70% of Micron’s Taoyuan Union Members Reject Profit-Sharing Proposal
Key Facts
About 70% of Micron’s Taoyuan union members rejected the company’s profit-sharing proposal, the union told The Straits Times, in a vote on the proposal presented on October 22. More than 2,300 members took part, making the result an indication of broad opposition within the union to the proposed incentive structure. The rejection came on the day 11 union officials began a symbolic 24-hour strike at the company’s Taoyuan facility. The union said the action was not intended to disrupt production, while warning of further moves. The result distinguished rejection of the new proposal from authorization for a strike, which received broad support in an earlier vote.
In a six-day vote that ended on October 7, 1,994 of the 2,012 members who participated backed strike authorization, according to Central News Agency affiliate Focus Taiwan. That amounted to 99% of voters, or 88.3% of all eligible members. Those figures relate to the earlier authorization vote, not the vote on the profit-sharing proposal presented on October 22. The subsequent symbolic action began at 9 a.m., the union said, and lasted one day. Micron said it hoped both sides would continue dialogue, while Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor urged the company to take workers’ concerns into account, present concrete proposals and negotiate with the union.
The union is seeking a long-term mechanism to ensure that 15% of operating profits are distributed to employees, and says the current incentive plan lacks transparency, according to Focus Taiwan. The dispute therefore extends beyond the value of a bonus in any given year to how the share is calculated and whether it continues. Micron said in September that its fiscal 2026 bonus package equated to 35 to 68 months of pay for employees in Taiwan. But the union rejected that package and called for a permanent profit-sharing mechanism. These demands show that the dispute centers on the predictability of compensation and its link to company performance, rather than a one-off bonus announcement.
Micron said it would begin quarterly payments tied to financial performance for employees worldwide in fiscal 2027, in addition to its annual incentive program, Reuters reported via StreetInsider. The company did not specify a fixed percentage of profits to be distributed to workers. The new bonus pool is calculated using net income after taxes minus expected capital spending for the following quarter, with fiscal 2026 serving as the baseline. This framework differs from the union’s demand for a known share of operating profits under a long-term mechanism. Taoyuan union talks with the company are set to resume on October 27, while Micron said it hoped dialogue would continue.
The dispute highlights Taiwan’s importance to Micron’s operations: the company employs about 15,000 people on the island, which Reuters describes as a major manufacturing base for memory chips used in AI servers. The Taoyuan and Taichung unions together represent more than 80% of the company’s workforce in Taiwan, according to Reuters. The Taoyuan site focuses on front-end DRAM chip manufacturing, while the Taichung site produces advanced DRAM and HBM chips and handles packaging and testing. A TrendForce analyst said the strike’s impact would depend on the production lines and key personnel affected. The analyst added that a one-day strike could have a limited effect on the company’s supplies and global markets if critical production continued normally.
Amid the broader dispute, Taiwan’s presidency backed negotiations: President Lai Ching-te said on October 15 that he had urged Micron and its workers to negotiate in good faith, according to Benzinga. As for the stock, EL7 data showed Micron closing at $856.49 on October 22 and then at $877.55 on October 23. By contrast, the company’s shares fell more than 2% in U.S. premarket trading on October 7, after the strike authorization was announced, according to Reuters. These moves occurred on different dates during the dispute and do not by themselves establish a causal link between the vote and the share price. The October 27 talks remain the next announced step in the parties’ efforts to address the dispute.