Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has promised that Americans would be prioritized in its hiring process for jobs to build the company’s cutting-edge wafer fabs in Arizona.
In a statement released on Tuesday, TSMC said the company has no intention of replacing US workers with foreigners, and would continue to hire locally for the construction of the wafer fabs and equipment installation.
The company is investing US$40 billion to build two mega wafer fabs in Phoenix to cater to the demand of its US customers.
Photo: Caitlin O’Hara, Bloomberg
The statement comes after a major construction worker union fired back at TSMC’s “offensive” claims of a lack of skilled workers for the construction of its facility in Phoenix during an investors’ conference in Taipei on July 20.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said at the meeting that the start of mass production in one fab — which is to use advanced 4-nanometer process technology — would be delayed from late next year to 2025, because the facility was facing “some challenges.”
Liu attributed the delay to a lack of workers with the required expertise for equipment installation in the Arizona fab.
Another fab under construction in Arizona, which is to deploy 3-nanometer process technology, is scheduled to begin mass production in 2026. Liu did not mention any change to the timeframe of that fab.
In an article published in the Phoenix Business Journal on Wednesday last week, Aaron Butler, head of the Arizona Building and Construction Trades Council, said that TSMC should not blame US workers for the construction delays.
“Blaming American workers for problems with this project is as offensive to American workers as it is inaccurate,” Butler said. “This leaves just one alternative conclusion: that TSMC is blaming its construction delays on American workers and using that as an excuse to bring in foreign workers who they can pay less.”
Butler said 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.
Butler added that the unions have fulfilled all the working hours required by TSMC, in response to claims that there was a shortage of skilled US workers.
However, in its statement, TSMC did say that because the company requires specific skills for the construction of the Arizona fab and equipment installation, it would need to send a limited number of workers to the US state on a temporary basis.
TSMC said the number of workers traveling to Arizona had not been finalized and that their presence would not affect the 12,000 workers currently working on-site and its general US-based hiring process.
The chipmaker said the presence of skilled workers for a short amount of time would facilitate the training of their counterparts in Arizona, and that this arrangement would allow the company to accelerate its push for investments in the state, which would in turn lead to significant economic benefits through the creation of thousands of high-paying jobs, and the innovation drive in Arizona and across the nation.
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