Strike Bypassing Court Ruling on "Restrictions on Industrial Action" Rekindles Supply Chain Concerns at Samsung Biologics

Production disruptions being averted through emergency measures
Risk of actual disruptions if the strike is prolonged
Industry: "The union must stop its irresponsible strike"

Concerns are mounting again that a second strike by the Samsung Biologics labor union could undermine the stability of global medicine supplies. Critics say the union’s decision to launch an indirect strike despite a court ruling restricting industrial action over the “social repercussions of supply disruptions” goes beyond disrupting the normal operation of a key domestic industry and threatens patients’ right to life.

According to the bio industry on November 13, the Samsung Biologics labor union recently began a second partial strike, focusing on duties in quality control (QC), quality assurance (QA), logistics, and indirect production support departments. The union resorted to an indirect strike after a court ruling restricted strikes in major production processes, including cell culture and purification. The company has been working to minimize production disruptions through an emergency operating system, and no visible disruptions have been reported so far.

However, as the union continues to expand the scope of the strike, observers say it is difficult to rule out the possibility of problems with medicine supplies for critically ill patients if the strike is prolonged. Biopharmaceutical production is an “organically interconnected, continuous process,” with every stage linked, from cell culture to finished drug product (DP) manufacturing and quality testing. If a prolonged strike compromises process stability, raw materials that were previously unaffected could become contaminated or deteriorate, potentially forcing the company to discard all the medicines produced from them.

During the first strike in May, production of a total of 23 batches was also halted, rapidly heightening concerns about supply stability. The company’s losses from that strike are estimated at approximately 150 billion won. Samsung Biologics currently produces many essential medicines for critically ill patients, including cancer drugs for cholangiocarcinoma and breast cancer, as well as treatments for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and atopic dermatitis.

The public-interest risks posed by the union’s strike and the unique nature of the bio industry were cited as key grounds for the court’s recent decision to prohibit industrial action. In its decision on the appeal of an injunction prohibiting industrial action, the court barred industrial action in major cell culture and purification processes, ruling: “Given the tangible and intangible losses the company would incur, and their scale, if the processes were halted, as well as the expected social repercussions of supply disruptions because there are no alternative medicines for some of the drugs the company manufactures under contract, including treatments for cholangiocarcinoma and metastatic breast cancer, the need to preserve [production operations] is recognized.”

Meanwhile, concerns are growing that the dispute could drag on further as the union moves to join the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU). The union has decided to hold a vote among its members through November 18 to determine whether to join the FKTU. If the union joins the federation, the FKTU could provide organizational support for its negotiations and response to industrial action, making the move a new factor in future labor-management disputes. The FKTU said the previous day, “If our members choose to join the FKTU, we will devote all our resources to protecting the rights of Samsung Biologics workers and the union’s independent activities.”

“The interconnected nature of biopharmaceutical production is not simply a matter of work efficiency; it is the last line of defense for protecting patients’ lives,” an industry official said. “The company is currently preventing production disruptions through emergency operations, but if the strike continues and process stability breaks down, the consequences will fall on patients whose lives hang in the balance.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.