Micron Taiwan Total Pay of Up to 68 Months Fails to Quell Dispute as Union Demands 15% Profit Sharing

TradingKey - Micron Technology (MU) announced its FY2026 compensation plan for Taiwan employees, but labor disputes remain unresolved. The Micron Taiwan Union and the Taoyuan City Confederation of Trade Unions plan to hold a press conference at AmCham Taiwan on September 15, demanding that the company negotiate a long-term profit-sharing mechanism.

Micron announced on September 11 that direct production employees in Taiwan, including operators, technicians, and shift engineers, will receive overall compensation in FY2026 equivalent to 35 to 68 months of salary, with minimum cash compensation of NT$1.7 million.

Eligible Taiwan employees hired before August 29, 2025, can receive a special cash bonus of NT$1 million included in their overall compensation. Entry-level engineers will receive an average overall compensation of around NT$3.4 million, with about NT$2.9 million in cash and the remainder in equity awards based on grant value.

Micron stated that the scale of employee rewards for FY2026 is a company record, with more than 60,000 employees globally set to receive related rewards.

Union Questions Micron's Unilateral Plan Announcement

The union stated that during labor dispute mediation, Micron delayed negotiations on the grounds that the proposal needed to be submitted to the board of directors for discussion, yet announced a new reward scheme before the two sides had completed negotiations. The union believes that the scheme still fails to address the demand for establishing a long-term profit-sharing system.

The union estimates that the newly added one-off reward accounts for approximately 4.4% of the company's operating profit, and considers this proportion to still be lower than the profit-sharing levels of South Korean memory chipmakers. The union demands that Micron allocate 15% of its operating profit to employee bonuses, distributed on a quarterly basis starting from fiscal 2027, replacing the current incentive compensation plan with a new profit-sharing system.

The union views Micron's increased rewards as progress achieved through collective employee action, while continuing to question the calculation method and transparency of the current incentive compensation plan.

The union also cited the 2023 layoffs and bonus arrangements as sources of employee dissatisfaction. Micron announced in late 2022 that it planned to cut its global workforce by about 10% in 2023 and suspend bonuses for that year.

Micron's FY2025 GAAP net income rose from $778 million in the previous fiscal year to $8.539 billion. The company's proxy statement shows that CEO Sanjay Mehrotra received a base salary of $1.4462 million in FY2025 and an annual non-equity incentive bonus of $3.8950 million, equivalent to about 2.7 times his base salary. The union stated that rank-and-file employees in Taiwan received bonuses equivalent to about 2.37 months of salary over the same period.

The union demanded that Micron present a clear profit-sharing plan in subsequent mediation sessions, stating that it will continue preparing for strike actions until a consensus is reached on the relevant system. The union said that labor dispute mediation sessions are scheduled for this week and next week, and it plans to hold an employee solidarity event on the evening of September 17 at a basketball court opposite Micron's facility in Hwaya Technology Park.

Strike Risk Has Not Been Lifted

Under Taiwan's Act in Respect of Labor-Management Disputes, after labor-management dispute mediation fails, a labor union must hold a direct, secret ballot of all members and secure majority approval before it can declare a strike.

As of September 14, there is no public information indicating that the union has held a formal strike vote, nor have there been reports of work stoppages or delivery disruptions at Micron Technology's Taiwan facilities. If subsequent mediation fails again and a strike vote is initiated, market concerns over the operation of the Taiwan plants and the supply of DRAM and HBM could escalate.