But in the future we will have to move away from this.
Edition The New York Times decided to once again remind you of the problems that Taiwanese company TSMC faces when building contract semiconductor manufacturing plants in Arizona. Cultural differences between Taiwan and the United States in terms of organizing labor processes have repeatedly caused serious conflicts between the company’s employees hired in these countries.
Image source: TSMC
TSMC’s American employees were supposed to undergo an 18-month internship in Taiwan, but at the beginning of the program, many of them were shocked by the need to work overtime and perform tasks that were not included in their direct responsibilities. Some of the interns could not handle the workload and interrupted their training in Taiwan, returning to the United States. At the construction site of the first plant in Arizona, local workers were exhausted by the endless and numerous meetings, so management had to reduce the number of such meetings.
TSMC representatives were forced to admit that the company currently relies on labor imported from Taiwan to build its plants in the US – it currently employs up to half of its 2,200-person workforce in Arizona. It is clear that in the future it will not be able to rely so much on seconded employees from Taiwan, and therefore it needs to train qualified specialists in Arizona. To this end, it is actively cooperating with local universities.
