San Francisco, Aug. 14 (CNA) Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said Monday that the U.S. public mostly supports Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC) under-construction Arizona plant, amid criticism from labor unions over the chipmaker’s plan to bring in workers from Taiwan.
Speaking with the press on the sidelines of a forum on the Taiwan-U.S. supply chains and economic and trade cooperation, Wang said that while TSMC had encountered backlash from unionized construction workers in Phoenix over plans to bring in 500 workers from Taiwan, the American public mostly supported the chipmaker.
Wang said that, to her knowledge, the top priority for TSMC was to complete the construction of its fab and start production.
Wang added that she believed TSMC would try its best to take on these difficulties in fab construction by sending experienced workers from Taiwan for a short period of time to create a “win-win situation.”
Wang’s comments come after the Arizona Pipe Trades 469 Union filed a petition urging U.S. lawmakers to reject TSMC’s application to bring in 500 Taiwanese workers on temporary E-2 visas.
In the Business Insider report, the union said as TSMC is seeking billions of dollars in subsidies from US$52 billion under the CHIPS and Science Act President Biden signed into law last summer to encourage semiconductor investments in the U.S., “American jobs should be prioritized.”
“Replacing Arizona’s construction workers with foreign construction workers directly contradicts the very purpose for which the CHIPS Act was enacted — to create jobs for American workers,” the petition said.
TSMC is investing US$40 billion to build two mega wafer fabs in Phoenix, in order to cater to the demand of its American customers.
In an op-ed published by the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Business Journal, Aaron Butler, president of the Arizona Building and Construction Trades Council, accused TSMC of “blaming its construction delays [on American workers] and using that as an excuse to bring in foreign workers who they can pay less.”
TSMC has argued that the E-2 workers are required to facilitate the training of workers in Arizona, but Butler said the chipmaker has not informed local unions of “the skills [their workers] are allegedly lacking or what training the Taiwanese workers brought in will provide.”
Butler said that workers in Arizona have been building fabs and installing production equipment for 40 years while working for Intel Corp., adding that the state boasts a highly skilled workforce well prepared for this type of work.
At an investor conference on July 20, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said mass production of the first fab, which will use the chipmaker advanced 4 nanometer process, will be delayed to 2025 from the planned late 2024 as the facility was facing “some challenges.”
According to Liu, that delay was due to an insufficient number of workers with the specialized expertise required for the equipment installation in the Arizona facility, which is part of an overall US$40 billion investment in the state.
In recent media reports, TSMC has repeatedly said that the incoming Taiwanese workers will not pose a threat to any U.S. jobs and will only be there to support the construction process.
In response to Butler, TSMC has promised that Americans will be prioritized in its hiring process for jobs relating to the company’s cutting-edge wafer fab construction in Arizona.
According to TSMC, the company has no intention of replacing American workers with foreigners and will continue to hire locally for jobs relating to the construction of the wafer fabs and equipment installation.
