The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) has staged its first-ever strike today (June 7).

The Union, which consists of approximately 28,000 workers, around one-fifth of the company’s workforce, staged the walkout following a breakdown in negotiations over pay and benefits.

However, it’s unclear how many of those members participated in the walkout, with the NSEU refusing to confirm numbers, instead saying it was up to individual members to volunteer that information.

Unlike traditional strike action, most of the workers participating in the walkout took paid annual leave. Additionally, Thursday was a public holiday in Korea, with Reuters reporting that even with the strike action taking place, Samsung said there were fewer employees on annual leave today than on the equivalent day last year.

After the strike was announced last week, market analyst firm TrendForce declared it was unlikely there would be any immediate impact on the company’s DRAM and NAND Flash production or its ability to ship products.

Earlier this year, Samsung workers started protesting at both the company’s offices in Seoul and outside a chip production facility in Hwaseong after the company awarded its workers a pay increase of 5.1 percent, below the average wage increase of 6.5 percent.

In April of this year, Samsung reported a 933 percent increase in its operating profit, driven by a resurgence in demand for its memory chips to support AI workloads.

The Union is also demanding more annual leave and improvements to the performance-based bonus system.

According to a Google-translated copy of the Union’s strike declaration, which was posted on doors across Samsung facilities, the company “laughed at [its promise for improvement] and unilaterally broke down negotiations,” adding that even though the union held “three peaceful rallies in hopes of resolving the issue through dialogue, the company came to negotiations on May 28 without any agenda. The company has made no preparations and is ignoring our labor union and employees.”

The declaration also claimed that the blame for poor business performance was being shifted onto employees, even when it had resulted from “obvious management failures.”

“In the end, the management is pushing the labor union into a strike… we will no longer be deceived by the company,” the declaration read.

In comments reported by Reuters, NSEU official Lee Hyun-kuk was slightly more diplomatic, telling the news outlet: "The purpose of today's strike action is to have meaningful conversation with management.” He added that the union was preparing further action, but did not share any details with regards to what that might entail.