Lackawanna Energy Center
Jessup, Pa.
Best Project and Project of the Year Finalist
Michael McDermott, Business Manager
Around the Local
The Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act to ease supply chain issues around solar panels on June 6, while continuing its investigation into possible Chinese trade violations.
Dear Members, We are deeply saddened to announce that one of Local 81's own, Paul J. Casparro of North Scranton, passed away Tuesday, December 14th at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia. His wife of 45 years is the former Alice Timlin. Born in Scranton, he was the son of the late Salvatore and Josephine Ciampi Casparro. Paul was a graduate of Scranton Central High School and earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from Mansfield University.
President Biden appeared at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton on October 20 to promote his domestic agenda and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be created to rebuild the nation’s degraded infrastructure.
There to meet him backstage was Scranton Local 81 Business Manager Mike McDermott.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh participated in a roundtable on October 13 at Atlanta Local 613 that focused on low wages and other workplace issues harmful to workers. At the event, Rep. Nikema Williams said workers lose $15 billion annually to wage theft, and highlighted the U.S. Department of Labor's work to prevent it.
IBEW President Lonnie R. Stephenson wrote in an op-ed that the Biden administration’s climate goals will be met only by expanding nuclear energy production.
With co-author Steven Nesbit of the American Nuclear Society, Stephenson said provisions in the infrastructure bill being debated in Congress that would prevent permanent closures of existing nuclear power plants are a welcome first step.
A high-level committee headed by Vice President Kamala Harris continues its investigation into leveraging the federal government’s power to promote unions and collective bargaining. An October meeting included Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
President Biden signed an executive order targeting 2030 as the year that half of all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 will be electric.
He was joined by auto company executives in the August 5 White House announcement, when he emphasized the transformative infrastructure potential of his Build Back Better plan.
It was almost déjà vu when Denver Local 68 journeyman wireman Julian Aguilar met President Biden at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory on September 14 outside Denver.
“I know I just now met Joe Biden for the first time in my life, but I feel like he’s had my back for years,” said Aguilar, a
second-generation member of Local 68. “President Joe Biden is not just pro-union. He’s pro-people. He’s pro-America.”