'We Have No Place to Rest'... Semiconductor Subcontract Workers Are 'Ghosts'

This Hankyoreh report sheds a harsh light on the stark disparities within South Korea's globally dominant semiconductor industry, focusing on the plight of subcontracted workers. While Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix bask in the glow of record profits driven by the AI boom, the workers performing the most demanding and often dangerous tasks feel invisible and undervalued.

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The semiconductor industry is making record profits, but for subcontracted employees, news of a bonus feast only brings relative deprivation and emptiness.

The article vividly portrays the "ghost" status of these subcontracted laborers, who earn minimum wage, endure grueling 12-hour shifts, and face job insecurity, all while their counterparts at the main companies receive bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won. This "outsourcing" of labor and risk, a long-standing practice in the industry, ensures that profits are concentrated at the top, creating a deep chasm between the haves and have-nots.

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We hope that at least a minimum of performance is shared, as much as we all suffer.

From a Korean perspective, where loyalty and collective effort are often emphasized, this situation represents a significant failure of the industry's social contract. The lack of a strong subcontracted labor union and a compensation system heavily favoring the parent companies perpetuate this cycle of exploitation. The article implicitly criticizes this model, contrasting it with the shipbuilding industry's recent moves toward 'win-win' cooperation and calling for a fundamental re-evaluation of the semiconductor sector's compensation structure to ensure sustainability and fairness.

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The hierarchical structure within the semiconductor industry is severe but not well-known externally.