Samsung workers threaten strike, demand share of $38 billion AI memory windfall

[Squid Surprise]

They should be receiving a piece of that. Every employee of the IT company that is AI money pouring on them should be rewarded.

They are… the argument is how big a piece…

 

[bviktor]

Fair is the exact amount their labor is worth on the open market. I've never seen a union agree to pay 15% of a company's losses when the firm is struggling, so why should they automatically receive 15% of the profits?

Indeed, they don't make you pay for the losses, they simply fire you, enjoy your mortgage.

 

[bviktor]

$400,000 per employee seems a bit ... unrealistic.

But that's the thing, it's still only 15% of the profits. So little to the company, yet it'd mean so much to 30 000 employees.

Isn't that just ridiculous? The wealth imbalance is astounding.

 

[Squid Surprise]

$400,000 per employee seems a bit ... unrealistic.

But that's the thing, it's still only 15% of the profits. So little to the company, yet it'd mean so much to 30 000 employees.

Isn't that just ridiculous? The wealth imbalance is astounding.

“Only”?!?! 15% is a LOT!

Can I have 15% of your salary please?

 

[scoffer]

Strike! Shut Samsung down. I doubt that the average man in the street gives a f**k. We are already screwed. Let the chickens come home to roost.

 

[Endymio]

that's the thing, it's still only 15% of the profits. So little to the company, yet it'd mean so much to 30 000 employees.

Isn't that just ridiculous? The wealth imbalance is astounding.

You realize that Samsung is a public corporation -- as all these other firms making money off the AI revolution. Nothing was stopping you from purchasing shares, becoming an owner, and taking a share of profits in the ordinary manner.

Those who instead spent all their money on videogames and other toys admittedly feel a little left out now, I understand. But the nice thing about revolutions like this is that they generate increased productivity, and that -- according to every economist in the world -- is a rising tide that lifts all boats.

 

[Hecate91]

Nothing stops us average people from becoming owners in a corporation such as Samsung, except for the money, power, and connections with others to fall up the ladder.
"It's a big club and you ain't in it" -George Carlin


The so called AI revolution will be quite enjoyable to watch when the bubble pops, hopefully it doesn't drag down the entire economy with it, however private equity and AI are already causing serious damage for the average person. And the reality is that the AI boom isn't what the AI tech bros are feeding you, AI company CEO's sending checks for RAM that doesn't exist yet, and datacenters getting built to sit empty, but none of that matters when they can gaslight investors for unlimited amounts of funding.

 

[Endymio]

Nothing stops us average people from becoming owners in a corporation such as Samsung, except for the money, power, and connections with others to fall up the ladder.

A share of Samsung is currently only $140, and, despite what you read on a bathroom wall somewhere, there is no membership in a secret club required to purchase it.

...private equity and AI are already causing serious damage for the average person.

Yes, some ardent videogamers are having to delay their upgrade cycle and costing them frames per second ... that's nearly as bad as a year in Auschwitz!

 

[Bluescreendeath]

SY Hynix workers got 10%… which I believe is what Samsung is offering… 50% more seems a bit excessive…

Depends on what their base salary is I guess. If Hynix pays a better base than Samsung then a much bigger bonus for Samsung workers makes sense. And Samsung is a much bigger company. Either way, they'll figure out if it's worth it in their back and forth negotiations.

 

[GhostLegion]

I'm utterly flabbergasted by how few people understand the most basic principle of economics -- firms always maximize profits by increasing production until mc = mr. This used to be required learning in high school economics, much less college.

Quick note - firms only increase production until MC = MR in perfectly competitive markets

Which this is not. Haven’t bothered to read the rest of the thread yet but wanted to point that out.

There is no free entrance and exiting of this market for instance. So it can’t be a market in perfect competition.

 

[Endymio]

Quick note - firms only increase production until MC = MR in perfectly competitive markets

Which this is not. Haven’t bothered to read the rest of the thread yet but wanted to point that out.

There is no free entrance and exiting of this market for instance. So it can’t be a market in perfect competition.

