If you really what it to end bring Taiwanese workers to the US, demand TMSC give them US benefits. However, there is no reason to bring that many Taiwanese workers to the US. The impact of which will be felt a year or two later when they are still in the US. From reading this, the plant to be built and is behind schedule will make 4 nanometer chips. The later US plant will build three nanometer chips. The Taiwanese are already in R&D on 2 nanometer chips. Biden should be pushing for TSMC to build the 2 nanometer chips in the US. The 4 will become obsolete and the three will be at midlife. Someone needs to push them. The plant construction will be done as fast as TSMC wants it to be. Their worries and concerns should have been brought to bear
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Bill Haskell considers the following as important: Journalism, politics, semiconductors, TSMC
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If you really what it to end bring Taiwanese workers to the US, demand TMSC give them US benefits. However, there is no reason to bring that many Taiwanese workers to the US. The impact of which will be felt a year or two later when they are still in the US.
From reading this, the plant to be built and is behind schedule will make 4 nanometer chips. The later US plant will build three nanometer chips. The Taiwanese are already in R&D on 2 nanometer chips. Biden should be pushing for TSMC to build the 2 nanometer chips in the US. The 4 will become obsolete and the three will be at midlife. Someone needs to push them.
The plant construction will be done as fast as TSMC wants it to be. Their worries and concerns should have been brought to bear much sooner. For all the $dollars the US is spending, TSMC should have been training the necessary Labor required for equipment installation early on and as one of the first steps. Working for the Germans, Koreans, Japanese, etc. required an introduction to their methods. Think the Toyota Production System, ERP, etc. It is convenient to bring such issues later as an excuse to change deadlines, etc.
TSMC delays Arizona plant because of US skilled worker shortage, qz.com, Ananya Bhattacharya
TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, has pushed back the planned 2024 start date of production at its Arizona factory by a year due to a shortage of skilled workers.
The company is “encountering certain challenges as there is an insufficient amount of skilled workers with those specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu said during a July 20 earnings call.
In the interim period, the company said it’ll send over “experienced technicians from Taiwan to train the local skilled workers for a short period of time” to bridge the skills gap. Last month, Nikkei Asia reported a “task force” of more than 500 experienced workers will be heading to the US to help set up specialized equipment.
Construction on the Arizona microchips manufacturing plant, which was supposed to start producing 4 nanometer chips next year, is now due to start in 2025. The opening of a second fab, which will produce smaller and more complex 3nm chips, is still on track for 2026.
TSMC’s move deals a blow to president Joe Biden’s plans to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the US—currently down to around 10% of global output from 40% three decades ago—and triggered a wider controversy about labor issues.
California congressman Ro Khanna tweeted yesterday (July 21) that he is “deeply disturbed that TSMC is replacing union workers with non-unionized workers from Taiwan.” Khanna called for the government to “condition grants on paying a prevailing wage and treating union workers fairly.”
While the workers TSMC is sending over to train employees is only around for a short time, Khanna raised concerns about other TSMC labor practices, citing an article about TSMC cutting pay for its unionized American electricians, which led to 50 of them leaving, only to be replaced by 25 non-union workers from Taiwan.
Morris Chang, TSMC’s 91-year-old founder, has previously stated companies succeed when they don’t have unions.