Recharge Industries workers to get free Geelong membership, bonus if Cats win premiership again

A group of 2000 Aussie workers in Victoria may receive a free Geelong Football Club membership – and a $1000 bonus. See who could be eligible.

Workers at a massive battery production facility planned in Victoria will receive a free Geelong Football Club membership – and a $1000 bonus if the Cats can repeat their premiership success.

The unique perks are included in a new enterprise agreement for up to 2000 workers to be employed at the Recharge Industries plant, which is slated to start producing large-scale lithium-ion batteries from 2026.

The company has also had another major win in the wake of Geelong’s Grand Final victory, striking a technology-sharing deal with top American firm C4V that has pioneered cleaner battery production with the Nobel Prize-winning father of lithium-ion batteries.

Recharge Industries founder David Collard said the partnership would capitalise on Australia’s status as the world’s largest producer of lithium, easing the world’s reliance on China to manufacture batteries needed for energy grid storage and electric vehicles.

“We produce nine out of ten required elements needed to produce most lithium-ion battery cell devices and products,” Mr Collard said.

David Collard with Avalon Airport Chief of Infrastructure Dave Moreland. Picture: Supplied

“Gaining access to C4V’s technical knowledge and information allows us to use these precious elements native to Australia to begin manufacturing and commercialising lithium-ion battery cell productions anywhere in the world.”

Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton said the facility was a “great vote of confidence” in the local manufacturing industry.

He said Australia was in “prime position to be a renewable energy superpower” instead of shipping critical minerals to China “only for them to sell them back to us as manufactured products”.

Joel Selwood of the Geelong Cats and his team celebrate with the trophy after in victory during the 2022 AFL Grand Final match. Picture: Getty

The Geelong benefits for workers were initiated by Mr Collard, who is from Geelong and is now based in New York where he runs Scale Facilitation, a firm focused on commercialising innovative ideas such as Recharge Industries.

He visited Geelong this week to scout the potential location of the battery production company’s factory.

Recharge Industries also recently received $10m in federal government funding through Deakin University’s $50m renewable energy commercialisation hub.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said such high-tech manufacturing was “going to be completely central to building the kind of economy we want in the future which generates the secure well-paid jobs that characterises the prosperous nation we want to become”.

Construction of the Recharge Industries plant is expected to begin next year.

Originally published as Recharge Industries workers to get free Geelong membership, bonus if Cats win premiership again