SWOPblogger

Intel's latest attempt at greenwashing its image just doesn't square with the facts.

Intel Capital raising stake in clean tech

Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, July 11, 2008

Intel Capital is boosting its investments in clean technology startups as a way to develop new sources of power for Intel processors.

I say they should invest in clean technology for the residents of Corrales, or at least take the recomendations of their own cheerleaders.

Intel endangers community health by refusing steps to solve their plant's air pollution

From SWOP Director Robby Rodriguez:

Intel is rejecting its own community front group’s recommendation to raise the height of its pollution stacks.

To review:

Intel formed the Community Environmental Working Group (CEWG), chose its members, and appointed John Bartlit as the acting chair.

Every evaluation study of the risks from Intel's toxic emissions has concluded that the existing stacks are much too low.

After nearly two decades of poisoning the air its neighbors breathe, Intel finally agreed to raise the stacks to a height that would substantially decrease the concentration of toxic emissions at ground level.

Intel also promised to raise the stacks to the height decided by its own CEWG.

After much study and input from experts, the CEWG recommended that the stack height be not less than 38 meters.

However, Intel decided to ignore the CEWG recommendation and raise their stacks to only 30 meters.

John Bartlit, Intel's appointed Acting Chair, has an opportunity to stand up for his CEWG and insist that Intel honor its promise to abide by CEWG's recommendations.

Mr. Bartlit can thereby choose to protect and defend the environment and nearby residents.

Or he can continue to protect and defend Intel.

Which option will he choose?

Fred Marsh
Corrales Residents for Clean Air & Water

Labels: Intel

A new twist on the conventional wisdom of Intel's math

Moore's law may yet be in need of an update to keep up with the times. SWOP has offered a hidden equation - dubbed "SWOP's Law" - which may also need updating...but that's another story.

NY Times 6/30/08 - Intel’s Dominance Is Challenged by a Low-Power Upstart

NYtimes.com: From mainframes to minicomputers and then PCs, each new computing generation has displaced its predecessor by reaching a broader audience and costing far less. And each time, the dominant company in one generation loses control in the next.

Intel hopes its tiny new Atom chip will fend off a British rival. That’s why the PC industry’s commanding chip maker, Intel, might do well to be alarmed by the computer chips being designed by Qualcomm, a maker of chips for cellphones. An engineer at Qualcomm’s gleaming corporate campus here demonstrated a palm-sized circuit board capable of displaying high-definition video. What was striking about the demonstration was not the quality of the video images, which is now commonplace. Rather it was that the microprocessor chip, called Snapdragon, drives the display with less than half the power of a similar chip recently introduced by Intel. Qualcomm designers say it will also cost less.
Continue Reading.

Putting the "Anti" in Trustiness

NY Times 5/7/08 - In Turnabout, Anti-trust Unit Looks at Intel

NYtimes.org: WASHINGTON — A global legal battle between the two largest makers of computer processors took an abrupt turn this week when the Federal Trade Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation of the Intel Corporation.

Continue Reading.

NY Times Editorial 5/15/08 - The Intel Investigation

NYtimes Editorial: It certainly took its time. But the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to open a formal antitrust investigation of Intel is very welcome.
Continue reading.

Labels: Anti-trust, corporate accountability, Intel, Moore's Law

From SWOP Director Robby Rodriguez:

Intel is rejecting its own community front group’s recommendation to raise the height of its pollution stacks.

****
See the video here.

Intel is building new smokestacks, and some people in Corrales are fighting to have them built taller.

Residents said the higher stacks will bring less air pollution to their neighborhood.

Intel is building the new smokestacks 30 meters tall, shorter than the 38 to 40 meters recommended by Intel's own community group. The company said 30 meters is already taller than what is mandated and any taller would interfere with neighbors’ views.

..."As you go to much higher stacks, the concentration of material that gets down to ground level will be less," said [Hugh] Church...who was on Intel's community environmental working group. "I think 30 meters is too short."

