As reported in the IBEW’s Electrical Worker Online, Micron, a leading computer chip maker based in Boise, Idaho, announced on October 3, 2022 that it will build a $100 billion facility in Clay, N.Y., about 15 miles north of Syracuse, over the next 20 years. Work is expected to begin in either late 2023 or early 2024.
The facility will be entirely union-built and employ about 9,000 construction workers. About one-third will be IBEW members, who will handle all the electrical work. It follows up an announcement a few weeks earlier by Intel to build a $20 billion semiconductor facility in New Albany, Ohio, where electrical work during construction is expected to be done by members of Newark, Ohio, Local 1105.
"The importance of this can't be overstated," IBEW International President Lonnie R. Stephenson said. "A facility vital to this country's national interests will be built entirely with highly skilled union labor. This is a great moment not just for Local 43 and the Syracuse community but for all IBEW members. This has the potential to touch so many of our local construction unions throughout North America."
Micron officials said they would not have committed to such a massive facility without the CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in July. The bill contains $52 billion in incentives to encourage companies to produce important semiconductors in the United States, which will strengthen national security and lessen dependence on foreign product supply chains.
The deal is significant on multiple levels. Read the full article here in the December 2022 issue of the Electrical Worker Online.
