Micron Taiwan Union Plans October 22 Strike as Workers Demand 15% of Operating Profit

Strike plans converge with talks at Micron's biggest Taiwan site

Micron Technology's Taoyuan union plans a solidarity strike on October 22, 2026, as the company's larger Taichung union returns to mediation over a demand to allocate 15% of annual operating profit to employee bonuses. The action would bring a dispute over how workers share in the artificial intelligence boom to a manufacturing base employing about 15,000 people.

The Taoyuan union secured 1,994 votes supporting strike action out of 2,258 eligible members. Its planned walkout is intended to press Micron for a permanent profit sharing formula while negotiations continue at Taichung, where the company manufactures DRAM memory and packages and tests advanced memory for AI systems.

October 22 brings together two different stages of the dispute. Taoyuan's mediation ended without agreement in September, and its members have authorized industrial action. Taichung remains in mediation and has not held a strike vote. The Taoyuan action is described as lasting one day in the initial account, while the union's announcement left its duration unspecified and promised further details on Thursday.

As of October 20, no production stoppage or disruption to deliveries had been confirmed, and Micron had not publicly disclosed an approved agreement addressing the unions' central demand. Taiwan's government has urged negotiations, with President Lai Ching-te personally appealing for serious talks at the October 15 opening of Micron's second advanced assembly and testing facility in Taichung.

Workers want a formula that survives a profitable year

The unions want 15% of Micron's annual operating profit set aside for employee rewards, with quarterly distributions beginning in fiscal 2027. They also seek an additional payment for fiscal 2026 that they estimate could equal about 83 months of salary per Taiwan employee.

Operating profit is what a business earns after its operating expenses, before items such as interest and income taxes. A bonus pool linked to that measure would rise or fall with the company's operating performance. Workers are seeking an agreed rule for calculating rewards, rather than relying on a new compensation announcement each year.

Taoyuan union chairman Lin Che-jui, also identified as Jerry Lin, has described the proposal as a lasting system rather than another exceptional payout. The union estimates that Micron's proposed additional compensation corresponds to about 4.4% of operating profit, well below the requested 15%.

The gap is substantial: 15% is about 3.4 times 4.4%. The two percentages describe competing approaches to compensation, however, and the final cost would depend on which payments a negotiated agreement replaces, who qualifies and how the profit base is calculated.

Why a NT$1 million bonus did not settle the dispute

Micron announced its fiscal 2026 Taiwan compensation package on September 11, including a special NT$1 million cash bonus, performance incentives and stock awards. The company described the package as its largest ever for employees in Taiwan.

According to Micron, total compensation for production employees, including operators, technicians and shift engineers, would equal 35 to 68 months of base salary. Annual cash compensation for Taiwan employees would start at US$53,800. Entry level engineers would receive average cash compensation of US$91,800, rising to about US$107,600 when stock awards were included.

The special appreciation bonus applies to eligible employees who joined by August 29, 2025. The figures expressed as months of salary combine different parts of annual compensation. Employees would receive salary, bonuses and other rewards whose combined value equals that number of months of base pay.

The Taoyuan union says Micron announced the package without first negotiating it with the Taoyuan and Taichung unions. Its objection concerns both the method of deciding compensation and the absence of a permanent formula. A large payment for fiscal 2026 leaves workers and management still needing to agree on how future gains will be shared.

An overwhelming vote, with separate decisions at each plant

Taoyuan members voted between October 1 and 6, and the union announced the result on October 7. Of 2,012 ballots cast, 1,994 supported a strike, 14 opposed it and four were invalid. Support represented 88.3% of eligible members and approximately 99.1% of ballots cast.

The October strike authorization followed the collapse of Taoyuan's second mediation session. Under Taiwan's Act for Settlement of Labor-Management Disputes, a union seeking strike authorization needs support from more than half its members in the required ballot. Taoyuan's result comfortably passed that threshold.

The Taichung union has about 11,000 members among roughly 12,300 employees. Earlier membership figures put it at about 400, followed by growth to more than 10,000 as demands for a larger share of profits gathered support. A decision to take industrial action there would require its own process.

The Taoyuan union explained the purpose of the planned solidarity action in a statement issued on Monday:

Through our actions, we will make our dissatisfaction with the current system heard and demonstrate our determination to establish a fair profit-sharing system,

Union leaders had previously raised the possibility of a surprise walkout if Micron failed to offer concrete proposals. They also encouraged employees to take leave for a Taipei rally planned for October 19, describing that demonstration as separate from a strike.

How negotiations reached October 22

Taoyuan and Taichung have pursued separate mediation procedures, with different outcomes so far. Mediation brings workers and management together with a third party to help them negotiate an agreement.

The main steps leading to the planned strike are:

• August 28: Taichung's Labor Affairs Bureau supplied the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau with a list of labor dispute specialists to help select mediators.
• September 4: Micron and the Taoyuan union held their first mediation session.
• September 11: Micron announced its Taiwan compensation package, including the special NT$1 million bonus.
• September 15: The science park bureau held a Taichung mediation meeting. According to the city's labor bureau, management requested time to study the issue, and both sides agreed to reconvene on October 22.
• September 21: Taoyuan's second mediation session ended without agreement.
• October 1 to 6: Taoyuan union members voted on strike authorization.
• October 15: President Lai appealed for negotiations at Micron's new Taichung facility.
• October 22: Taichung's second mediation session is scheduled for the morning, alongside Taoyuan's planned solidarity strike.

