Mack Trucks employees celebrate major grant from Inflation Reduction Act

Mack Trucks employees and officials celebrated the $208 million grant from the Inflation Reduction Act with Congresswoman Susan Wild and others on Friday. Their Macungie plant will add 295 union jobs to transition to eclectic vehicle production. 

Workers from the Volvo Mack Trucks plant in Macungie joined Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-Lehigh) and Tom Perez, a senior advisor to the White House, to celebrate the $208 million grant Mack Trucks received from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

This funding will help Volvo Mack Trucks transition their plants and employees to producing electric vehicles and create hundreds of union jobs over the next five years. 

“One of the things that made it so easy to advocate is the fact that Mack has a history here,” Wild told Mack Truck employees. 

“Mack has workers here, they’ve got UAW here. And it was all the pieces that somebody who’s awarding the money in Washington can look at and say, ‘okay, this is a company that has a great chance for success if we give them this.'”

Volvo Mack Trucks announced they will match the grant funding dollar-for-dollar and use that money to produce two heavy-duty electric trucks at their plants in Macungie, Pennsylvania and Dublin, Virginia. This includes the Mack LR Electric at the Macungie plant and the Volvo VNR Electric at the Virginia facility.   

It will also help the company manufacture zero-emissions powertrain components in Hagerstown, Maryland, and teach employees the skills and technologies needed to support the production.

At one million square feet, Mack Trucks’ Macungie facility is their flagship facility in the US. It employs more than 2,900 workers, with 2,400 of whom are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW).

“It keeps the plant here for centuries and growth for membership, workforce and the customer’s demand for e-mobility. Hopefully it gives us more market share,” David Durgin, a 36-year Mack Trucks employee, told The Keystone when asked about the grant’s significance.

The IRA has made electric vehicles more affordable for consumers by offering $7,500 tax credits for those looking to purchase an EV. The bill is also expected to create over 43,000 jobs in Pennsylvania by 2030 according to the Rocky Mountain Institute. 

“This is a great day for the union movement. This is a great day for people who reject false choices,” said Perez. “We can address our climate challenges and we can strengthen and grow middle class jobs, middle class union jobs in this country.”

“The Inflation Reduction Act has been the single biggest investment in combating climate change and in growing good middle class union jobs, and this grant is a perfect example of that reality.”