News AZ Union Fires Back at 'Offensive' TSMC Claims of Unskilled U.S. Workers

[Admin]

Arizona union accuses TSMC of using fab equipment installation delays to bring in lower-paid foreign workers.

AZ Union Fires Back at 'Offensive' TSMC Claims of Unskilled U.S. Workers : Read more

 

[TechieTwo]

You knew this was coming... If TSMC thinks that they will build good relations in the U.S. by insulting skilled labor or customers they are in for a cultural shock.

 

[bigdragon]

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, the union appears to be calling out a situation where TSMC budgets for an inadequate number of work hours and expects employees to continue working beyond those hours. A lot of corporations expect this kind of uncompensated overtime. It's wrong. Everyone should be paid for their work...all of their work.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

TSMC expects highly skilled pros to slave away to benefit their overlords, that's not gonna fly in the US or Europe.

 

[Chrys]

... Who didn't see this coming? I would have assumed that the cost per unit of work for a union member in America vs a sla... um, worker in Taiwan would be about 10x the price. They are willing to put in 80 hard hours per week, where union members might put in 20. I knew some people who worked for Intel around 2008 and they complained about how much other stuff people had to do that killed their productivity.

 

[10tacle]

A lot of corporations expect this kind of uncompensated overtime. It's wrong. Everyone should be paid for their work...all of their work.

Years ago I and my colleagues were dealt this when we worked for a tech company in the US that was bought out by a bigger tech firm. We were salaried but occasionally called in on a weekend day for an emergency or working 10-12hr days during a major hardware upgrade or building changeover. We never signed anything that advised we'd be working excess of 40 hours uncompensated including non-scheduled workdays (weekend, holidays).

We seriously thought about suing for uncompensated overtime, but an associate's lawyer father advised against it. He stated it would have cost us a lot of money in legal fees and there was a good chance we'd net lose money from any overtime settlement over the legal fees and the law firm's settlement cut - a settlement that would not happen for years on top of that!

 

[everettfsargent]

Love the hate going on here ... they took our jobs.

 

[randyh121]

Arizona union accuses TSMC of using fab equipment installation delays to bring in lower-paid foreign workers.

AZ Union Fires Back at 'Offensive' TSMC Claims of Unskilled U.S. Workers : Read more

Dude, as soon as they said "Unskilled" I knew what they meant.
They do not want to pay people more than bare minimum. Horrible benefits, and a rigorous work environment. As a medium size business owner I see why people are avoiding working for them.
Hey, TSMC. America is not asia where you can put 70 hour work days on people and pay them minimum wage.
Hopefully regulators do something about them

 

[nick4wheelin]

TSMC jumped all over that US government money! Then they say US workers aren't skilled knowing full well we build fabs and anything else that gets approval. They don't want to pay, plain and simple. Cheap labor isn't skilled. Skilled labor isn't cheap! They already knew the price of doing business in the US. Now they want to use the billions that the government is giving them through the chips act to take as much as they can back to Taiwan with them and bring in there "workers".

 

[tamalero]

Are you guys surprised?
Anyone remembers that take where the CEO of a big fab also said that you should expect to work for long hours and being "lazy" was not on the company's future or something like that?

 

[Rokinamerica]

A lot of corporations expect this kind of uncompensated overtime. It's wrong. Everyone should be paid for their work...all of their work.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) makes this illegal except for very certain exemptions.

 

[Co BIY]

Dude, as soon as they said "Unskilled" I knew what they meant.
They do not want to pay people more than bare minimum. Horrible benefits, and a rigorous work environment. As a medium size business owner I see why people are avoiding working for them.
Hey, TSMC. America is not asia where you can put 70 hour work days on people and pay them minimum wage.
Hopefully regulators do something about them

I don't think the regulators are needed. These are apparently unionized workers who can and have been sticking up for themselves.

Even non-unionized workers in the US will be able to negotiate fair working conditions with TSMC because they have options. Many other local businesses would probably be happy to employ these same skilled workers.

 

[4m12020]

No one has touched on the true reason. The industry is in oversupply and they don't want another fab pumping out the chips they intend to make there until demand picks up. It's a delay tactic that has nothing to do with paying workers.

 

[Co BIY]

No one has touched on the true reason. The industry is in oversupply and they don't want another fab pumping out the chips they intend to make there until demand picks up. It's a delay tactic that has nothing to do with paying workers.

Is always good to think about the underlying conditions. If you don't need the capacity then paying overtime rates to build it makes no sense.

Slow steady progress is more realistic for their first real "overseas" plant in any case.

 

[Stesmi]

I don't think the regulators are needed. These are apparently unionized workers who can and have been sticking up for themselves.

Even non-unionized workers in the US will be able to negotiate fair working conditions with TSMC because they have options. Many other local businesses would probably be happy to employ these same skilled workers.

The problem here is that that's exactly what's going on and then TSMC says "We don't get enough skilled low-cost labor, so we'll just have to bring in our own from Taiwan. It's all YOUR fault we do this! We so want to use Americans, but, you know, there just isn't enough!".

I can totally see why they do it, but it's bad and dishonest. What they've now given themselves are two things:

If regulators do come and ask "So, what's up with all the non-Americans working on this?", they can answer "Cause there isn't enough!", and if the extra capacity is needed (which doesn't seem to be the case), they can just say "Well, if the Americans would have been good and fast enough, we wouldn't be in this situation! Sorry! Not our fault!".

Complete BS, and I was just waiting for this after the last rant about that was something along the lines of Americans workers need the passion to work long hours for low pay.

 

[jkflipflop98]

These guys are just slimy in their business practices. It's going to be a great day when Intel starts eating their lunch.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Given the number of politically charged posts that had to be purged recently this thread has reached its conclusion and is now closed.