Read the full article.
****

What the Channel 7 report does not say is that NMED’s own staff stated publicly and on the record that “Intel could be culpable for residents illnesses”.

That statement was made by Mary Uhl of the NM Environment Department after an independent air modeling study found extremely high correlation between Intel’s pollution plume and resident complaints to the Environment Department. After that statement, Governor Richardson through his Secretaries for Environment & Health shut down the task force process.

The task force met anyway to make recommendations and Intel did agree to raise the height of their stacks.

Given all this, why does Intel stop at 30 meters when their own cheerleaders are calling for 38-40? What’s another 8-10 meters?

What a bunch of jerks.

Labels: Envirionmental Justice, Intel

Unite Here! and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition were at Intel's recent shareholder meeting. As part of their advocacy for workers and communities, Unite Here! has released a report on Intel's claims of "corporate responsibility."

An Excerpt:

Responsibility in the Balance

Toward real accountability

Intel’s corporate responsibility reports and the Electronic Code of Conduct present Intel as a company as committed to adding to the community as it is adding to shareholder value.

Yet Intel’s behavior raises questions if Intel is serious about corporate responsibility or if the company uses Corporate Responsibility to deflect criticism.

In 2004, a shareholder resolution was sponsored by New Mexico community environmental group, The Southwest Organizing project, (SWOP) and the Jessie Smith Noyes foundation. In exchange for the group removing the resolution Intel resolved to set-up a Community Advisory Board28 in Rio Rancho, NM. This led to the creation of Intel’s Community Environmental Working Group (CEWG) in Albuquerque, chaired by John Bartlitt of New Mexicans for Clean Air and Water, a Los Alamos-based group.

Intel admits “two of Intel’s strongest critics,” Corrales Residents for Clean Air and Water and South West Organizing Project, have refused to participate.

Robby Rodriguez Executive Director of SWOP explained:

"We didn’t feel that CEWG held the promise for any meaningful change. Its leadership was hand- picked by Intel, and not representative of the actual community opposition to their practices with regard to water use and chemical emissions. It’s clear to us that Intel views this as a public relations effort, not an effort at real accountability or corporate responsibility."

Download the full report.

*****************************
A sample of how you can act to support workers and communities who feel the effects of Intel's version of corporate responsibility.

My name is Juan Carlos Ramirez. I worked as a washer at Prudential Overall Supply in Milpitas, California for three years. Each morning I spent hours washing items for Intel Corporation.

Last fall, my coworkers and I set out to improve conditions by forming a union at our plant. Prudential responded by suspending me from my job. After my coworkers came together, I was reinstated, but the company's attacks continued and we were forced to strike for four months. Soon after the strike I was laid off again. That's why I chose to speak out a Intel's shareholder meeting.

Support Juan and send Intel a message.

Labels: Envirionmental Justice, Intel, Shareholder Strategies, worker's rights

MAY 8 - 11 (THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY): 3:45, 6:00, 8:15

This new documentary is a poetic glance at a community’s creative response to a series of teacher firings, taking place in the context of police brutality and restrictive free speech zones - a nation at war abroad and with its people. When the bombs began to fall on Iraq in 2003, Albuquerque Youth Poetry Slam Team Coach, Bill Nevins, was suspended and later fired from his teaching job, while his outspoken High School Poetry Team was silenced. Nevins was the last of seven area educators removed by fearful administrations seeking to quell debate and expression by students. Days after Nevins’ removal, brutal police tactics on anti-war protesters emerged as the latest attempt at silencing these voices. Yet out of this fire arose a committed community of courageous poets, and musicians. They came together across the country and was dubbed Poetic Justice.  It defied the fear tactics of the day to support and model freedom of speech and stand with the fired teacher. The voices from Poetic Justice, and the resulting film, stand as a testament to our creative spirit and an affirmation of the power of our words - a path toward transformation and hope in these troubling times.

THE GUILD CINEMA, 3405 Central NE (Tulane Dr)

Thanks to Charles for the heads up on this one. And thanks to Bill Nevins and the young poets for doing what they do...