All true, of course. However, even a front yard lemonade stand lacks perfect free entry and exit. The touchstone for how closely a market approximates perfect competition is in ability to set price, and, as the below graph demonstrates, gross margins repeatedly drop into negative territory, showing the law of supply and demand is functioning efficiently:

 

[Tayvl]

If Samsung signed a union contract which allows employees to strike using new profit-sharing demands, then that's on Samsung. If the contract doesn't allow strikes for that reason, then Samsung has the right to give striking employees notice of pending dismissal with a grace period. Any company that agrees that employees have the right to extort the company, that company deserves what they get...

 

[Bluescreendeath]

If Samsung signed a union contract which allows employees to strike using new profit-sharing demands, then that's on Samsung. If the contract doesn't allow strikes for that reason, then Samsung has the right to give striking employees notice of pending dismissal with a grace period. Any company that agrees that employees have the right to extort the company, that company deserves what they get...

The US has labor laws and agencies governing what is a protected strike and what is an unprotected strike. NLRB considers economic strikes to be protected. No idea what south korea has.

Employees striking for higher pay/salary/benefits is very common in the US and around the world. That said, striking to get a cut of the growing profits seems to be very similar or not much different than striking to get a higher salary. Would you consider striking to get a higher salary extortion?

 

[Endymio]

Would you consider striking to get a higher salary extortion?

When you form a picket line and threaten any worker who attempts to cross it with violence, yes, it's extortion. When laws exist that allow you to refuse to work -- but ban your employer from hiring a permanent replacement for you -- yes, it's extortion.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

When you form a picket line and threaten any worker who attempts to cross it with violence, yes, it's extortion.

They haven't done that so far. They haven't even striked yet...so we have no idea what they will do.

That said, forming "violent" picketing lines (as opposed to non violent picket lines) seems more of a problem from the 19th and earlier 20th century in the US where strikers would threaten or attack strikebreakers and companies would hire people to beat up or even kill the strikers. Eg. Ludlow Massacre

When laws exist that allow you to refuse to work -- but ban your employer from hiring a permanent replacement for you -- yes, it's extortion.

The US regulations allows companies to hire "permanent" replacements for economic strikes. It doesn't allow permanent replacements for strikes over unfair labor practices.

These labor regulations would be more government pressure rather than workers extorting the company. Both unions and companies seek to influence government policies through lobbyists...so they balance each other out. Both are influencing the government to be able to pressure (or extort) the other side.

 

[Hecate91]

A share of Samsung is currently only $140, and, despite what you read on a bathroom wall somewhere, there is no membership in a secret club required to purchase it.


Yes, some ardent videogamers are having to delay their upgrade cycle and costing them frames per second ... that's nearly as bad as a year in Auschwitz!

The snarky and kneejerk reaction bullshit aside, inside traders and powerful executives can buy more shares than I can, hence having more influence on what the corporation does than a normal shareholder.

And it isn't about upgrade cycles anymore, it's about being able to buy hardware period, but the end goal is renting hardware in the cloud, because we're now in an age of technofeudalism where the narcissistic CEO's want a constant money stream rather than people buying hardware once every 2-3 years.
All so some LLM's that the AI tech bros high on illicit substances think can ever become an AGI, building datacenters no one wants near their home, but city leaders are taking the bribes to build them anyway without any consideration for the massive waste of electricity or water, or the fact most of them will sit empty for years.

 

[Endymio]

The snarky and kneejerk reaction bullshit aside, inside traders and powerful executives can buy more shares than I can.

No they can't. I'm not even sure you know what the term "inside trader" means when you express it in that manner -- they're not trading shares in some "inside" system separate from the public exchanges. The **only** thing allowing someone to purchase more shares than you is if they're able to allot more money to the purchase. Period.

... but the end goal is renting hardware in the cloud, because the technocratic tech bros want a constant money stream rather than people buying hardware once every 2-3 years.

Nice conspiracy theory, but no one is preventing you from buying hardware ... and no one is forcing all the hundreds of thousands of companies currently using cloud services to do so. They're doing it because they find that model more convenient to their needs. And they generally know their needs far better than you do.