After starting construction on Fab 21 near Phoenix, Arizona, TSMC said it would need to bring in more than 1,000 skilled workers from Taiwan to complete the project on time and on budget. The situation infuriated Arizona unions, who argued it essentially disenfranchised local residents, and the situation prompted another lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. Currently, about 50% of the factory’s staff is still from Taiwan, but that will change over time as TSMC builds additional stages of the factory, The New York Times reports.
About half of the 2,200 employees at TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona are from Taiwan. When announcing the project in 2020, TSMC promised the public that it would create jobs for local residents, so bringing in more than 1,000 workers from Taiwan means the foundry will hire talent from Arizona. This contradicted the promise and naturally drew the ire of the trade unions.
TSMC also reportedly had labor policies that conflicted with those in the U.S. It was eventually discovered that TSMC was requiring employees to work long hours that were not common in the U.S. TSMC also reportedly had labor policies that were inconsistent with U.S. labor policies. During the lawsuit, the company was accused of giving priority to Taiwanese employees.
However, TSMC expects the percentage of U.S. workers to increase as it builds additional phases of Fab 21 over the next five years. This is likely to occur as existing TSMC employees learn more about the company’s operations, are promoted, and others are hired. The three-phase project is expected to create approximately 6,000 good-wage jobs.
What remains to be seen is who will equip the next phase of Fab 21: existing site employees or new employees from Taiwan. TSMC’s Fab 21 Phase 2 will focus on producing chips using N3 (3nm class) process technology. In contrast, Fab 21 Phase 3 will add N2 (2nm class) and A16 (1.6nm class) technologies and their versions with backside power delivery, performance and transistor density enhancements to the site.
However, N3, N2, and A16 use slightly different tooling than the N4 and N5 production nodes used in Fab 21 Phase 1. As a result, TSMC may be inclined to bring in more workers from Taiwan to install these tools and help set up the fab. , because you can have unique experiences that Americans cannot.
