A California semiconductor company plans to hire hundreds of employees exclusively from local unions, a rare move in an industry historically averse to organized labor and one that could boost its bid for US funds.
Akash Systems Inc has entered formal labor agreements with the industrial division of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, covering about 250 production-line workers and dozens of construction workers who are to build a US$62 million semiconductor facility in West Oakland, California.
The company said the union agreement would allow it to more rapidly hire and train skilled workers.
Photo: Bloomberg
However, it also has the added political benefit of appealing to US President Joe Biden, who has worked in recent months to burnish his pro-union intentions.
Akash is one of hundreds of firms vying for money from last year’s Chips Act, which set aside federal grants and loans valued at US$100 billion for chip makers and their suppliers. The law aims to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the US and reduce reliance on Asian supply chains — while contributing to a broader manufacturing revival that Biden has promised would be a boon to organized labor.
“Historically, semiconductor tech companies in general are not excited about unions,” said Akash Systems cofounder and chief executive officer Felix Ejeckam. “We are aware that the Biden administration’s excited about this and so we’re certainly leaning into that.”
White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said Biden and his administration “welcome partnerships between the semiconductor industry and labor unions.”
US Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su hosted Ejeckam and several union leaders at an event Tuesday on empowering workers, according to a press release.
The US Department of Commerce declined to comment on any potential applicant, but pointed to the administration’s so-called “good jobs principles,” which include workers’ right to organize.
Those principles are part of the guidelines for applicants seeking Chips Act funds, along with a preference for labor agreements between chip makers and construction unions. Projects that receive government support are also covered by updated federal wage rules, which increase pay for more than a million construction workers.
However, labor deals are rare in the semiconductor sector. Only one US chip production facility — ON Semiconductor Corp’s plant in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania — has a unionized workforce, according to the CWA.
The tension is already playing out in the US chips push, as Arizona unions clash with the world’s leading chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), over safety and management issues at their US$40 billion Phoenix site.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
RSS