When Stan Upshaw got a job at Eos Energy Enterprises Inc. in 2020, he hoped for good pay and benefits, like the ones that went to union workers who decades ago built American manufacturing. After all, Eos’ zinc battery plant in the Pittsburgh suburb of Turtle Creek had already received a nearly $400 million conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, as well as millions in subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act.
At Eos, Upshaw said he didn’t see the “good clean jobs” the act was meant to create. Instead, he saw management ignore seniority — and force workers to train new supervisors rather than promote from within, he said. The work felt dangerous, too. “We’re having people getting their fingers pinched [under batteries and] working under very hot, humid conditions [where] we’re almost tripping over each other, ” he said.
