAIN THAT FEEDS THE AI DATA CENTRE. THAT IS WHY SAMSUNG HAS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT TODAY THAN EVER BEFORE。

THE MORE AI RUNS, THE MORE THE WORLD FINDS THAT THE BIG MODEL IS NOT MAGIC FLOATING ON CLOUDS, IT NEEDS ELECTRICITY, GPU, MEMORY. KOREA MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE WORLD WITH A MODEL, BUT IT CAN USE A CHIP TO KEEP THE WORLD'S MODELS OUT OF ITS WAY。

AI INDUSTRY LIKES TO TALK ABOUT MATH, MODELS, GIANT GAMES, WHO BEATS WHO THROUGH。

The strike suddenly dragged everyone back from the sky. The best calculations will end up in factories, shifts, bonus formulas and collective bargaining。

The future is not in the clouds. In the future, there will be wages。

Why are they on strike

There are several core demands of trade unions:

7% increase in basic wages

Take 15% of the annual profits of Samsung to the staff bonus pool

Take off the current bonus ceiling of about 50 per cent of the annual salary and write down what the bonus will be, when it will be and what it will be。

Samsung disagrees. The company believes that trade unions are too demanding, especially if they extend the high bonus to the lost cause department, they break the rule of "who earns money and who earns more."。

It was reported that one of the key differences in the final mediation was the issue of fee-splitting between different ministries in the semiconductor sector. How should we pay a large bonus to employees in the loss department for money-making in storage operations and other business charges or losses

In large modern companies, there are fewer and fewer ordinary employees to talk directly to their bosses about money. The money was stuffed into a bunch of things that seemed objective: performance, coefficient, cost, cycle, business unit, profit calibre, bonus ceiling。

SAMSUNG'S BONUS HAS BEEN TIED TO A COMPLICATED FORMULA, AND THE KOREAN MEDIA HAS REPEATEDLY CALLED IT EVA. TO THE EFFECT THAT PROFITS HAVE TO BE OFFSET BY TAXES, INVESTMENTS AND CAPITAL COSTS, THE REST OF WHICH IS THE BONUS. OF COURSE, FINANCIAL LOGIC IS FINE, BUT IT IS DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT. THE EMPLOYEE DID NOT UNDERSTAND: SINCE THE COMPANY'S PROFITS WERE RISING, WHY DID MY BONUS STAY? DID I LOSE MY GRADES OR MY FORMULA? DOES MY SWEAT WORK IN THE COMPANY'S EYES

THE ANGER OF SAMSUNG'S STAFF ONLY ERUPTED TODAY BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE OF A MIRROR CALLED SK HERCULES。

SK HERCULES HAS TAKEN AN EXCELLENT POSITION IN THE AI STORAGE FIELD AND HAS MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE HBM SUPPLY CHAIN. MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT KNOWS HOW TO TRANSLATE THIS INTO REAL FIGURES ON MEMBERS ' WAGES。

IN SEPTEMBER 2025, SK HERCULES AND THE TRADE UNION NEGOTIATED A NEW RULE: FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS, THE COMPANY WILL ALLOCATE 10 PER CENT OF ITS OPERATING PROFITS ANNUALLY TO ITS EMPLOYEES AND REMOVE THE ORIGINAL BONUS CEILING。

THE KOREAN CENTRAL DAILY NEWS SAID THAT ACCORDING TO THE NEW AGREEMENT, EMPLOYEES WERE EXPECTED TO RECEIVE ABOUT 100 MILLION WON PER PERSON THAT YEAR, ABOUT 450,000 YUAN. BY THE BEGINNING OF 2026, THE SEOUL JOURNAL OF THE ECONOMY REPORTED THAT SK HERCULES WOULD RECEIVE AN AVERAGE OF AROUND 140 MILLION WON, OR ABOUT 630,000 YUAN, AS A RESULT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPANY IN 2025。

Even more exaggerating, the Seoul Journal of Economics cites FnGuide, which predicts that SK Hercules could make a profit of 230.08885 trillion won in 2026, or 10 per cent, or approximately 23 trillion won in prize pool, divided by a simple 34549, or 670 billion won per person, or about 3.04 million yuan。

NEXT DOOR HAS TAKEN THE MEAT OUT OF THE POT. AT THIS POINT, SAMSUNG EMPLOYEES WOULD BE UPSET TO HEAR THE COMPANY TALK ABOUT EVA, CAPITAL COSTS, SECTOR DIFFERENCES。

IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2026, SAMSUNG'S OFFICIAL FINANCIAL REPORT SHOWS THAT THE COMPANY'S COMBINED OPERATION AMOUNTED TO 133.9 TRILLION WON, AN ALL-TIME HIGH; AND ITS OPERATING PROFITS REACHED 57.2 TRILLION WON. THE SEMICONDUCTOR SECTOR EARNS 81.7 TRILLION WON AND PROFITS 53.7 TRILLION WON. MONEY IS DERIVED MAINLY FROM AI-RELATED NEEDS, SUCH AS HIGH VALUE ADDED AI STORAGE, RISING INDUSTRY STORAGE PRICES, HBM4, EXPANSION OF AI DATA CENTRES。

It's not funny。

When the company loses money, there's no leverage in its hands, and the boss tells us that the cycle will turn back. The employee was not convinced, but he did not see the oil on the books. But when the company is back on its feet and the fat is already on the table, then whoever takes the chopsticks, who sits in the main seat, and who can only stand by and smell it, can no longer make a fool of passion。

The source of the problem

To understand why Samsung is making employees so angry today, it is important not only to look at a salary bill, but also to look back at the long tight line between Korean financiers and workers。

The modernization process in Korea is more like a state-led rush. Large companies run ahead, and workers run behind their heads. The car did run fast, but the allocation of seats was never negotiated by everyone。

AFTER THE WAR, SOUTH KOREA WAS BROKE. SINCE THE ERA OF PARK JUNG HEE, THE COUNTRY HAS BECOME THE GENERAL MOVEMENT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION AND HAS BEEN WORKING HARD TO EMPOWER THE FINANCIERS TO ORDER, BUILD AND CATCH UP WITH TECHNOLOGY. SAMSUNG, MODERN, SK, THESE NAMES HAVE GRADUALLY BECOME THE FACE OF THE NATION. THEY HAVE BEEN PRE-SET AS FLAGMEN WHO MUST WIN BECAUSE KOREA NEEDS THAT VICTORY. TO THAT END, THE STATE HAD SURRENDERED ITS RESOURCES, THE BANK HAD SURRENDERED ITS LOANS, SOCIETY HAD SURRENDERED ITS ENDLESS PATIENCE AND THE FACTORY HAD ONLY IRON DISCIPLINE。

In this approach, the role of workers is clear: to start with the State, to start with the company and to endure. Wages can be later, rights can be later, unions can be later and dignity can be reduced first. Don't ask if your seat is comfortable。

1987 was a watershed. The order of a piece of iron had broken and the workers had come out of the factory following the crack. Trade unions in large enterprises are beginning to take root, and workers are no longer willing to serve only as a vague background for grand narratives such as "economic miracles". They came to the front, demanding wages, security and, more importantly, being treated as a living creator rather than as a worn-out piece。

But Samsung is the exception for a long time. Samsung's "unorganized business" is something that's been in its corporate culture for a long time. In 2019, Samsung-related executives and employees intervened in different ways to obstruct legitimate trade union activities, and Lee Sang-hoon, Chairman of the Samsung Electronic Board, was imprisoned for disrupting trade union activities. In 2020, Lee publicly apologized and promised to abolish the old rules of the Samsung Group, and it was only when the Iron Curtain of the Samsung was cut open。

So the strike was not abrupt. It's followed by post-war Korean industrialization, with the old approach of a rich valve, a post-1987 workers' movement, a long-standing non-union tradition of Samsung, and a late apology in 2020。

The worst part of the story is not money, but capitalists who have to "work together" but not "like one."。

When companies are difficult, employees are often asked to be a family. When the company makes money, employees are reminded that this is a company. The first sentence speaks of emotion, the second of which speaks of system. The problem is that people do not have feelings only in difficult times。

It's not just a Korean story anymore。

CROSS-CUTTING, EFFICIENCY GAINS, EFFICIENCY GAINS, EMBRACE AI, INCREASE HUMAN EFFECTIVENESS AND OPTIMIZE COSTS. THAT'S WHAT WE ALL KNOW NOW。

THIS IS PROBABLY THE WORST PLACE IN THE AGE OF AI。

WE THOUGHT AI WOULD FREE PEOPLE FROM LABOR. THE RESULT IS THAT PEOPLE OFTEN WORK WITH AI TO MAKE COMPANIES CHEAPER; PEOPLE LEARN AI TO MAKE THE SECTOR MORE EFFICIENT; AND PEOPLE ACCEPT JOB REASSIGNMENTS, PERFORMANCE REVALUATIONS AND SALARY READJUSTMENTS. AS FOR DIVIDENDS, YOU ARE ALWAYS ADVISED TO WAIT, NOT TO RUSH, TO INVEST, TO DEVELOP, TO RESIST CYCLES AND TO REMAIN COMPETITIVE。

