NuAxiSemiconductor trade intelligence

[News] Micron Taiwan’s Taoyuan Union Secures Right to Strike With 88.3% Support; Taichung Mediation Set for Oct. 22

What happened

Micron's Taoyuan union in Taiwan secured the legal right to strike via a vote held between October 1 and 6, in which 1,994 of 2,258 registered members voted in favor, representing 88.3% of total membership and exceeding the required majority; Taoyuan is the first of Micron's separate Taoyuan and Taichung enterprise unions to secure the right to strike. The Taichung union is scheduled for a second labor-management mediation session on October 22 and could proceed to a strike vote if no agreement is reached. Union chairman Lin Che-jui called on Micron to present concrete proposals and negotiate as the company's board meets on October 8 and 9; without meaningful progress the union will discuss further action, and members will be notified by text message once the timing of any surprise strike is confirmed. The union is also planning a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard on October 19, encouraging employees to take leave to participate. Its demands include a profit-sharing system tied to 15% of Micron's operating profit: an additional one-time FY2026 bonus based on 15% of global operating profit, estimated at about 83 months of pay per Taiwan employee; an overhaul of the IPP system from FY2027 to distribute 15% of operating profit quarterly; plus 'no free-rider' and 'non-retaliation' clauses. The backdrop cited is compensation disparity: in 2025, Micron's global employee IPP performance factor was 93.9%, translating into about 2.3 months of performance bonuses for Taiwan employees before being adjusted to 2.6 months, while the CEO received annual cash performance compensation equivalent to 32.4 months of pay; only about 40% of Micron Taiwan employees had previously received stock awards. TrendForce notes that Micron's Taoyuan fab primarily produces DRAM; if a strike takes place and disrupts equipment maintenance and process monitoring by engineers, production yields and stability could decline, potentially affecting output, and the impact on supply could gradually increase if the strike is prolonged; however, the actual impact will depend on the scale and duration of the strike as well as Micron's contingency measures, and the outcome of labor-management negotiations still requires close attention.