Labels: Civic Engagement, Civil Rights, Intel, Iraq, POP Culture, war

From Fortune Magazine's Go West Blog: The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting interview with Intel (INTC) CEO Paul Otellini the other day. A few things stuck out. First, in the three years Otellini has run Intel its headcount has dropped from 103,300 to 84,600, according to the Journal.

Does anyone have an accurate count of layoffs in NM?

Labels: Intel, intel layoffs

In a rare change of heart for a multinational, Intel has decided today to give back to the taxpayers of New Mexico.

"As a show of our appreciation to taxpayers for their generosity for taking on our tax burden, not only are we going to pay back each and every dollar we took from the state's coffers through tax breaks, we're going to give each and every child in the state a free top-of-the-line computer with Intel's latest super chips inside," said Liz Malloy, a spokesperson for the company. "And further, we will reduce our toxic emissions to virtually zero within the next year."

"It's the least we can do," added Liz Malloy. "NM taxpayers have helped to make us one of the richest corporations in the world."

Labels: April Fools 08, Intel, IRB's

In this article from the Dec. 15 Corrales Comment about Patrick Callahan, the third Intel whistle-blower, he tells of repeated disregard for safety procedures at Intel, and the mistreatment of employees who try to follow the proper procedures.

Note Mr. Callahan's summary in the final paragraph, in which he says:
"Intel's public relations people come out and say they're deeply concerned about the community. But if they're not concerned about exposing their own employees, I don't think they're deeply concerned about the community".

Fred Marsh
Corrales Residents for Clean Air & Water
*************************************

The third former Intel employee whistleblower to speak out publicly about the company’s toxic chemical usage believes such factories shouldn’t be allowed near residential areas.

In an interview following his remarks November 7 to officials with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Patrick Callahan said, “I’m deeply concerned about the community. We shouldn’t have chemical factories next to our schools and neighborhoods, but I’m more concerned about the workers themselves.”

Callahan, who worked for Intel for 18 years, eventually as a senior technician and manufacturing safety specialist, called for a thorough review of presumed safe levels of exposure to industrial chemicals.

Callahan said his own exposures to toxic chemicals at Intel caused chronic liver damage. “The bottom line is, whoever is in charge of determining what level of chemicals is safe needs to go back and re-visit all of that. Most of that data was set in the Sixties, and the industry has changed.

“As far as putting computer chip factories next to schools and in residential neighborhoods, that’s just ridiculous. That needs to change.

Read More:

Labels: Envirionmental Justice, Intel

Patrick Callahan, who spoke at the November 7 ATSDR (Agency For Toxic Substances And Disease Registry) meeting in Rio Rancho, is the third former Intel employee to speak about the mishandling of toxic chemicals at Intel's Rio Rancho facility.

The information below from an article in the current (December 8, 2007) issue of the Corrales Comment.

...Why should [anyone] believe Intel's calculated emissions, based on their fictitious emission factors?

I'd also like to hear Mr. Callahan's thoughts about Intel receiving the highest Green Zia Award for Environmental Excellence, and John Bartlit's continued support for it having been given to Intel.

Fred Marsh
Corrales Residents for Clean Air & Water

* * * * * * * * * * * *

At the Rio Rancho session, a third former Intel employee spoke out about exposures to toxins from the Rio Rancho plant. Patrick Callahan, who said he was harassed into resigning from Intel in 2005 after persistently complaining about safety concerns, claimed Intel officials in Rio Rancho have falsified documents about chemical exposures.

"I actually worked at Intel for 18 years," Callahan said. "I was exposed to arsenic and I don't know how many chemicals for 25 years, 18 of which were at Intel, and I survived chronic liver disease.

"I have a small son, which is why I'm here: I'm concerned about the community."

Callahan said he was forced to resign in 2005 because he complained about chemical safety issues and failures to take corrective measures. He said he instituted a legal action against Intel which resulted in a monetary settlement.

