Judith Barish, CHIPS Communities United, info@chipscommunitiesunited.org, (510) 759-9910
Ada Recinos, Sierra Club, ada.recinos@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – CHIPS Communities United (CCU), a coalition of labor unions, environmental organizations, and community groups, today thanked Members of Congress for recent letters to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that raised concerns with transparency and enforceability in CHIPS contracts.
House Labor Caucus Leadership responded with dismay to the announcement of the final CHIPS Act contract with Polar Semiconductor of Bloomington, Minn, the first such contract to be announced. The letter lamented that the contract falls short of the Biden-Harris administration’s vision that the CHIPS Act would create “equitable workforce development pathways for workers to obtain good jobs that pay family-sustaining wages, provide critical benefits, prevent workplace discrimination, ensure worker safety, and allow workers a free and fair chance to join a union.”
In its correspondence, the Labor Caucus underlined the absence of transparent commitments, public progress reporting, and strong compliance mechanisms. “Based on the announcement, the contract lacks transparent, enforceable commitments from the company on the minimum quantity of jobs that will be created by the project, as well as minimum wages and benefits by job classification. It is unclear if Polar’s progress on their commitments will be publicly reported or how these commitments will be enforced. There is no clarity on what project milestones are or the conditions under which Polar would incur penalties for non-compliance with meeting said milestones or workforce and environmental commitments.”
Multiple U.S. Senators pointed to a lack of transparency in a subsequent letter to Secretary Raimondo, noting, “These terms and ongoing public reporting are particularly important given the semiconductor industry’s impact on health, safety, and the environment and its reputation for resisting employee efforts to unionize.”
Both letters emphasized demands that CCU members and staff have articulated in meetings with the Commerce Department for the last several months.
CCU is hopeful that workforce and environmental commitments will be made public in future CHIPS Act award announcements and that contracts will mandate public, company-specific progress reporting, with strong clawback provisions for non-compliance.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.