These may all be true. The problem, however, is that if they work in one direction, they become a decent set of pushouts. Many companies in reality do the same, and money is made together, but when you talk about how to split it, you better stay out of it。

Samsung workers are cutting in。

But they're not going to win. The Korean Government may resort to emergency mediation, the courts have limited some of their operations, and Samsung has sophisticated production and legal tools. Semiconductor factories are not small workshops that can be closed down, nor can unions stop a system so sophisticated at no cost. The real world is not cheesy, and workers are less likely to win。

Snow Train

Bong Joon-soon's Snow State Train, where human beings are placed in a train that cannot stop。

The front is order, technology, the future; the tail is crowded, silent and arranged. The most ferocious part of the story is not the imposition of a hierarchy on the cars, but the fact that everyone accepts the premise that the trains must not stop。

As long as the train has to run forward, the "necessary cost" of maintaining the system is what you suffer and eat in what compartment. For that grand drive, it seems that specific living people can always be sacrificed。

The strike by Samsung is also trapped in a train that cannot stop。

THE ROUND IS NOT ALLOWED TO BREAK, THE PRODUCTION LINE IS NOT ALLOWED TO STOP, THE AI SERVER IS NOT ALLOWED TO WAIT, AND THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA’S EXPORT DATA IS NOT ALLOWED TO DROP, AND GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES DOES NOT WANT TO SEE THE PRICE OF STORAGE CHIPS PUSHED UP AGAIN. EACH REASON IS SO RIGHT THAT IT IS IRREFUTABLE AND SO FORTH. FROM THE STANDPOINT OF NATIONAL ECONOMIES, SAMSUNG CANNOT STOP; BEFORE THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN BOOKS, SAMSUNG CANNOT STOP; AND IN THE UNSETTLED AI RACE, SAMSUNG CANNOT STOP。

The more a machine is not allowed to stop, the more easily people inside are asked to endure。

Take the line, take the cycle, take the performance, take the corporate strategy, take the global competition. At the end of the day, people find themselves making way for something bigger. Big business, big industry, big future。

Ordinary people live in front of these big words as small as a screw. But screws have their own metal fatigue。

WHAT THE SAMSUNG UNIONS DID THIS TIME, DID NOT OVERTURN THE BENEFITS OF AI TO THE WORLD, DID NOT DENY THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY, LET ALONE THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES。

It is not an old story of the poor struggling against the rich, nor a small story of high-paying employees paying more。

IN FACT, IT'S GOT ONE OF THE MOST DISTURBING PROPOSITIONS OF THE AI ERA: WILL LABOR BECOME MORE SILENT WHEN TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE ADVANCED? WHEN THE MACHINE GETS BIGGER, IS THE BARGAINING POWER OF ORDINARY PEOPLE MEANT TO SHRINK? WILL THE CERTAINTY OF OUR LIVES BE WEAKER AS GROWTH BECOMES MORE AND MORE BRIGHT

We like to talk about the future, and that word is really good. It's like a high-watt spotlight, always lighting the blueprints of the launch, the ambitions in the financing scheme, and the market value of the beating companies. But the future must not just shine on the front of the car, but it must also move to the back of the car, following the night shifts, the breast-stamps, the curriculum vitae of the graduates, and those who are asked to "grow change" all day long and are invited to leave the house when they're doing good。

THE STRIKE MIGHT END WITH COMPROMISE, ARBITRATION, PARTIAL CONCESSIONS OR A NEW BONUS FORMULA. THIS IS OFTEN THE CASE WITH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, WHICH OPENS UP IN SUCH A WAY AS TO END UP WITH A SERIES OF SCALES, A PAPER AGREEMENT AND SEVERAL CAREFULLY WORDED ANNOUNCEMENTS. NEWS HEAT WILL PASS, STOCK PRICES WILL CONTINUE TO FLUCTUATE, AI WILL PUBLISH NEW MODELS AND SERVERS WILL EAT MORE CHIPS。

But there are issues that will not be removed from the negotiating table。

IT'S NOT JUST HOW POWERFUL THEY ARE, HOW FAST THEY ARE, HOW EXPENSIVE THEY ARE. AND LET'S SEE IF THOSE WHO BRING THE "FUTURE" INTO REALITY CAN FINALLY GET A CERTAIN LIFE FROM THE FUTURE。

That doesn't sound grand, but what ordinary people want is not grand. Work is worth it, income is said, life is hope, and when times turn, do not get dumped。

The future must certainly move forward. But a train that really leads to the future cannot be left without a headlight。