Booming Samsung Biologics is facing rare public turmoil after the CDMO’s union secured the votes needed to strike, signaling a potential further escalation of the impasse over what the union describes as the company’s “unresolved governance failures and rigid labor policies.”
More than 95% of members of the Samsung Biologics labor union have voted in favor of strike action and are threatening to hold an “offline rally” on April 22 and potentially a general strike on May 1 if the South Korean manufacturer does not address their concerns, the union said in a March 30 press release.
The union represents approximately 75% of Samsung Biologics’ total workforce, according to the announcement.
The union pointed out that the situation escalated after the Icheon City Local Labor Commission chose to halt mediation between the organizations. Samsung Bio is headquartered in Incheon, South Korea, where much of its manufacturing network is based.
The union said the group’s threat of action was “more than just a wage dispute” and suggested some workers had “deep structural concerns about the company’s (environmental, social and governance) management, lack of operational autonomy and negative industrial relations.”
The union says it is specifically seeking to shine a spotlight on unresolved corporate governance issues, including allegations of unfair labor practices and the misuse of employees’ personal data, a story the union notes was picked up by a major South Korean broadcaster last fall.
Wages remain an issue as well, with unions criticizing Samsung Bio for presenting new wage conditions as “lower than last year,” despite the company showing a staggering 56.6% increase in operating profit in 2025. This, in turn, “reveals a lack of independent bargaining authority,” the union further argued, arguing that despite last year’s record performance, Samsung Bio adheres to group-wide wage guidelines set by parent company Samsung Electronics.
“Strikes are protected by the constitution and are a necessary tool to bring management to the bargaining table,” Jason Park, chairman of the Samsung Biologics labor union, said in a statement Monday. “In the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry, unresolved labor disputes and compliance issues directly threaten the supply chains of our international customers.”
He added: “Ultimately, our strike is aimed at correcting these governance failures and promoting a more transparent and accountable corporate environment.”
Fierce Pharma has contacted Samsung Biologics for comment.
Last year, Samsung Bio reported a staggering 30% increase in sales to 4.6 trillion Korean won ($3.1 billion), making it the first Korean biotech or pharmaceutical company to exceed the annual profit threshold of 2 trillion won.
According to local news agency Seoul Economic Newspaper, against this backdrop, the labor union is negotiating a 14% wage increase, including a performance-based raise, but Samsung Bio management has offered a 6.2% wage increase.
The paper also pointed out that the two parties have currently held 13 rounds of wage and collective bargaining, and that the labor union is fighting for 36-hour work weeks, an extension of the company’s retirement age to 65, and 30 million won in mutual welfare incentives between labor and management.
Several large branded drug companies, from Perrigo and GSK to Sanofi and Pfizer, have faced actual or threatened strikes in recent years.
Last year, more than 200 employees at consumer health care company Perrigo quit after negotiations over overtime pay and severance contributions collapsed.
France’s Sanofi also faced calls for workers to strike from the country’s Confederation of Labor and the French Democratic Labor Federation amid plans to spin off its consumer health unit Opéra into a separate company in 2024 over concerns that the sale of the unit could reduce its local production base.
Sanofi stressed at the time that its plans did not include reducing the industrial footprint of its consumer health business in France. The Opera spin-off was completed in April last year with the sale of a 50% controlling stake in the business to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for 10 billion euros.
