Department of Energy Awards $2 Million to UAW-CMGE To Build High Road Training Pathways for America’s Climate Workforce
The DOE awards $6 million for development of the High Road Battery Training Program to benefit climate and U.S. workers.
According to UAW Solidarity House, as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s continued commitment to its Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded UAW Region 6 and the UAW Center for Manufacturing a Green Economy (UAW-CMGE) $2 million to further develop the High Road Battery Training Program in partnership with the Sparkz corporation.
The UAW-CMGE is one of 21 new projects recently selected by the DOE to receive a total of $24 million in funding to expand clean energy and support sustainable manufacturing in the U.S.
The UAW-CMGE was created in 2023 to lead the union’s recruitment and training for careers in climate manufacturing, empowering a well-trained, mission-driven green workforce to meet the growing needs of manufacturing operations created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
“The UAW-CMGE is developing a groundbreaking training model for rapidly growing climate industries, starting with the critically important domestic battery industry,” Priyanka Mohanty, Executive Director of the UAW-CMGE, said about the $2 million investment. “Our model, which focuses on equitable recruitment, technical battery knowledge, and the build-out of innovative new green apprenticeship programs, represents the high-road pathway central to the climate transition. This model will empower and protect workers on the shop floor, ensure that their voices are amplified, and build a just transition towards new, diverse, climate industries. The DOE’s 2 million dollar investment in the UAW and our center highlights the importance of high-road training programs to decarbonization, and we look forward to showing that an investment in workers is an investment in the American climate economy.”
