Tag: Cancelled Project

Home>News>Cancelled Project

“Semiconductor plant project creates hundreds of jobs for SMART sheet metal workers in Michigan.”

That would have — and should have — been the headline about a megaproject in the Flint area, one that looked set to change the lives of entire communities. But all that evaporated when political chaos got in the way.

“They were supposed to build a semiconductor chip plant to the tune of a couple square miles on the roof — a lot of work,” explained Mike Carpenter, a sheet metal mechanic and 12-year member of SMART Local 7. “Two hundred tradespeople for 10 to 15 years just in the sheet metal trades, thousands of jobs between other trades, supporting industry, business, transportation. It was going to put Flint almost back to that industrial, automotive attitude that it had back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.”

To be specific, the $55-plus billion project “was expected to be among the largest economic investments in Michigan’s history” and create up to 10,000 jobs, according to Michigan Live. Michigan state and local officials had worked for years to bring the project to the area. And, as Carpenter explained, that scale of project is never just about the work it creates. The impact spreads to area businesses, the local housing market and community members who aren’t directly involved.

“It sounded like everybody was set up for a win,” Carpenter said, adding: “We were really hoping for jobs.”

Then, in the summer of 2025, everything changed.

“Because of massive economic uncertainty at the national level, an advanced manufacturing company we were working with to bring a huge project to Michigan has decided not to move forward with plans to construct a semiconductor plant anywhere in the United States,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a July statement. “Their board came to this decision amid national economic turmoil, which is at risk of worsening amid threats of even higher tariffs.”

SMART General President Michael Coleman commented on the project cancelation back when the news first broke.

“This project would have been huge for Local 7 sheet metal workers and members of the local community, and its cancelation is devastating for our members, their families and working people in Michigan,” he said. “These projects change lives, and when they get canceled, SMART members and working people lose. It’s that simple. We need our leaders in government to focus on policies that protect our jobs, our communities and our families.”

Carpenter echoed those sentiments.

“It was disheartening, you know. You look forward to years and years of good, steady work, and building your funds back up, and building your pension back up,” he explained. “Taking care of the retired members that helped build what we have, and taking care of the future members — building something that they’re going to be proud of and something that they can profit from after they’ve put their time in.”

As of now, Carpenter said, the massive site of the now-canceled project is sitting empty: hundreds upon hundreds of acres, with site prep ongoing but nothing to put members to work.

“It would be nice to see some cooperation on getting this back up and running,” he concluded. “Michigan taxpayers have a lot of money into that … So it’d be nice to see the taxpayers get a return.”

A $2 billion megaproject that was set to create more than 3,000 union jobs in Massachusetts is under threat after Congress passed the 2025 tax bill, which President Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025.

The Allston Multimodal Project, which had a project labor agreement in place, would have put workers on the job straightening out the Massachusetts Turnpike throughout Boston’s northwest corner, opened up land for development and invested in public transit. SMART sheet metal workers and other union construction members would have played a key role, including building a new train-and-bus hub.

But on Friday, July 18, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation confirmed that DOT is terminating $327 million that Massachusetts won in 2023 for the Allston Multimodal Project. Massachusetts will keep just $8 million from the grant.

“Unfortunately, some of the harmful pieces of the spending bill are already starting to impact SMART members and our communities, just weeks after the president signed it into law,” said SMART General President Michael Coleman. “This project wasn’t only going to create thousands of union jobs, including for SMART sheet metal workers. It was going to invest in local communities and the state’s transportation network. Because funding has been so drastically cut, all of that is in jeopardy.”

The project has been in the works for more than a decade. The Boston Globe reported that it “was Governor Deval Patrick, after all, who first promised this new transit hub, dubbed West Station, alongside the turnpike realignment, 11 years ago.”

But the pieces only came together in March of last year, when the Biden administration awarded the project a $335 million grant through the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program.

Even with the rescinded funding, Mass. Governor Maura Healey said in a statement that her administration “remain[s] committed to doing everything we can, working with our incredible project partners, to make Allston Multimodal a reality.”

But the fact remains that the pulling of federal grant money directly threatens SMART members’ jobs.