"I have seen them falsify safety reports when I worked there. I've been harassed by management over OSHA violations there. I went through so much hell with that company that I lost weight mysteriously.

"I went through liver biopsies, and every test known to man, and they couldn't figure it out. But six months after removing myself from working around [Intel] solvents and chemicals, I felt fine.

"All these years when I was working at Intel, and reading about people feeling sick in Corrales, I was always thinking, 'yeah, that's public knowledge, but what about the workers in the plant? We're breathing ten times the chemicals that anyone living close to Intel in Corrales or Rio Rancho is breathing.'

"You know, I did that job for 25 years, so I understand the chemicals Intel is using, I understand the safety procedures they put in place, and their capabilities, but also their finding ways to make a dollar.

"So I wanted to come forward and tell my story for the first time. Most people who work at Intel won't talk about it."

One of the ATSDR officials said she would like to speak to him in more detail after the meeting.

Later in the meeting, Callahan said his superiors would blame diesel trucks for certain heavy chemical odors at Intel. "I think they were coming from our [acid gas] scrubbers, but my supervisor said, 'Oh, it's just diesel trucks delivering materials...' It wasn't diesel trucks; I know what a diesel odor is. There are a lot of good engineers there, a lot of good people who will falsify documents to make them look good."

In a subsequent interview, Corrales Comment asked Callahan to be more explicit about his allegations of falsified documents. He referred to an incident in September 1995 when an industrial safety check list was filled in to show that "visible and audible alarms" were installed for an arsenic blasting room when they were not. "I uncovered the safety sign-off sheets that they had installed those alarms in the room, and they didn't." In a similar vein, he said he worked in a robotic manufacturing room from 1998 to 2003 when contractors for Intel "were violating electrical safety" procedures. "I was told at that point, 'You should be happy you have a job and you should keep your mouth shut.' My Intel manager told me that."

He said he eventually became the team leader and certifier for control of hazardous energy for that robotics unit. He said he was aware of safety check documents that incorrectly indicated proper procedures were in place.

"My supervisor said to close the issue. So I took it to corporate safety, and after eight months of attempted meetings, they got everybody in a room and determined they were actually wrong and I was right, and they had to start labeling the [electrical] panels.

"After that, the inquisition started." Callahan said, referring to the alleged harassment that led to his resignation and initiation of legal action against Intel.

Additional allegations by Callahan and results of his exposure to Intel toxins will be published in a later issue [of the Corrales Comment].

Labels: Envirionmental Justice, Intel

Intel should pay for all of those resources being put into job fairs, job placement and unemployment.
AND it should come out of the 16 billion dollars Sandoval County gave them in IRB's, free of charge and with no conditions.

AND after they've done that, then they should dish out the remainder of the 16 billion dollars and GIVE IT BACK!

It's shameful. SWOP said it before and we'll say it again.

We told you so Sandoval County! We told you they would take your money and run. They ran with it, profits in hand and a smile on their face. No one gets that good of a deal, no one.

Labels: corporate welfare, Intel, intel layoffs

- New state of the art equipment
- 16 billion dollars in Industrial Revenue Bonds
- 1000 jobs lost

What’s the connection?

Communities subsidizing the business and profit of Intel

We hate to say we told you so Sandoval County but...

WE TOLD YOU SO!

This is the result of the lack of accountability in the back room IRB deals.
What more can we expect?

Workers, community members and voters are being provided with a false sense
of security, when the government is telling them that making an investment
in Intel is in the best interest of Rio Rancho.

By not putting clawbacks in these multi-billion dollar deals the community suffers from the economic impact, not Intel.

We have a few questions to ask?

To Intel Corp.:
1. Don’t you feel guilty?


To the media:
1. Why wasn’t Sandoval County Commission asked for a comment for this
article? They signed off on the bonds, we need to hear from them.

2. Why wasn’t a resident from the Village of Corrales asked about the
economic & environmental impact Intel has had on their community?

3. Why wasn’t SWOP, which has worked over 15 years to institute clawbacks in
IRB’s to hold corporations accountable not to mention years spent holding Intel
accountable for environmental pollution, asked for it’s perspective?

