Make the CHIPS Act Deliver for Workers & Communities!
Semiconductor Industry Executives
The CHIPS & Science Act provides $52 billion in federal grants and loans to invest in building and upgrading the next generation of high-end semiconductor fabrication plants and other facilities necessary to the semiconductor supply chain.
The CHIPS incentives represent a massive investment of public funding to private industry with the goal of rebuilding a sustainable domestic semiconductor industry and reinforcing critical U.S. supply chains. In exchange for such enormous public subsidies, the semiconductor industry must be held accountable to deliver real, tangible, economic and social benefits for working people and the communities where these facilities are sited.
However, we cannot assume positive outcomes: The semiconductor industry has a well-documented track record -- starting in Silicon Valley and expanding globally -- of polluting the environment, poisoning workers, busting unions, and burdening host communities with significant problems.
In the spirit of the CHIPS Act appropriations language, we are urging the semiconductor industry's corporate leadership to lead the way for a productive and cooperative relationship with the communities hosting semiconductor facilities and negotiate comprehensive community benefits agreements with host communities where CHIPS funded facilities will be located.
Sponsored by
To:
Semiconductor Industry Executives
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Semiconductor Industry Executives,
As you know, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act provides $52 billion in grants and loans to rebuild a sustainable domestic semiconductor industry and reinforce critical U.S. supply chains. Unfortunately, the Act doesn’t specify criteria for assuring that workers and communities impacted by this initiative also receive proportional benefits from this taxpayer funding.
Our new initiative — “CHIPS Communities United” — seeks to work with the semiconductor companies benefiting from these massive public subsidies to fill this void by ensuring that the promised economic and social benefits of the CHIPS Act are also realized for the workers and communities where facilities are sited.
Our concerns stem from the semiconductor industry's well-documented history, starting in Silicon Valley and expanding globally, of polluting the environment, harming workers and their offspring as well as community residents, busting unions, avoiding taxes, and burdening host communities with significant problems.
Our goal is to avoid the problems of the past and achieve a new, higher standard of accountability as prioritized by the Biden Administration. Towards that end, we request each company subsidized by the CHIPS Act agree to comprehensive community benefits. CHIPS Communities United will assist local communities hosting new or refurbished facilities to meet with each company's representatives to negotiate local agreements that should include:
Training, recruitment, and job quality standards for a diversified workforce including measures such as pay equity and transparency, fair schedules, child care and other supportive services, and protections against discrimination and harassment, to ensure accessibility for and retention of women, people of color and other underrepresented populations;
Respect for all semiconductor workers' rights to organize, including subcontracted service workers; union neutrality agreements; and project labor agreements for all facility construction;
State-of-the-art health and safety protocols; phasing out and safely substituting PFAS “forever chemicals;” replacing chemicals that can cause cancer, miscarriages, and/or fetal brain damage, and/or are persistent bioaccumulative and toxic; and where no safer substitutes exist yet, replace inadequate “permissible exposure limits” for hazardous chemicals with strong health-protective exposure standards;
Review of facility design to ensure protection of air and water resources;
Ambitious renewable energy commitments with high impact sourcing methods;
Investment in public infrastructure.
In the spirit of the CHIPS Act appropriations language, we urge the semiconductor industry's corporate leadership to lead the way for a productive and cooperative relationship with the communities hosting your facilities. We further urge you to designate representatives to meet with the local coalitions supported by our campaign to begin substantive community-based negotiations on the topics listed above.
We look forward to beginning this process of responsible and constructive community engagement. As a start, please respond to our letter by identifying your company representative with whom we should be in touch.
Sincerely,