(Left) Reuters/Carlos Barria, (Right) AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
- TSMC says its Arizona chip factory's opening has been delayed partly over a skilled-worker shortage.
- We spoke with two workers at the site who said poor management was the real reason.
- Some Phoenix workers have also accused the company of safety violations.
In Phoenix, record-breaking summer heat isn't the only thing on the rise. Tensions are boiling at a construction site of the world's leading chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Two current workers say operational mismanagement and administrative chaos have delayed the building of the chip factory.
Those are not the reasons TSMC has given.
In July, TSMC said the opening would likely be pushed back a year, until 2025, partly because of a lack of skills and experience among US workers. To get things back on track, the company is trying to get visas for as many as 500 Taiwanese technicians to assist with construction and training on the site, where nearly 12,000 people work each day.
In response, the Arizona Pipe Trades 469 Union, a labor union that says it represents over 4,000 pipe fitters, plumbers, welders, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning technicians, started a petition to urge US lawmakers to deny these visas. The union says that TSMC has deliberately misrepresented the skillset of Arizona's workforce and has expressed concern that US workers will ultimately be replaced by "cheap" Taiwanese labor.
"They keep saying we're slowing them down, but they're not giving us the information we need," a pipe fitter who has worked at the Arizona site for roughly a year told Insider. "Most of us are capable of doing it if you gave us the correct information."
The Phoenix workers spoke with Insider on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions. Their identities are known to Insider.
TSMC, however, has maintained that the incoming Taiwanese workers will not be a threat to US jobs. A company spokesperson told Insider that at this stage in the construction process, it's "common practice to partner with the local workforce and international experienced staff to ensure the highest-quality execution."
The company did not respond specifically to the accusations of management problems on the site, but a spokesperson said: "TSMC is committed to ensuring that working conditions in its supply chains are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that business operations are environmentally responsible and conducted ethically."
'TSMC wants you to get the job done with as little amount of information and as fast as possible'
The Arizona pipe fitter said the construction delay was "100% a management problem."
He said it's not that US workers didn't have the skills to build the factory but that they're just not being given sufficient resources to do the job. He and many other workers on the site, he said, have worked at the chipmaker Intel in a similar capacity in the past, so they know it doesn't have to be this way.
"At Intel, they can give me a package that says, 'Hey, this is the equipment that I want you to build. This is the deadline. These are the standards.' Everything you could think of," he said. "And essentially, TSMC is the exact opposite. They just say, 'Build this.' And I don't get the blueprints. There's no planning. They essentially assume everybody just knows how to do the job. But I can't read your mind."
Instead of the extensive blueprints he's used to, he said that almost all of his work at TSMC was done by referring to emails and pictures that sometimes included difficult-to-decipher notes.
"TSMC wants you to get the job done with as little amount of information and as fast as possible," he said.
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that managerial challenges — fueled in part by cultural differences between TSMC and US workers — had been among the reasons for the factory's delay. In February, TSMC employees told the Times American workers were difficult to manage.
The pipe fitter said that TSMC and its key contractors were largely to blame for the management problems.
'I would not want to be in these buildings after they're fully complete'
Both the pipe fitter and a welder at the Phoenix site told Insider they'd had problems getting the proper materials needed to complete their work.
"The main issue holding American workers, or any workers, for that matter, back is lack of materials," the welder said, adding that he sometimes had to wait days to receive what he needed.
"I have no idea how they've made it this far," the pipe fitter said of TSMC, adding: "It's like the Wild West. Everyone's got a job to do, and they just let you all run. And it's with no coordination."
He said building-code violations were common as well, which had also slowed down construction.
"Sometimes we'll have to do work two or three times because they're like, 'Well, this is how we do it in Taiwan,'" he said. "So we build it exactly how they want it, but then as soon as it's put in, we're not going to sign off on it because it's illegal. It's against international building code."
The pipe fitter said that safety violations were also common on the site. He said in one instance, "hundreds of pounds of weight" were loosely hanging 20 to 30 feet above workers' heads — a "really big safety violation."
He said many Taiwanese workers on the site wore tennis shoes — rather than boots — and didn't wear safety glasses or gloves.
After complaining about one safety issue for two straight weeks, he said, he spoke with a company safety representative.
"He literally told me to my face that we're only here for insurance purposes — they won't let us do anything," he said, referring to the company's desire to meet baseline safety requirements. "And that's when I gave up."
The pipe fitter isn't the only worker who has raised safety concerns. In June, The American Prospect reported that workers said injuries and safety violations were common on the construction site.
"It's easily the most unsafe site I've ever walked on," Luke Kasper, a representative of a union for sheet-metal workers, said.
TSMC has defended its commitment to safety. When asked whether there were any safety issues on the site, the company said it was regularly audited against known safety standards and that it conducted its own internal audits of safety records against state and national figures. The company said that in Arizona, its "recordable safety incident rate" was nearly 80% lower than nationally reported figures.
"TSMC is deeply committed to workplace safety in the operation of all our facilities, along with each of our active construction projects, including TSMC Arizona," the spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, after multiple health and safety complaints were sent to the state over the past year, TSMC and the state of Arizona signed a workplace-safety agreement. Both sides agreed to subject the company to higher safety standards than required at the federal level, including closer oversight and increased training and safety visits.
The pipe fitter said he was worried for the thousands of workers set to run the factory once it's complete.
"One of the most dangerous places to work in the United States is in a semiconductor facility because there are large amounts of chemicals," he said. "Stuff is going to break, and when it does, these are nasty, nasty chemicals. And that's my worry. I would not want to be in these buildings after they're fully complete."
'It's not like we're against the Taiwanese workers or anything. We're against TSMC.'
When entering the construction site each morning, both workers said they'd experienced delays at every step of the process, from hourlong security lines to challenges procuring the right safety gear, known as a "bunny suit."
"Then you go through the gowning process, and they don't have your size. And then you go to degown, and they don't have your hanger or somebody took your hanger," the pipe fitter said. "It's literally every step of the process. Everything is difficult."
"Parking is insane out there with the vehicles and traffic management," the welder said.
Rather than bringing over more Taiwanese workers, the welder added, TSMC should focus on solving these other problems.
"I have never heard word of what skills we are lacking, nor any word or info at all on what or when we will be trained from their workers," he said.
The pipe fitter said he thought the workers might be able to help but it was not because US workers lacked skills or expertise.
"As far as TSMC saying that they need the skilled workers, what they really mean is they want the cheaper workers, their guys, to come over here because they don't have to tell them anything," he said. "They can literally just say, 'Hey, this whole row, go build it.'"
He added: "It's not like we're against the Taiwanese workers or anything. We're against TSMC. TSMC is the problem."
Both workers said they were sticking it out because the job paid well enough but they hoped to eventually find other work.
"It's the worst job that any of us have ever had, as far as safety and quality and everything," the pipe fitter said. "Every guy that I know is leaving this job as soon as we can."
Correction: August 28, 2023 — The job title for one source has been updated. He works as a pipe fitter.
Do you work in the semiconductor-chip industry and have a story to tell? Reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@insider.com.