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The world’s largest contract chipmaker will import hundreds of workers from Taiwan to help build its sprawling new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, the company announced on Thursday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and its suppliers plan to bring “more than 500” migrant workers to Phoenix for a limited time, due to “labor shortages and other factors,” according to Nikkei Asia.
The news comes a week after the Prospect published an investigation of labor problems plaguing the TSMC site, which currently employs over 12,000 contract workers. Some described life-threatening injuries, while others detailed setbacks in construction that they alleged were caused by non-union contractors. The company has refused to sign an agreement with local labor groups, which union leaders say would help secure a reliable workforce.
“It’s a fucking disgrace,” Aaron Butler, president of the Arizona Building Trades Council, told the Prospect in response to the news that the company would bring more overseas workers.
In recent months, TSMC has issued a drumbeat of complaints over high labor and regulatory costs in the United States. The criticisms come as the company angles to receive tax credits and grants from recent federal legislation totaling up to $15 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Todd Achilles, a former tech executive who now researches semiconductor markets, described TSMC’s publicizing its grievances as press positioning.
TSMC said it has struggled to secure needed talent for its technically complex projects. “There is skilled expertise that we require for specific TSMC Arizona construction activities. We are bringing to Arizona select specialized talent for limited timeframes to build and ramp what will be the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology in the U.S.,” a spokesperson for the company told the Prospect in an earlier statement. TSMC did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Migrants on work visas are already employed at the TSMC fab, the Prospect found in its previous reporting. Union representatives argue that reliance on migrant workers, whose visas would be secured by TSMC or its suppliers, can make it harder to improve working conditions, since migrants have little leverage to push back on the company that secured their residency.
According to Nikkei, TSMC is in talks with U.S. government officials for help expediting visas for temporary workers, who could arrive as soon as this month. TSMC said in its earlier statement to the Prospect that despite its decision to bring in foreign workers, “there will be no impact to our U.S.-based hiring, or construction personnel onsite.”
Yet on Thursday, union representatives were already racing to catch up with what some interpreted as early signs of displacement.
Luke Kasper, a representative of the sheet metal workers union (SMART), said that one of his union contractors at the site, working on an open-ended “time and materials” contract, was told to turn over their materials, since TSMC was removing them from that scope of work.
“They asked for a reason why and they weren’t given a reason why, but it sure sounds to me like they [TSMC] are testing the waters to see if they can do it faster or cheaper,” Kasper said.
A second SMART-affiliated contractor called on Thursday, Kasper said. “Hey, there’s a tool in the fab that is [another SMART contractor’s] tool, but we just wanted to let you know we see a bunch of Taiwanese people installing their ductwork on the tool, and they’re doing all the work on it,” Kasper recalled being told.
The White House has said that the CHIPS Act, like other recent investment packages, was intended to bring good-paying union manufacturing jobs back onshore.
“The United States is a top destination for companies across the globe looking to make investments because we have a world-class, highly skilled, committed workforce—union labor,” President Biden said at an inaugural ceremony at the TSMC plant last year.
Local union leaders say they have been let down.
“Why would our government give a corporation money if our workers aren’t going to do the work? I don’t agree with that at all,” Kasper said. “Isn’t the whole purpose of the CHIPS Act and everything to bring jobs to Americans, of all sexes and colors?”
A Department of Commerce spokesperson declined to comment on whether the CHIPS program would consider TSMC’s reliance on migrant workers as it evaluates the company’s application for federal subsidy, saying the department cannot weigh in on potential applicants.
The Prospect’s reporting on the implementation of the Biden administration’s industrial policy is supported through funding from Omidyar Network.
