This Pennsylvania battery plant just voted to unionize—here’s why it matters

Workers at a Pittsburgh-area battery storage plant voted 88 to 39 last Thursday to be represented by the United Steelworkers union, in an effort to improve “green” jobs they said were dangerous and inflexible.

Workers at zinc battery company Eos Energy Enterprises in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, approved creating a bargaining unit that includes the plant’s approximately 160 production and maintenance workers.

The union election took place as Eos has become part of an industry that is eligible for billions of dollars in clean energy federal investments, particularly from the Inflation Reduction Act, as Capital & Main reported earlier. Eos received millions of dollars in federal investment that backers touted as a wellspring for “good, clean jobs,” and the company may be eligible for roughly $2 billion more.

In the runup to Thursday’s election, the union filed six unfair labor practice charges against Eos with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging among other things that the company retaliated against workers who supported the union effort through firings and disciplinary changes. The charges are pending.

Workers also alleged that the company shut down production and sent workers home without pay in order to keep them from interacting with union organizers.

The disconnect prompted union supporters to question whether federal funds should support companies that engaged in what they considered union busting.

“If [Eos] is going to spend public investment money, the money has to flow through the community,” said Maria Somma, organizing director at the steelworkers union. Eos “should not be given any more public taxpayer money until they respect their workers better,” she added.

When Capital & Main reached out to Eos for comment on the election, Chad FitzGerald, Eos vice president of strategic partnerships and public affairs, shared an email that Eos CEO Joe Mastrangelo had sent to workers before the election: “We will support whatever outcome you choose and continue to work together in making Eos great,” Mastrangelo wrote. “Seeing Eos accused of being ‘anti-union’ hurts me to my core.”

Veronica Lattimore, a worker organizer at Eos, said she was fired in retaliation for organizing. On Thursday night, she celebrated the union victory, saying she was excited for the union’s potential “to make a secure and safe environment” at Eos. “We’re going to look out for the workers who are going to come after us,” she said. “We’re about to make better working conditions for everyone.”

Eos Energy has received a roughly $400 million conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy and has also received millions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Section 45X advanced manufacturing production tax credit, designed to incentivize production of renewable energy components such as batteries. If the company expands production as planned, Eos will be eligible for $1.98 billion in Section 45X tax credits between 2026 and 2032.

Legislators framed the Inflation Reduction Act as a source of “good-paying union jobs” within the renewable energy sector. But the legislation did not require companies receiving federal funds to commit to union neutrality agreements.

“We want to see [Eos] succeed,” Somma said. “We want public investment in a company that’s dealing with new and clean technology, [and] we think that their technology will help the climate and help this region,” she added, saying that the union would be willing to partner with the company to encourage additional investment.

“We just think that workers need to be represented during this process.”

—Kaleena Thomhave, Capital & Main

This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.