4. Why aren’t you informing voters that their government is partly
responsible for the job cuts? The government has historically neglected holding Intel accountable to the community that has given it so much.


To Sandoval County:
1. Why is Intel being let off the hook?

2. What can we expect in the future regarding economic development policies that
directly affect your constituents?

3. 16 billion in IRB’s and no questions asked? Nobody goes “Past Go” unless
they pay. Now that’s fishy.

Read the Journal Article here

Read the Tribune Article here.

Labels: corporate welfare, Intel, IRB's, Job Cuts, Rio Rancho

Rio Rancho Layoffs Come as Company Begins Phasing Out Older Chip

BY ANDREW WEBB
Journal Staff Writer

Intel Corp. officials on Tuesday confirmed the company will shrink its Rio Rancho work force by at least 1,000 between August and early next year.

Jami Grindatto, public affairs manager for Intel’s Rio Rancho plant, told the Journal that Fab 11, which makes older, simpler computer components using 200-millimeter silicon wafers, will ramp down production beginning in August.

The final number of employees who will be affected is unknown, Grindatto said, “but we’re saying it will be north of 1,000.”

Intel currently employs 4,700 at the site.

The company said in March that increasing automation in the expanding and soon-to-be retooled Fab 11X, coupled with dwindling work for the 17-year-old Fab 11, would likely mean job cuts.

The company began informing Rio Rancho employees of the impending cuts on Monday, Grindatto said. The jobs will be all types, from engineers to technicians, associated with Fab 11, which reportedly employs 1,500 to 2,000 people.

Some of them will move over to the Fab 11X plant.

“By the end of this week, everyone will be on notice that this is going to happen,” he said. “This gives them four months to think about their options.”

Employees to be let go will be notified individually beginning in August.

Intel offers a two-month paid jobsearch period, and employees are given a severance package that varies depending on how long the employee has been with the company, Grindatto said.

“It’s unfortunate to lose those people who have called Rio Rancho home,” said Rio Rancho Mayor Kevin Jackson.

Noreen Scott, president of the Rio Rancho Economic Development Corp., said the job cuts would be the largest she had seen since she began working in Rio Rancho in 1994. However, she said, other area employers such as Eclipse could absorb some laid-off workers.

“If this had been five years ago, I’d be sitting here weeping, because I wouldn’t know where these people would get jobs,” she said.

Intel announced in February that it would upgrade Fab 11X to 45-nanometer process — the company’s most advanced computer chip manufacturing technology. The new tooling will enable Fab 11X, which was built in 2002 at a cost of $2 billion, to produce chips with circuit lines 45nm thick — nearly half the size of current chip technology.

The newer fab already has expanded its operations into a quarter of the space used by the older Fab 11.

As Fab 11 shuts down, its equipment will be shipped to other locations, sold or decommissioned, Grindatto said.

Like any of Intel’s 13 operating fabs, Fab 11 could be revamped to a new process or technology.
“We’re always pre-positioning our sites for future investments,” Grindatto said.

Grindatto said the decision to lay off employees was related to Intel’s business, and not local incentives.

The company has received $24 billion in industrial revenue bonds from Sandoval County.

“We want to make sure government folks understand that there was nothing New Mexico could have done to prevent this,” he said. “That fab just made obsolete products.”
Journal staff writer Sean Olson contributed to this report.

Labels: Intel, IRB's, Job Cuts, Rio Rancho

# posted by joann @ 8:49 AM 0 comments links to this post

"As the site converts to (newer technology), production will go up and efficiency will improve, but we will need a smaller work force," Jami Grindatto, public affairs manager for Intel's Rio Rancho site, told the Journal.

The message from Intel: Eat Chips.

This, following a recent 16B$ Industrial Revenue Bond deal worth tens of millions in tax breaks from the state of New Mexico.

From 3/27/07 ABQ Journal:

...Over the years, Sandoval County has approved $24 billion in tax-abating industrial revenue bonds for Intel, including $16 billion in 2005...

