Covered by High-Tech: The Real Cost of Korea’s Semiconductor Boom KWON YOUNG-EUN OESH LEADERS’ VIEWPOINT The Deaths Left Behind by Growth In 2019, a government survey on occupational illnesses clearly showed that the semiconductor industry has grown by gambling with workers' lives. Across six major corporations, including Samsung Electronics, 3,442 workers developed cancer and illnesses, and 1,178 lost their lives. These are not mere numbers. They are our fellow workers, our family members, whose lives were stolen for corporate profit. This tragedy is not in the past. The danger of toxic chemicals threatens the lives of shop floor workers at this very moment. In June 2026, a lethal leak of Tetramethylammonium Hydroxide (TMAH)—a toxic chemical that kills workers— "Outsourcing Danger" and Rushed Deregulation The government's "Mega Projects" are dangerous because they put corporate profits and speed before workers' lives. The state promises all kinds of privileges and fast-tracked permits to corporations, but remains completely silent on the workers' right to work safely. All these hazards are concentrated on the most vulnerable subcontracted and irregular workers. At Samsung, one out of four workers on the floor is a subcontractor. In the cleanrooms—the most hazardous areas where workers handle toxic chemicals and fix heavy machinery—subcontractors make up 90% of the workforce. Outsourcing Danger Across Borders into Asia What is even more alarming is that this outsourcing of danger has now crossed national borders, expanding across Asia. Global semiconductor giants like Samsung are shifting their manufacturing bases and expanding subcontracted supply chains into developing Asian nations where regulations are weak and labor rights are fragile.
Countless young and female COLUMN workers in Samsung factories and supply chains across nations like Vietnam, India, and Malaysia are now facing the exact same tragedies we witnessed in South Korea. They are exposed to intense overwork, miscarriages, cancers, and rare illnesses without even knowing what toxic chemicals they are handling. To dodge social scrutiny and strict regulations at home, conglomerates are practicing a "transnational outsourcing of danger," throwing the risks entirely onto other Asian workers. The lives and health of Asian semiconductor workers are being treated as disposable items in global capital's quest to maximize profits. Training Workers Without Safety Education The government boasts that it will train semiconductor through a universities. massive workforce Yet, nowhere in the government's plan is there any comprehensive occupational safety education or basic labor rights training to protect workers' lives. Shoving young workers onto the factory floor without teaching them how dangerous the toxic chemicals are, or why their right to refuse unsafe work is justified, is not a policy that cares for people. It is simply supplying more victims to corporations. Our Struggle for International Oversight and Solidarity If South Korea's semiconductor industry is world-class, then we must fight to win world-class safety and protection for our lives. Just as capital exports danger across borders, our solidarity and oversight must also cross borders. Labor and organizations environmental across Asia, including ANROEV, must unite to monitor the use of toxic chemicals by global semiconductor capital and build a borderless struggle. To survive on the floor, we must demand and win three basic labor rights: 1.The Right Immediate to and disclosure of all toxic 23 chemicals used in factories, along with borderless information sharing. 2.The Right to Participate: Guaranteeing direct participation of labor unions and international civil society in safety audits and field investigations. 3.The Right to Refuse (Right to Stop Work): Guaranteeing the right to stop work immediately when facing danger, without fear of firing or retaliation. Workers' illnesses and deaths are not an accepted cost for economic growth. Corporate profits must never take precedence over the health, dignity, and human rights of the workers sweating on the shop floor. We will not stop our international solidarity struggle to defend the lives of semiconductor workers across Asia.
Kwon Young-eun is the Executive Activist of the Supporters for Health and Right of People in Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS) based in South Korea.
On July 13, 2026, at 1:00 PM, 136 civil society organizations (125 individual groups and 11 coalitions) held a "Press Conference Condemning the 3 Mega Projects." They defined the Lee Jae-myung administration's 3 mega-projects—focused on semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers—as a "reckless development rush" and urged a complete re-evaluation. On the far left of the photo, Kwon Young-eun, an activist from SHARPS (Solidarity for the Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry), holds a picket sign that reads, "We condemn the mega-projects that threaten labor rights and occupational safety."
