(C) Ohio Capital Journal
This story was originally published by Ohio Capital Journal and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Tax credits that bring good union jobs home to Ohio and America should be preserved • Ohio Capital Journal [1]
['David Green', 'Kaitlyn Deghetto', 'Zachary Russell', 'Pat Hook', 'Michael Shingary', 'Rob Moore', 'More From Author', 'June', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class']
Date: 2025-06-23
In 2019, GM closed the Lordstown Complex, where I worked for 30 years. Donald Trump, president at the time, promised revival but delivered nothing.
With the rise of EVs, Lordstown got a glimmer of hope. Lordstown Assembly stayed closed, but GM formed a new company, Ultium, which opened a massive EV battery facility right around the corner, buoyed by federal subsidies for the emerging industry.
As the U.S. Senate debates Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the people of Lordstown, Ohio, have a simple message: don’t shut us down again. I am the proud leader for the United Auto Workers in Region 2B, which covers Ohio and Indiana, and I hope the U.S. Senators representing our states will hear that message.
It is time for the Senate to stand up for our members and the working class. America must preserve clean energy and manufacturing tax credits that have given communities like Lordstown a lifeline.
These credits helped make it possible for the UAW to organize the first union battery cell manufacturing facility in the country at Ultium. There is also a new StarPlus Energy Gigafactory in Kokomo, Indiana, a joint venture between Samsung and Stellantis.
This plant was estimated to create and support 2,800 good union jobs with two facilities, with one on hold now because of the current policy uncertainty.
Just recently, workers at the StarPlus battery facility also voted to be recognized by the UAW, following in the footsteps of the workers at Ultium Cells in Lordstown.
GM is planning on building another battery plant in northern Indiana, and the companies, workers, and communities need to have stability moving forward.
Our contracts at these facilities have helped set a new standard for wages, benefits, and health and safety in EV battery manufacturing for workers everywhere. And we’re just getting started.
These targeted energy and manufacturing tax incentives have enabled billions in private investment, and hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake. The advanced manufacturing tax credit is driving major growth in the battery supply chain, and we are organizing across the country to create tens of thousands of union battery jobs.
Meanwhile, the consumer electric vehicle tax credit has boosted demand for the batteries our members produce in Kokomo, Lordstown, and across our nation.
We’re witnessing a domestic manufacturing renaissance, and when these new jobs have the benefits that come with collective bargaining—better wages, safer working conditions, health care, retirement security, and a voice on the job — they lead to the kind of family-supporting careers that built the American Dream.
Unfortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would devastate this progress and harm workers, and the Senate has so far failed to fix the bill.
This misguided legislation would gut the very tax credits that are benefiting our workers and bringing manufacturing back to America. The clean vehicle tax credit would be essentially eliminated, and the advanced manufacturing tax credit would be severely restricted.
Analysis suggests that repealing clean vehicle tax credits alone could reduce electric vehicle (EV) sales by as much as 40% by 2030, and could result in the idling of existing assembly plants and the cancellation of many planned EV battery manufacturing facilities.
The irony is stark and painful: thousands of battery workers have just voted to unionize, ensuring their jobs are high-quality and family-supporting. Now congressional Republicans are voting to kill those very same jobs.
They’re choosing to undermine American manufacturing in favor of what exactly? Tax cuts for billionaires and corporations?
This isn’t about party politics — it’s about our economic future. And the UAW has long said there is room for improvement in the design of these credits.
Too many companies taking the money are guilty of paying substandard wages and benefits, illegal union busting, and dangerous working conditions.
Subsidies like these need strings attached to protect workers; we can do better than corporate giveaways. But gutting the whole thing isn’t the answer.
Instead of kneecapping the credits, Congress should improve them: most importantly, by making wage and benefit standards a prerequisite for receiving the advanced manufacturing tax credit.
The choice is clear: support policies that create good union jobs, or let other countries take the lead in building the industries of the future.
The working class deserves leaders who will fight for our economic interests, not legislators who would rather slash taxes for the wealthy and greedy corporations while raising energy prices, sabotaging domestic manufacturing, and kicking millions off their health care to boot.
When our government invests in good, American jobs, workers, and communities win. Now it’s time for our Senators to decide if they’re on our side.
Dave Green serves as the Director of United Auto Workers Region 2B, representing UAW members across Ohio and Indiana. Green has been an autoworker and a UAW union member for 36 years and was previously the local UAW president in Lordstown, Ohio when the GM complex closed.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/06/23/tax-credits-that-bring-good-union-jobs-home-to-ohio-and-america-should-be-preserved/
Published and (C) by Ohio Capital Journal
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/ohiocapitaljournal/
