The labor-management conflict at Samsung Biologics is escalating without resolution, as the union followed a five-day full-scale strike with a work-to-rule campaign. After the company posted record-breaking revenue surpassing 4 trillion won last year and operating profit of 2.0692 trillion won — up 57% from 2024 — the union is demanding a larger share of the gains. Demands include a 30 million won bonus per employee, an average 14% base salary increase, and distribution of 20% of operating profit as performance pay. No agreement with management has been reached. Such strong earnings have fueled excessive compensation demands. On top of the union's unreasonable demands, allegations of internal data leaks by the union have surfaced, drawing criticism that both sides have crossed the "red line" that should govern labor-management relations.
Global Big Pharma companies enjoying similar earnings windfalls, however, are moving in a starkly different direction from Samsung Biologics. Novo Nordisk saw its earnings surge on the back of global blockbuster drugs including the obesity treatment Wegovy and the diabetes drug Ozempic. Its 2025 revenue rose 6.4% year-on-year to 290.403 billion Danish kroner (DKK). Even so, the company carried out a preemptive cost-cutting move in the second half of last year, slashing 9,000 jobs.
Novartis is no different. Its revenue last year rose 8% from 2024 to $54.5329 billion, while operating profit jumped 21% to $17.644 billion. Net profit ($13.967 billion) also rose 17%. Yet this month, Novartis announced it will fully shut down its Wehr plant in Germany — in operation since 1943 — by 2028. The decision to close the facility, including workforce restructuring, was made because the plant had fallen behind in global market competitiveness. Instead, the company plans to invest $23 billion in state-of-the-art production facilities in places such as North Carolina in the United States. Additional layoffs of several hundred U.S. headquarters staff are also set to proceed in phases starting in June.
These plant closures and workforce restructuring by global Big Pharma firms are aimed at strengthening corporate fundamentals while preparing for the future. They are accelerating new drug development through artificial intelligence (AI) while also undertaking bold restructuring of their pipelines. Cutting thousands of jobs while earning trillions of won in profits is a desperate struggle to survive the relentless competition in drug development. The fact that global leaders are downsizing during boom times to secure ammunition for research and development (R&D) is precisely why critics argue that Korea's flagship contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) is being held hostage by unreasonable union demands for performance pay.
In particular, the union's wage negotiation strategy of holding strikes and the resulting losses as leverage is a self-inflicted wound that undermines trust — the lifeline of the CDMO industry. Given that biopharmaceutical manufacturing requires 24-hour, defect-free operation, an unreasonable strike can only highlight union risk to global clients. Inviting supply chain risk upon oneself, at the very golden hour when Korea should be reaping the benefits of the U.S. Biosecure Act aimed at curbing Chinese biotech firms such as WuXi Biologics, is no different from killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Despite this, the union has reportedly demanded prior consultation not only on wage increases but also on management matters such as hiring, promotions, disciplinary actions, spin-offs, mergers and transfers, and the distribution of company profits. This amounts to an attempt to revise, through a collective bargaining agreement, authorities granted to the board of directors and the shareholders' meeting. If accepted, such demands would likely infringe on shareholder interests and create even greater turmoil.
The profits Samsung Biologics generates are the fruit of trust built jointly by past management and workers, as well as the return on shareholders' investment. Therefore, holding strikes hostage to push only excessive demands should not be regarded as a self-evident right of the union. Whether K-Bio rises to the global mainstream or sinks into a peripheral subcontracting base depends on mature labor-management relations. Both sides must remember that designing the company's larger future in a spirit of mature partnership is the path that both saves the company and protects union members. Today's strike slogans, they must not forget, can lead to tomorrow's job losses.