“The Healey-Driscoll Administration is conducting a strategic review of the project to determine a path forward,” SMART Northeast Regional Council President Bob Butler said in an email to Local 17 members. “Local 17 stands with our fellow union partners, as well as our community and government allies in demanding the funding be restored — and in fighting to keep this project alive.”

A $2 billion megaproject that was set to create more than 3,000 union jobs in Massachusetts is under threat after Congress passed the 2025 tax bill, which President Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025.

The Allston Multimodal Project, which had a project labor agreement in place, would have put workers on the job straightening out the Massachusetts Turnpike throughout Boston’s northwest corner, opened up land for development and invested in public transit. SMART sheet metal workers and other union construction members would have played a key role, including building a new train-and-bus hub.

But on Friday, July 18, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation confirmed that DOT is terminating $327 million that Massachusetts won in 2023 for the Allston Multimodal Project. Massachusetts will keep just $8 million from the grant.

“Unfortunately, some of the harmful pieces of the spending bill are already starting to impact SMART members and our communities, just weeks after the president signed it into law,” said SMART General President Michael Coleman. “This project wasn’t only going to create thousands of union jobs, including for SMART sheet metal workers. It was going to invest in local communities and the state’s transportation network. Because funding has been so drastically cut, all of that is in jeopardy.”

The project has been in the works for more than a decade. The Boston Globe reported that it “was Governor Deval Patrick, after all, who first promised this new transit hub, dubbed West Station, alongside the turnpike realignment, 11 years ago.”

But the pieces only came together in March of last year, when the Biden administration awarded the project a $335 million grant through the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program.

Even with the rescinded funding, Mass. Governor Maura Healey said in a statement that her administration “remain[s] committed to doing everything we can, working with our incredible project partners, to make Allston Multimodal a reality.”

But the fact remains that the pulling of federal grant money directly threatens SMART members’ jobs.

“The Healey-Driscoll Administration is conducting a strategic review of the project to determine a path forward,” SMART Northeast Regional Council President Bob Butler said in an email to Local 17 members. “Local 17 stands with our fellow union partners, as well as our community and government allies in demanding the funding be restored — and in fighting to keep this project alive.”

Cleveland-Cliffs, a steel manufacturer, reportedly canceled a $500 million project in Middletown, Ohio, in June 2025 — leading to a loss in work hours for union sheet metal workers in the area.

“This would have been a solid project for Local 24, especially our Dayton-area membership,” said Local 24 Business Manager Jeff Hunley.

Local radio station WYSO 91.3 reported: “The planned switch from a coal-based steel plant to hydrogen was expected to create 1,200 union construction jobs and protect 2,500 existing positions.”

WYSO noted that Cleveland-Cliffs had planned to replace its coal steel-making furnace with a hydrogen-powered system, supported in part by a $500 million grant from the Department of Energy. That grant came from the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law under the Biden administration in 2022.

But Steel Industry News reported that the Trump administration’s shift away from clean energy and its focus on fossil fuels created uncertainty for the company, and rising tariffs on steel imports “forced Cleveland-Cliffs to prioritize short-term profitability.”

Now, at least for the time being, the project has been abandoned.

Changing clean energy policies impact SMART members

Union sheet metal workers play a key role in building and converting clean energy facilities, including hydrogen, nuclear and battery plants. That’s what makes federal grants, tax credits and funding so important to SMART sheet metal workers, and why the strong labor standards included in such policies under the Biden administration were also crucial for members.

“When we work to pass laws like the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re investing in our future,” explained SMART General President Michael Coleman. “The grants and tax credits we got passed in that law are the kinds of policies that create jobs for sheet metal workers five, ten, fifteen years down the line. Unfortunately, when those types of policies are thrown in jeopardy, we see companies become less willing to invest, and projects get paused or canceled.”

“The Cleveland-Cliffs project cancelation means that the jobs Local 24 was expecting will no longer be available to members in Ohio. With the cuts to clean energy tax credits and programs in the spending bill passed by Congress, we can expect more disappointing stories like this, at least for the next few years,” he added.