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Controversy surrounding the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) new American chipmaking plant is refusing to die down. TSMC, much to everyone’s surprise, revealed earlier this year that its chip manufacturing plant in the U.S. will be delayed by a year. The firm’s stated reason behind the delay is a lack of skilled workers in Arizona, and it intends to fly out workers from Taiwan to install high end machines at the site. However, a fresh report from The Guardian sheds more light on the labor problems at the Arizona chip site after interviewing workers who lay some of the blame on Taiwanese managers being unable to adhere to safety regulations.
TSMC’s U.S. chip plant is central to the industry’s efforts at diversifying the semiconductor supply chain away from Taiwan. The firm is only one of two companies in the world that make advanced chips for other companies, and the Arizona plant is the result of a years-long effort by the U.S. government to establish a local supply chain independent of geopolitical conflicts. Taiwan’s proximity to China and the political tensions between the two have generated concerns about the safety of TSMC’s Taiwanese plants and their importance to both civilian and defense-related semiconductor procurements.
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However, after TSMC announced in its second quarter earnings that the Arizona chip plant will be delayed due to labor constraints, local worker unions have protested strongly against the stated reason for the delay. Friction between the U.S. and China and any delays to the Arizona site indirectly benefit China since it leaves America’s economy vulnerable to any potential conflict in Taiwan.
A fresh report from The Guardian interviews former workers at the Arizona site and they claim several hurdles in building the advanced chip manufacturing facility. These range from confusing work tasks, a lax safety culture and concerning attitudes towards local workers.
The Guardian, quoting one worker, shares:
“When you have to put stuff up, tear it down, put it up, tear it down, literally five or six times, that’s going to cost five or six times the original quote, probably more because you have to get demolitions involved,” the worker said. “This was constantly the whole process. Everything was rushed. They weren’t giving us actual blueprints, just engineer drawings. It felt like a design-as-we-go type of deal. The information we were getting was really strange, never complete, and always changing. We would get updates constantly and these were big updates to the point where we would have to start pulling things down.”
The worker also commented on Taiwanese builders being unfamiliar with the working environment in the U.S. According to them:
“I’ve never been on a job site like this. A job site this big with this many people, you have to be super safe, everything kind of has to slow down because you’re always in somebody’s way, so you have to have a perfect plan if you want to pull this off. I think they need to get those Taiwan contractors out of there because they are not used to building in America at all. They’re hiring us as professionals to give them a quality installation and advice and direction on how to install things, but they would not listen to us at all.”
TSMC’s chairman Dr. Mark Liu in Tainan, Taiwan in November 2022 as part of a beam lifting ceremony for a 3-nanometer manufacturing extension. Image: Liu Xuesheng/UDN
In statements provided to The Guardian, TSMC defended its decision to bring in workers from Taiwan, explaining that it is a commonly accepted practice in the industry as the “experienced specialists” are familiar with the equipment that they are installing.
Another former worker quoted by the publication shared some concerning claims. According to them, fireproofing chemicals sprayed at pillars caused workers to develop a cough. The worker believes that the chemicals could be the reason since the cough went away after they stopped working at the site.
TSMC, however, maintained that it adheres to all workplace safety regulations and that incidence reports at the site at 80% lower than the national rate.
One of the workers shared that the sensitive nature of the Arizona site and the fact that China is pressuring TSMC to reduce engagement with the U.S. has put workers in the crosshairs, as they stated:
A lot of us feel TSMC is only dealing with the union and trying a little bit at all because they want that Chips Act money, they’re chasing it,” they added. “The US is just worried about getting their microchips because of all the drama with China and we’re kind of dragged into it.
