Workers at Greenidge Generation’s cryptocurrency mining and power plant in Dresden, New York, have successfully ratified their first union contract.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said employees at the site unanimously approved the contract in late 2025. The workers are represented by IBEW Local 10, based in Johnson City, New York.
The union is made up of power plant operators, maintenance staff, and “hash rate techs”, who are responsible for overseeing and maintaining the plant’s Bitcoin mining operations.
Greenidge’s Dresden site combines on-site power generation with cryptocurrency mining. According to IBEW, the facility can sell up to 110MW of electricity to the grid when power prices are high, while redirecting up to 60MW to Bitcoin mining servers when grid prices fall.
The union said the site’s workers began organizing after raising concerns around pay scales, training, holidays, and job security. IBEW said some workers at the plant had been paid significantly different rates despite performing similar levels of work.
Greenidge has described Dresden as a model for combined power generation and data center operations, arguing that the site can curtail cryptocurrency mining during periods of high demand and send more electricity to the local grid.
Union member Ray Chelson said that mining Bitcoin creates more opportunities for workers, as it allows the plant to stay active regardless of the condition of the local electrical grid.
“If we didn’t have Bitcoin and were just a regular peaker plant, we would be offline, and it would take 12 to 24 hours to get back up to full capacity. But because of Bitcoin, we can put 60MW on the grid in an instant and add an additional megawatt every minute until we are at full capacity,” Chelson told IBEW.org.
The company has also been exploring AI and HPC data center opportunities. In May 2026, Greenidge said it had received a proposed interconnection agreement from NYSEG (New York State Electric and Gas) for 60MW of non-curtailable power at Dresden, which it said could support AI/HPC data center development.
Greenidge reported 111.5MW of active self-mining, hosting, and power generation capacity across its New York and North Dakota sites at the end of the first quarter of 2026.