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It seems that Asian and Eastern European companies that open factories in the US are bearing there is their own “production culture”. US workers at TSMC and Slovenian PC maker EKWB reportedly face racism, rudeness, overtime, underpayment and false accusations.
TSMC
The world leader in chip production, TSMC received perhaps the largest benefit from the American CHIPS law in the form of $6.6 billion to open factories in the USA. The company is Taiwan's largest, valued at $660 billion, but is also known for 12-hour workdays and weekend work, as well as abusive management. They call workers out of hours, threaten to fire them for minor failures, and the like. This doesn't surprise anyone in Taiwan, but Americans are not used to this kind of attitude.
The Rest of World website says that American engineers traveled to Taiwan back in 2021 to undergo training at TSMC's manufacturing facility before the two new factories in Arizona began operating. They were shocked to see the 12-hour workday and high management pressure. The failure to prioritize tasks and instead expect frantic intensity to complete each one has been denounced by Americans as poor management. They also received tasks with time limits that did not allow them to complete them without using personal time.
The American workers were subsequently returned to the Arizona factories along with their Taiwanese counterparts. Construction has faced numerous delays and is about a year behind schedule, but many Americans have left TSMC while still in training in Taiwan, and others have returned to the US to find that the company's work culture has spread to the new plants.
- Engineers who planned to work on production lines were tasked with removing waste after construction workers.
- Taiwanese managers had to undergo training on how not to yell at employees in public, which didn’t stick.
- Engineers discovered that they would have to falsify test results on the wafers produced to meet management's expectations.
Taiwanese workers, who were accustomed to such rights violations, and American workers, who were accustomed to complaining or quitting under the same conditions, were unable to interact adequately. Americans complain about “Asian culture,” while Taiwanese engineers consider their colleagues arrogant and carefree. Conflict between employees is actually also a “merit” of the company, because it is caused by working conditions.
EKWB
Founded in 2003 by Edward Konig, EKWB (Edvard Konig Water Blocks) is headquartered in Komenda, Slovenia. The US branch was located in San Antonio, Texas, until its offices closed last month. The company sells custom water cooling components and produces water-cooled PCs under the Fluid Gaming brand, as well as Fluid Works enterprise workstations.
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PCGamesN reported that former business and product development manager Dan Henderson accused the company of racism. Tom's Hardware spoke with Henderson and four other former members of the EKCS team, the company's US division. They all described a “chaotic and toxic” workplace.
Several former employees previously accused EKWB of creating a hostile work environment filled with racist jokes and offensive rhetoric at the company's Texas offices. Workers also say the firm did not pay them for overtime and that it damaged relationships with suppliers by repeatedly delaying payments.
Slovenian managers repeatedly belittled American employees, calling them lazy and stupid, and blaming them for problems with the company's inventory management, while the company's internal accounting software was malfunctioning. According to former regional sales manager Jemari Serrati, employees often spent hours trying to count products on shelves, trying to compensate for software shortcomings. However, managers in Slovenia accused American personnel of stealing supplies to explain the problems.
The offensive language went far beyond simply calling employees stupid or lazy and escalated into outright racism. Serrati, the only African-American employee in the office, said a former co-worker made racist jokes, comparing him to chocolate, and nearly hit him with a forklift several times. The visiting manager from Slovenia also told Serrati a racist joke about chocolate.
When there were no non-white workers, the jokes could have been even worse. Another former employee said some managers described Hispanic employees as “lazy Mexicans.”
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An employee described the company culture as a “boys club” and said she received constant pushback when she tried to exercise any power over her male colleagues. However, no one directly told her that they were not listening to her because she was a woman.
In a statement, EK's head of communications Sacha Roby said the company had only received two reports of racism and had dealt with both. Roby asked any current or former employees who have not reported discrimination to come forward now.
Employees also say they were not paid for required overtime. Workers were ordered to work overtime to complete orders or to prevent the branch from being reprimanded. At the same time, actual overtime hours were, at best, halved in reporting and, accordingly, in payments, and more often they were not taken into account at all.
Henderson claims the company promised him commissions on all sales in his contract, but then failed to pay them. One day he invoiced the company for the commission he was supposed to receive and received a message from management saying that they did not think he was entitled to the commission and that he would have to agree to new terms if he wanted to continue there work. At another point, he was paid the commission he was owed, but then the company refused to pay his regular salary for several months of work, claiming that the “accidental” commission payment was in lieu of a month's salary.
It was after the company refused to pay the missing money that Henderson decided to make a public statement. He claims that the company threatened him with legal action and demanded payment of €70,000 if he did not delete his post on LinkedIn.
Employees also complained about potentially dangerous conditions in the warehouse. They were required to operate a forklift, even though no one in the company was licensed to do so. Warehouse workers were forced to stand very high on stacked boxes with the risk of falling.
Henderson says he wanted to speak out not only to get the compensation he believes he is entitled to, but because his co-workers also have a chance at repayment.
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