The Taoyuan union says management failed to provide a concrete or alternative profit sharing proposal at the September 21 session. Micron says it sought to continue mediation dialogue but that its request was not accepted. Both sides have said they remain open to further discussions.

Micron defends a broader compensation system

Micron says employee compensation should be considered as a package comprising base salary, performance bonuses, stock compensation, an employee stock purchase plan and benefits. The company has also pointed to the memory industry's volatility and the need to balance spending on employees, research and manufacturing.

Workers have focused on the existing performance bonus arrangement, known as IPP. Lin said employees' average achievement rate was 93% and average payouts amounted to 2.3 months of salary, even as the company's net profit increased sharply. The union wants the relationship between business results and employee rewards to be easier to understand.

Micron previously said it had prepared multiple compensation options for board discussion. Changes involving a global compensation system would also pass through the company's governance procedures. Public disclosures had not confirmed a new board approved plan by October 20.

Former Taiwan labor minister Pan Shih-wei has argued that the dispute also reflects a lack of trust. In his assessment, stronger economic conditions give workers more bargaining power because other employment becomes easier to find. The growth in union membership gives that disagreement a larger collective voice.

Korean rivals provide benchmarks, with different rules

The unions have pointed to Samsung and SK Hynix as examples of memory manufacturers sharing a fixed portion of operating profit with employees. SK Hynix has committed to distributing bonuses equal to 10% of annual operating profit over a period of 10 years.

Samsung's semiconductor bonus pool is described as 10.5% of operating profit, subject to profitability conditions; an earlier Micron union comparison put Samsung's figure at 12%. The union's requested 15% exceeds either Samsung benchmark and the 10% figure cited for SK Hynix.

Those comparisons explain why the negotiations have continued despite Micron's large compensation package. Workers are bargaining over a share of corporate performance and the rules that determine it. Micron is defending a system that combines several forms of pay and investment in employees.

Any agreement would need to define the operating profit used in the calculation, the employees covered, the timing of distributions and the treatment of existing incentives. Higher bonus expenses could reduce operating profit and net income, but the size of that effect would depend on the final terms and accounting treatment.

Taichung connects the pay dispute to AI memory deliveries

Taiwan is a major production base for Micron, which says it has invested more than NT$1.6 trillion there. Taoyuan mainly manufactures DRAM, the working memory computers use to hold data while performing tasks. Taichung combines DRAM production with advanced packaging and testing for high bandwidth memory, or HBM.

HBM stacks memory chips vertically and connects them so that large amounts of data can move quickly. AI processors depend on that rapid flow of information. Packaging and testing turn the individual chips into a working stack and check that the finished product performs correctly.

Micron's second Taichung facility, known as AATT2, opened on October 15. At the ceremony, Micron President and Chief Operating Officer Manish Bhatia described demand for the facility's output and the wider HBM market:

We have already sold out all the capacity for 2027 that this factory will build and we expect high-bandwidth memory to grow faster than the rest of the DRAM industry all the way through 2028,

Micron subsequently clarified the scope of those bookings: most of its companywide HBM supply for calendar 2027 has finalized customer agreements, while some output from the second Taichung facility remains outside those contracts. The expansion still comes with substantial customer commitments and pressure to bring new capacity into production on schedule.

Semiconductor manufacturing involves tightly ordered steps. A staffing shortage at a critical stage can affect work further along the process, and restoring full output and quality after a disruption can take time. The practical effect of industrial action would depend on participation, duration, affected roles and Micron's arrangements for maintaining operations.

Government presses for an agreement

President Lai used the Taichung opening to urge sincere negotiations and better communication between workers and management. His intervention put the dispute alongside an expansion that Taiwan's government has supported, including research and development in HBM.

Taiwan's labor authority has said it respects the Taoyuan strike vote and urged Micron to present a concrete, feasible proposal. Taichung's Labor Affairs Bureau has encouraged the union to use mediation to seek agreement and said the talks may require several rounds.

The city bureau also said it would keep in contact with the science park administration and union, coordinate assistance where needed, and provide workers with legal consultation and support concerning employment rights. Micron says it respects employees' legal rights and applicable procedures and will continue communicating with unions in good faith.

October 22 is the next immediate decision point. A negotiated formula could address the demand for predictable rewards. Failed talks could lead Taichung members toward their own strike ballot, extending the dispute beyond Taoyuan's planned action.

For employees, the central issue is whether an exceptional year produces a lasting rule for sharing profits. For customers, it is whether manufacturing and deliveries stay on schedule. For Micron, the negotiations bring compensation costs, employee trust and production planning into the same discussion.

Key Points

• Micron's Taoyuan union plans a solidarity strike on October 22, when Taichung's second mediation session is scheduled.
• Taoyuan members approved strike action with 1,994 supporting votes, equal to 88.3% of eligible members.
• The unions want 15% of annual operating profit allocated to employee rewards, with quarterly distributions from fiscal 2027.
• Micron's fiscal 2026 package includes a special NT$1 million bonus, performance incentives and stock awards.
• Taichung's union remains in negotiations and has not held a strike vote.
• No production stoppage or delivery disruption had been confirmed as of October 20.
• President Lai and labor authorities have urged negotiations as Micron expands Taiwan's role in supplying AI memory.