Campaign Demands Samsung Protect Korean Workers in Wake of Cancer Deaths

CWA and a network of activists have launched a public campaign and petition drive to pressure the company to protect its Korean workers from deadly toxins.

Eighteen young workers at the Onyang semiconductor factory in Korea have died of blood cancers and two dozen more have been diagnosed with some form of cancer. CWA members and other union and environmental activists leafleted outside Samsung plants.

in Austin, Texas, and San Jose, Calif., calling on Samsung to acknowledge its responsibility for the workers' deaths and the Korean government to enforce the law.

Support Samsung workers by signing the online petition here.

Korean workers commonly call semiconductor plants "cancer factories," where skin and breathing problems, as well as miscarriages, are widespread. A former Samsung engineer recently leaked an internal document confirming that toxins used at Onyang include six known carcinogens. Read more here. 

CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said all electronics and computer chip manufacturing involves chemicals, but hazardous toxins can be replaced with safer ones. Employers also can minimize exposure with good ventilation and protective gloves, goggles and disposable clothing. "We're hopeful that this campaign will ensure that happens," he said.