Current, ex-Intel workers lose appeal

About 800 current and former workers at Intel Corp.’s Colorado Springs plant lost their appeal to get federal retraining and job-hunting help.

The U.S. Employment and Training Administration last week rejected the appeal of a June decision denying that workers weren’t eligible for the help under the Trade Act of 1974. The latest rejection can be appealed to the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York.

Judy Cara, Intel spokeswoman in Colorado Springs, said Wednesday that the California-based semiconductor giant is “reviewing the decision and evaluating the options. We don’t have a final decision at this time.” An appeal must be filed by late November.

Intel said in January it planned to sell the 1.4 million-square-foot plant, or close the operation if no buyer is found. The company has twice extended production, which is now scheduled to end early next year, with the 400 remaining workers at the plant.

Workers argued in their appeal that the department misidentified the type of product produced at the plant and that they will lose their jobs because Intel sold the product line formerly made at the plant to another company that is shifting production to Taiwan.

To qualify for the federal help, a company or its workers must show they are victims of foreign competition in one of two ways — from shifting work to a country with a free-trade agreement with the United States, or from imports of similar products that triggered layoffs.

The agency’s original decision and appeal ruled that Intel workers didn’t meet either criteria. Taiwan does not have a free-trade agreement with the United States, and the agency ruled both times the products in question aren’t similar enough to qualify.

The appeal pointed out the Intel workers made semiconductors at the plant, not silicon wafers as alleged by the federal agency. Silicon wafers are turned into semiconductors by putting circuit designs onto them and then cutting them into individual chips.

The distinction is important because the agency ruled that semiconductor production is being shifted to Taiwan, which is a different product than was produced at the Intel plant. The agency denied the appeal because the final step of the process isn’t done at the plant.

The federal help would have included up to $1,250 for travel as part of a job search, $1,250 in moving expenses and up to two years in unemployment benefits if workers are enrolled in a retraining program, employment counseling and workshops on résumé writing and interviewing.

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