TSMC thinks Americans are lazy bastards

[Cmaier]

Campaigns want TSMC engineer visas blocked in Arizona plant row

A campaign is being waged against Apple chip partner TSMC over its first plant in the United States, demanding that TSMC is prevented from bringing over 500 workers from Taiwan.

appleinsider.com

I am all in favor of blocking visas for Taiwanese workers to come to the U.S. and work in the U.S. TSMC plant; there are plenty of qualified American workers, and the visa system is too often abused to allow companies to hire the cheap labor they want instead of hiring willing U.S. workers who demand a fair wage.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Apparently we can train for and manage a foreign war with about a dozen people but when it comes to manufacturing chips we need to bring in 500. Sure.

 

[rdrr]

Got to change that label

Designed in California
Made in America (but by a foreign work force)

 

[fischersd]

Campaigns want TSMC engineer visas blocked in Arizona plant row

A campaign is being waged against Apple chip partner TSMC over its first plant in the United States, demanding that TSMC is prevented from bringing over 500 workers from Taiwan.

appleinsider.com

I am all in favor of blocking visas for Taiwanese workers to come to the U.S. and work in the U.S. TSMC plant; there are plenty of qualified American workers, and the visa system is too often abused to allow companies to hire the cheap labor they want instead of hiring willing U.S. workers who demand a fair wage.

That's the key point - "Who demand a fair wage"

You're not going to find anyone in North America that's willing to go to school for two years only to make minimum wage (they may as well work in a restaurant).

$3.32 US per hour at Foxconn

I'm sure everyone in the US would still line up to buy their iPhones if they cost $4000 each.

 

[Nycturne]

I also wonder about other factors:

- Did they setup in Arizona with the idea of pulling talent away from Intel to staff the plant and come up short in their poaching efforts?
- Was Arizona the right place compared to maybe Oregon (Hillsboro) to do this sort of maneuver in the first place?
- Is the staff shortage due to wages alone, or being unable to convince people to migrate to Arizona to grow the talent pool?

I honestly wonder if it was a bit of a gamble to setup in Arizona, although I can understand it since you want to try to access the existing fabrication talent.

I am all in favor of blocking visas for Taiwanese workers to come to the U.S. and work in the U.S. TSMC plant; there are plenty of qualified American workers, and the visa system is too often abused to allow companies to hire the cheap labor they want instead of hiring willing U.S. workers who demand a fair wage.

Seeing firms that game the H1B system effectively destroy the local contracting talent pool for tech companies, I agree on the abuses. At the same time, I have empathy for the workers themselves who intend to stick around and make a home for themselves here.

 

[Yoused]

- Was Arizona the right place compared to maybe Oregon (Hillsboro) to do this sort of maneuver in the first place?

You are aware that Oregon has the second-highest minimum wage in the country, right? I am pretty sure AZ is baseline, with full tip-credit, or close to it. Why would that even matter? I get the sense that baseline wages exert pressure on expert-level wages, at least to some extent. Also, I am pretty sure Oregon is stricter about things like business waste products and general decency, while I suspect Arizona is more on the laissez faire end of the biz rules spectrum.

 

[Nycturne]

You are aware that Oregon has the second-highest minimum wage in the country, right? I am pretty sure AZ is baseline, with full tip-credit, or close to it. Why would that even matter? I get the sense that baseline wages exert pressure on expert-level wages, at least to some extent. Also, I am pretty sure Oregon is stricter about things like business waste products and general decency, while I suspect Arizona is more on the laissez faire end of the biz rules spectrum.

Sometimes, when trying to bootstrap, you have to go to where the talent you want is, not just find the place favorable to yourself and expect the workers to come to you. It's one of the reasons why it's so hard to escape Silicon Valley without decades of effort.

I get why TSMC is looking at Arizona, since Intel has fabs there and is also expanding. So there should be a worker pool available, although one the two companies now have to fight for, especially if they are willing to poach. So I am mostly curious why they are having problems. Hillsboro has Intel's R&D fabs and so another source of poachable talent.