A
U.S. labor union has started a petition calling for Taiwanese workers
to be prohibited from working on the construction of Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) Arizona facility.
The
Arizona Pipe Trades 469 Union started the petition to prevent visas from
being issued to foreign workers after TSMC said it would send Taiwanese
staff to help with project delays.
The petition is being sent
to U.S. legislators and asks that “more than 500 EB-2 visas the company
has requested for construction workers” be blocked.
“TSMC has
shown a lack of respect for American workers, placing profit above
worker safety and deliberately misrepresenting the quality, skills, and
experience of Arizona’s workforce,” the petition reads. It comes after
the founder of TSMC said in July he was unhappy to learn that unionized
labor would be building the facility.
In late June, TSMC said
that it would send more workers from Taiwan to the U.S. to work on
building its semiconductor manufacturing facility in Arizona, but it did
not say how many workers would be sent. Sources familiar with the
matter who said it would be “several hundred.”
On Monday (Aug.
7), TSMC agreed to apply more scrutiny to the safety of its workers on
the Arizona project, beyond what is required by state and federal law.
The agreement followed an American Prospect investigation in June, which
reported workers who said “injuries and safety violations are rampant,"
and union representatives who said two workers had died on site (one
directly related to a workplace accident, the other by drug overdose).
Workers
said that because the project was behind schedule, TSMC was cutting
corners on safety. The business director for the union that created the
petition, Josh Wakeham, said in one instance workers were told to
hastily evacuate the site because of an “active-shooter drill,” when in
fact there was a gas leak.
“So, no one trusts them,” Wakeham
said. “It’s their culture of, ‘Hey, we’re not trying to slow down any
productivity, get back to work, nothing to see here.’” Workers have also
complained of a "brutal" work culture at TSMC facilities, a complaint
that was dismissed by the company's Chair Mark Liu.
TSMC rejected
the claims made in the report and said no workers had died on the site.
“For TSMC Arizona, our safety and injury incident rates are
significantly lower than state and national benchmarks,” the company
said in a statement.
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