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Federal Clean Energy Investments Boost IAM Membership - Voith Hydro and Cleveland-Cliffs
York, a working-class city in Central Pennsylvania, is home to the Voith Hydro plant, where roughly 100 skilled IAM Local 1400 members build giant turbines for producing hydroelectric power. In May 2024, joint IAM-Voith advocacy efforts secured a $5.8 million tax credit from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The tax credit is for investment in machinery to support the production of renewable energy equipment. “We’re not talking little machines, we’re talking
233 Forbes.
about monsters,” says District 98 Assistant Directing Business Representative Kermit Forbes, Jr. “Renewable energy…has the potential to double the membership at this facility.”
The 2,000 IAM members at Cleveland-Cliffs Steel power the economy of Middletown, Ohio. A
$500 million IRA grant will help the company retire a blast furnace and replace it with two electric furnaces. Neil Douglas, Eastern Territory Grand Lodge Representative, admits that members were initially concerned about tearing down the furnace. “My initial response would have been, we’re going to lose work. But it's actually a net increase in union jobs.”234 The electric furnace will reduce carbon emissions by more than 50%, improving local air quality, and creating nearly 200 permanent, good-paying jobs. Next, the facility could switch to using clean hydrogen to power its operations and become one of the world’s cleanest iron and steel plants. “As far as Middletown,” reports Local 1943 President Shawn Coffey, “this mill is not going anywhere.”235 The IAM’s advocacy at Cleveland Cliffs and Voith Hydro shows how clean energy can help revitalize industrial communities across the country.
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Coordination between the union and Voith helped bring the DOE funds to York, and it is also helping workers learn important new skills. Training for new machinery happens on company time, helping upskill existing IAM members and provide the employer with a steady supply of skilled labor. Federal incentives for domestic solar and wind energy production are projected to create thousands of new manufacturing jobs. Tax credits, such as the ones utilized by Voith Hydro, can ensure that plants can transition into long-term roles in the clean energy economy. “Climate change is real, and for me the impact [on the IAM] is good,” says Forbes, “As we grow Voith, our membership grows, which helps everybody. It helps the country.”236
Apprenticeship infrastructure such as the Machinists Training Institute gives the IAM another leg up. Across the union, most of the IAM’s apprenticeship programs are training programs run directly by employers, like at Voith. But in Washington, IAM District 751 created the Machinists Institute in 2018. This union-run training and apprenticeship program provides upskilling for members, creates a pipeline of trained apprentices, and recruits people from historically marginalized communities into good union manufacturing careers. Union-led manufacturing apprenticeship programs not only position the union to be a leader in building a more diverse workforce and addressing staff shortages, but also create the institutional capacity to replicate the successes of the building trades in requiring apprenticeship utilization in government- subsidized work.
