Chip Factories Are Unions’ Next Target in Test for Biden

Communication Workers of America, Micron to enter negotiations
Intel responded coolly to union talks, CWA president says

ASML is behind what’s arguably the most important technology in the world rightnow: extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. Without these $200 million EUV machines and the semiconductors they make, there’d be no artificial intelligence revolution and the global economy would begin to slow. While the machines made in the Netherlands are sold mostly to companies in Taiwan and South Korea, TSMC and Samsung, Intel was very late to the game. The US government meanwhile under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden has been scrambling to ensure none of the machines are sold to China.

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By Mackenzie Hawkins

May 24, 2024 at 9:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

First it was electric vehicles. Now it’s semiconductors. Unions are once again testing whether President Joe Biden can deliver on his promise of a manufacturing boom that boosts organized labor.

The Communications Workers of America, which represents some 700,000 tech and media workers, is set to begin talks for a so-called labor peace agreement with Micron Technology Inc. that would cover the chipmaker’s $50 billion, two-factory investment in New York. The project recently won funding from the 2022 Chips and Science Act. It would be one of only a handful of US semiconductor sites covered by a union accord, and by far the largest.