Employers
Micron Technology’s Taiwan subsidiary and the union representing workers at its Taichung operations signed a labor-management agreement on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and both sides withdrew from a mediation session that had been scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 22. The deal covers Micron’s largest Taiwan site, but it does not settle a separate dispute in Taoyuan, where another union has called a one-day strike for Thursday.
The agreement between Micron Memory Taiwan and the Taichung union was announced in a joint statement. The two sides said they signed an agreement “covering several issues” after “constructive negotiations,” according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency. The terms were not disclosed. Reuters reported that the company and the union said they would separately inform affected employees of the details in the coming days. Micron said it hoped “other ongoing labor-management issues” could also be addressed in a spirit of mutual support.
Who is covered
The Taichung agreement reaches the bulk of Micron’s Taiwan workforce. Micron employs about 12,300 people in Taichung, of whom about 11,000 belong to the local union, according to the Central News Agency. Reuters put Micron’s total Taiwan headcount at about 15,000. The Idaho-based company is the world’s third-largest memory chipmaker and produces DRAM and high-bandwidth memory chips, used in artificial intelligence servers, in Taiwan.
Taoyuan dispute still open
The Taoyuan union represents a smaller but organized group. Micron employs about 3,000 workers in Taoyuan, and about 2,400 of them are union members, the Central News Agency reported. On Oct. 7, the union said it had won strike authorization after six days of voting, with 1,994 of the 2,012 members who cast ballots in favor. At a news conference that day, union Chairman Jerry Lin said the union was considering a “surprise strike.” Under Taiwanese law, a union must go through mediation and win the approval of more than half of all its members before striking.
Late on Monday, Oct. 19, the Taoyuan union announced a one-day strike for Thursday, Oct. 22, in solidarity with the Taichung union. Reuters described it as a warning strike over bonuses and profit-sharing, timed to coincide with the mediation talks. The union’s demands include a long-term mechanism that would distribute 15% of Micron’s operating profits to employees, and it has criticized the existing incentive pay plan as lacking transparency.
In a statement Wednesday, the Taoyuan union said the strike did not mean it was closing the door on negotiations or that relations with management had broken down, and it urged the company to propose a profit-sharing plan acceptable to all members. As of Wednesday, Taoyuan union officials had not commented on the Taichung agreement, and the union had not told Reuters whether it still planned to go ahead with the walkout.
Why it matters for chip workers
The dispute reflects a broader push by memory-chip workers for a share of AI-driven profits. Reuters noted that the AI boom has lifted earnings at Micron, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix and has also increased worker demands for a bigger cut of those profits. Because Micron’s Taiwan plants supply DRAM and high-bandwidth memory, any disruption there could weigh on already strained global memory supplies, Reuters reported.
For now, the concrete employment outcome is limited to Taichung: the union representing about 11,000 members there has signed a new agreement whose terms have not been made public. Whether the Taoyuan workers strike on Thursday, and whether Micron offers the profit-sharing mechanism they are seeking, remains unresolved.
Sources
- Focus Taiwan (CNA), “Micron, Taichung union reach deal in labor talks,” October 21, 2026. https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202610210014
- Reuters via Yahoo News, “Micron, Taiwan union sign deal, withdraw from mediation,” October 21, 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/micron-says-reached-agreement-taiwan-062325698.html
Featured photo: A Micron fab building in Taichung, Taiwan, photographed in November 2023. Photo: Thingreenline4546, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
