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TSMC delays opening of Arizona plant.
floobydust:
There is a culture clash - difference in wage, working hours, building codes. And some political games.
As far as the shortage of skilled "plumbers" to build the fab, Arizona unions are irked they have no work or labour agreement with TSMC. CHIPs legislation gives project labour agreements as "nice-to-have" not mandatory. TSMC complaint is America is costing 4x that of Taiwan. So plumbers are too expensive, lol. There is no shortage of skilled people.
"Starting from early November last year, TSMC has been sending its employees and their families on chartered flights to the United States, with over a thousand engineers expected to go. According to Taiwanese media reports, the engineers sent by TSMC to the US are not only the main force of the company’s Arizona fab but also key talents in revitalizing the semiconductor industry in the United States."
"TSMC’s engineers stationed in the United States receive double the base salary {unattractive} and maintain the same bonus as those in Taiwan. As for housing, employees can choose to live in the company-provided dormitory located in the nearby Deer Valley community, with a monthly rent of $1,800 for which the company provides a $2,000 monthly subsidy."
tsmc careers AZ 52 jobs.
i.e Engineers
-Bachelor, Master or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field 6+ years of experience in the semiconductor field, especially in module process development
-Experience in the semiconductor industry with AMAT, TEL, HKE, ASM, Mattson or HSPS 300mm tool process and equipment knowledge
-must relocate to TW for 9 months training.
... it looks like only support positions for the plant are posted. Disliked is the high cost of living compared to TW.
more here: https://www.diskmfr.com/tsmc-engineers-wife-reveals-10-secrets-of-us-factory/
"In order to coordinate with the Taiwan headquarters’ schedule, employees in the US have to work from Sunday to Thursday, from 1 PM to 10 PM."
rstofer:
--- Quote from: floobydust on July 22, 2023, 07:03:00 pm ---There is a culture clash - difference in wage, working hours, building codes. And some political games.
As far as the shortage of skilled "plumbers" to build the fab, Arizona unions are irked they have no work or labour agreement with TSMC. CHIPs legislation gives project labour agreements as "nice-to-have" not mandatory. TSMC complaint is America is costing 4x that of Taiwan. So plumbers are too expensive, lol. There is no shortage of skilled people.
--- End quote ---
I doubt there will ever be a union contract with TSMC. Skilled trades work for contractors and TSMC can hire any contractor they wish. In Siliicon Gulch, contractor union contracts call for a 'grievance' bonus if they have to work alongside non-union contractors.
Unless the plumbers have worked in a wafer fab, they know exactly jack about welded tube-in-tube stainless tubing or fusion welded (whatever they use for DI water today). Regardless of the cleanliness of the piping upon delivery, there will likely be a cleaning operation they haven't seen before. There will be a lot to learn.
TSMC moved to AZ for a number of reasons among them the fact that the state is 'right to work' - union membership is not required.
--- Quote ---Arizona is a right to work state. Arizona's right to work law provides that an employer can neither deny a person the opportunity to obtain employment nor deny an employee the opportunity to retain employment because the person or employee is not member of a labor organization.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---"Starting from early November last year, TSMC has been sending its employees and their families on chartered flights to the United States, with over a thousand engineers expected to go. According to Taiwanese media reports, the engineers sent by TSMC to the US are not only the main force of the company’s Arizona fab but also key talents in revitalizing the semiconductor industry in the United States."
"TSMC’s engineers stationed in the United States receive double the base salary {unattractive} and maintain the same bonus as those in Taiwan. As for housing, employees can choose to live in the company-provided dormitory located in the nearby Deer Valley community, with a monthly rent of $1,800 for which the company provides a $2,000 monthly subsidy."
tsmc careers AZ 52 jobs.
i.e Engineers
-Bachelor, Master or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field 6+ years of experience in the semiconductor field, especially in module process development
-Experience in the semiconductor industry with AMAT, TEL, HKE, ASM, Mattson or HSPS 300mm tool process and equipment knowledge
-must relocate to TW for 9 months training.
... it looks like only support positions for the plant are posted. Disliked is the high cost of living compared to TW.
more here: https://www.diskmfr.com/tsmc-engineers-wife-reveals-10-secrets-of-us-factory/
"In order to coordinate with the Taiwan headquarters’ schedule, employees in the US have to work from Sunday to Thursday, from 1 PM to 10 PM."
--- End quote ---
I can't imagine a 1 hour lunch break for hourly employees - there are things in the oven. Or they plan to pay 1-1/2x for that extra half hour - unlikely.
I was involved in a similar kind of deal when I was building a wafer fab in Singapore. We had a bunch of the local talent working for about a year in the US learning to operate the equipment and once the fab was complete a small handful of US tech talent moved to Singapore for a while. Those Singapore engineers are very well educated, it was fun working with them. The factory was built from scratching dirt to production wafers out in almost exactly 1 year. Great contractors - but they needed a little skills updating for that welded tube-in-tube stuff but they were all in for buying tools and learning to use them.
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