The world's largest chipmaker promised to create thousands of US jobs. There are growing tensions over whether US workers have the skills or work ethic to do them.

"If an engineer [in Taiwan] gets a call when he is asleep, he will wake up and start dressing," he said. "His wife will ask: 'What's the matter?' He would say: 'I need to go to the factory.' The wife will go back to sleep without saying another word. This is the work culture."

Fuck that shit, that's not work culture, that's exploitation.

Shitty framing.

They don’t want to pay for the luxury of being able to have an engineer on call 24/7 by paying 3 people to cover a full 24-hr spread of time.

They want to pay one guy a shit salary without overtime and be able to work them 24/7/365.

Just to be clear, by "skills or work ethics" they mean, the ability to enslave them and have them on call 24/7 and THEY have to thank us.

Work ethic? Fuck you and your "work ethic." I do my job and I do it well because it pays me to do it and if I don't do it well, they could replace me. Why do I need a "work ethic?"

So many ignorant comments in this thread. First of all, Taiwan isn't some poor, developing nation, they're extremely modernized and highly educated. They literally rank among the highest education rates and scores in the world: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Taiwan

For comparison of a basic education stat, the US has around a 79% literacy rate among adults while Taiwan has around 98%.

Second of all, TSMC workers in Taiwan make decent money on average:

https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202307010011

And for their US operations it will be above average as well:

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/TSMC-Salaries-E4130.htm

https://www.salary.com/research/company/tsmc-salary

Now, I do agree that their work culture appears to be toxic. However, how many companies in the US are just as demanding and brutal? While Americans are stereotyped as lazy, we're actually the exact opposite when you look at our average productivity and workloads.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx

https://clockify.me/working-hours

https://www.bls.gov/productivity/

Compared to some Eastern countries, we're definitely working less, but not necessarily producing less, as it's pretty much proven that longer hours results in a sharp drop off in productivity.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241684896_Are_long_hours_reducing_productivity_in_manufacturing

Anyway, just food for thought.

It's never been about US workers having the skills. It's always been that we expect to be compensated for our labor. Paying real wages looks bad for their bottom line so they export the work and import the product at a fraction of the cost.

Work ethic is code for we want labor to be cheaper and not need to poop.

"Work ethic" is just HR speech for "cheap and easily exploitable"

Alternate explanation: manufacturer from country with poor labor laws realises skilled workers are expensive.

Jobs at the TSMC semiconductor factory in Arizona could require long hours and total obedience.

They want slaves.

"You aren't sweat-shoppy enough to host one of OUR sweat shops."

Haha okay, xinny.

This exploitative just creates burned out engineers. It's a reason total productivity has seen increasing with reduced work weeks. Well rested and happy people are vastly more efficient.

The Factory in Arizona could require long hours and total obedience.

Wft does total obedience mean. Lol what bullshit.

I work in a semi conductor fab and I assure you the most inept workers here are the upper managers.

I have to give 3 separate updates a day with the same information to the same people. They are constantly worried about micro-schedules and push backs, while also requireing endless meetings to discuss why we arent making the deadlines. Its fucking ludacris. Also their Internet doesnt work inside the fab so I have to stop work early to leave and then email them their fucking updates.

These are the same people who are attempting to use temp companies to fill every position and then wondering if their workers have the work ethic. Lol.

Pay people a living wage and stop making their jobs miserable.

Ah yes, the skill to work 100 hours a week and be on call 24/7 and expect things like breaks. They should ask Amazon where they hire because that’s much of the same!

This is just a negotiating tactic. An extra tax break will solve those problems. Nothing to see here. Move along.

That's why manufacturering was sent over there in the first place, to exploit a labor market that works harder for less.

We are not lazy, we just know we are getting fucked and are not too afraid to speak up about it.

TSMC about to hold the largest allocation of H1B visas given to a single company in US history.

Why would anyone know how to make chips, if we don't make chips. Who's going to teach them to make chips, the chip fairy?

That doesn't sound like jobs. It sounds like indenture.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

It's why the company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., wants to get the US government to approve visas for up to 500 additional Taiwanese workers — a development that an Arizona labor union is trying to stop.

Differences in work culture between the US and Taiwan — where employees say extended shifts and worker obedience are expected — could bring challenges to not only the construction of the factory but also its operations after opening.

On July 24, a Taiwanese YouTube channel with nearly 3 million subscribers posted a video accusing the Arizona workers of being lazy and using their phones too much on the job, a bilingual newsletter on tech, business, and US-Asia relations reported.

But Focus Taiwan reported in June that when he was asked about US workers' concerns about the company's culture, Mark Liu, TSMC's chair, said: "Those who are unwilling to take shifts should not enter semiconductor manufacturing."

Liu also said that TSMC's US workers would not be expected to adopt the same work culture as those in Taiwan — and that he'd be open to changes as long as the company's core values were upheld.

"The TSMC Arizona fab is now in a critical phase of handling and installing all of the most advanced and dedicated equipment in a sophisticated facility," the company told Insider, citing the deployment of giant and complex tools.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

If this story interests you, and you haven't read Chip War, definitely read Chip War.

Oh ok so we aren't being slaves enough is what they're saying

Outrage bait.

You guys do know the affordability of the chips you're using to comment on this is a direct consequence of TSMC "efficiency", right?

The comment in this thread are a good summary of why TSMC has concerns. I fully support workers rights of course. But from TSMC's perspective, WHY would they want to put up with all our 'crap' when they can continue operating in Taiwan with their standard practices?

They don't.