Many of the employees hired in the 1990s for Fab 11 received high school diplomas and some training offered then by the company in conjunction with TVI, now Central New Mexico Community College.

Grindatto agreed.

"You never know how high it's headed, but it's safe to say a two-year degree is going to be a must" for future employment, he said.

So here's the deal. Taxpayers really don't benefit from these deals when economic hit men court the latest fad with corporate welfare incentives. Even more so when the jobs aren't guaranteed. If we had clawbacks in this deal (which SWOP pushed for and the Sandoval County Commision said were not needed because of Intel promises) Intel would have a much harder time laying off New Mexico families, and state and local governments may have some additional tax revenue.

We need big new ideas on the economy of one of the nation's poorest states. These ideas begin with an end to business as usual. No more patron politics. We should invest in our values and our children, not handouts to big, often out-of-state companies that really don't care about pitching in to our education and health care systems. As taxpayers, our investment must be able to stand the test of time and our values - not the latest fad in volatile markets.

Do you all hear that giant sucking sound? That's capital fleeing the state.

intelintel layoffs
Rio Rancho

Labels: Intel

If you noticed from yesterday's Journal article, most of those laid off from Rio Rancho plant were probably native New Mexicans...

As a side note - though it was not on the front page of the print edition, the Intel article was the most looked at on the Journal website.

From AP, Printed in SF Chronicle

Intel CEO Otellini gets $6.18M in 2006 compensation

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

(03-27) 14:51 PDT San Francisco (AP) --

Intel Corp. CEO Paul Otellini received compensation the company valued at $6.18 million in 2006, a year in which the company undertook a massive restructuring to reverse sinking profits but also fired back against its archrival with a strong new product lineup.

Otellini got a 15 percent boost in his salary this year to $700,000, according to a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also received $1.77 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $236,700 in other compensation, including more than $15,000 the company contributed to his retirement plan.

Otellini's award also included $2.64 million in options, and $837,000 in restricted stock. He pocketed more than $2.3 million by exercising options on 192,000 shares of stock.

The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The may vary from totals that companies report.

Otellini and other executives at the Santa Clara-based chipmaker were penalized for the company's financial performance — net income was down 42 percent from the prior year — and for not meeting certain operational goals.

Intel said it cut bonuses for its top officers by about 40 percent as the company fell short of its targets for introducing new products and in boosting worldwide growth. It exceeded its goals in the areas of manufacturing and improving the technology used to build chips.

Intel also scaled back a companywide program rewarding all employees with extra days of pay based on the company's profit margins and customer satisfaction. Employees were each awarded 15.1 extra days of pay in 2006, down from down from 17.8 days the year before.

Intel, the world's largest computer chip maker, said in September that it was eliminating 10,500 jobs — about 10 percent of its global work force — as it faces intense pressure to unload money-losing divisions and halt the encroachment of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on its lucrative core microprocessor business.

Intel's stock is trading at relatively the same price as last year, but investors have expressed concerns that price cuts and heavy spending on the transition to a new manufacturing technology will continue to eat into gross margins.

And despite losing about 4 percent of the overall processor market to AMD in 2006, Intel seems to have stunted some of that growth — particularly in the high-margin server chip market — with a line of more powerful and energy-efficient chips than previous generations.

However, Otellini's counterpart, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz, was far more richly rewarded for his company's performance in 2006, with compensation valued at nearly triple Otellini's amount.

Ruiz collected compensation the company valued at $16.1 million last year, about $7.2 million of which were restricted stock awards that are contingent on the Sunnyvale-based company's performance through 2008.

AMD's stock has taken a beating over the past year despite the gains at Intel's expense, plunging more than 60 percent and wiping out about $10 billion in shareholder wealth on fears about AMD's spending and ability to maintain those gains.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/27/financial/f095731D17.DTL

intelintel layoffsChinaintel layoffs

Labels: corporate welfare, Intel, Rio Rancho, Sandoval County