Covered by High-Tech: The Real Cost of Korea’s Semiconductor Boom KWON YOUNG-EUN OESH LEADERS’ VIEWPOINT The Deaths Left Behind by Growth In 2019, a government survey on occupational illnesses clearly showed that the semiconductor industry has grown by gambling with workers' lives. Across six major corporations, including Samsung Electronics, 3,442 workers developed cancer and illnesses, and 1,178 lost their lives. These are not mere numbers. They are our fellow workers, our family members, whose lives were stolen for corporate profit. This tragedy is not in the past. The danger of toxic chemicals threatens the lives of shop floor workers at this very moment. In June 2026, a lethal leak of Tetramethylammonium Hydroxide (TMAH)—a toxic chemical that kills workers— "Outsourcing Danger" and Rushed Deregulation The government's "Mega Projects" are dangerous because they put corporate profits and speed before workers' lives. The state promises all kinds of privileges and fast-tracked permits to corporations, but remains completely silent on the workers' right to work safely. All these hazards are concentrated on the most vulnerable subcontracted and irregular workers. At Samsung, one out of four workers on the floor is a subcontractor. In the cleanrooms—the most hazardous areas where workers handle toxic chemicals and fix heavy machinery—subcontractors make up 90% of the workforce. Outsourcing Danger Across Borders into Asia What is even more alarming is that this outsourcing of danger has now crossed national borders, expanding across Asia. Global semiconductor giants like Samsung are shifting their manufacturing bases and expanding subcontracted supply chains into developing Asian nations where regulations are weak and labor rights are fragile.
Countless young and female COLUMN workers in Samsung factories and supply chains across nations like Vietnam, India, and Malaysia are now facing the exact same tragedies we witnessed in South Korea. They are exposed to intense overwork, miscarriages, cancers, and rare illnesses without even knowing what toxic chemicals they are handling. To dodge social scrutiny and strict regulations at home, conglomerates are practicing a "transnational outsourcing of danger," throwing the risks entirely onto other Asian workers. The lives and health of Asian semiconductor workers are being treated as disposable items in global capital's quest to maximize profits. Training Workers Without Safety Education The government boasts that it will train semiconductor through a universities. massive workforce Yet, nowhere in the government's plan is there any comprehensive occupational safety education or basic labor rights training to protect workers' lives. Shoving young workers onto the factory floor without teaching them how dangerous the toxic chemicals are, or why their right to refuse unsafe work is justified, is not a policy that cares for people. It is simply supplying more victims to corporations. Our Struggle for International Oversight and Solidarity If South Korea's semiconductor industry is world-class, then we must fight to win world-class safety and protection for our lives. Just as capital exports danger across borders, our solidarity and oversight must also cross borders. Labor and organizations environmental across Asia, including ANROEV, must unite to monitor the use of toxic chemicals by global semiconductor capital and build a borderless struggle. To survive on the floor, we must demand and win three basic labor rights: 1.The Right Immediate to and disclosure of all toxic 23 chemicals used in factories, along with borderless information sharing. 2.The Right to Participate: Guaranteeing direct participation of labor unions and international civil society in safety audits and field investigations. 3.The Right to Refuse (Right to Stop Work): Guaranteeing the right to stop work immediately when facing danger, without fear of firing or retaliation. Workers' illnesses and deaths are not an accepted cost for economic growth. Corporate profits must never take precedence over the health, dignity, and human rights of the workers sweating on the shop floor. We will not stop our international solidarity struggle to defend the lives of semiconductor workers across Asia.
Kwon Young-eun is the Executive Activist of the Supporters for Health and Right of People in Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS) based in South Korea.
On July 13, 2026, at 1:00 PM, 136 civil society organizations (125 individual groups and 11 coalitions) held a "Press Conference Condemning the 3 Mega Projects." They defined the Lee Jae-myung administration's 3 mega-projects—focused on semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers—as a "reckless development rush" and urged a complete re-evaluation. On the far left of the photo, Kwon Young-eun, an activist from SHARPS (Solidarity for the Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry), holds a picket sign that reads, "We condemn the mega-projects that threaten labor rights and occupational safety."