Lackawanna Energy Center
Jessup, Pa.
Best Project and Project of the Year Finalist
Michael McDermott, Business Manager
Around the Local
President Joe Biden electrified the IBEW Convention in Chicago on May 11, drawing thunderous cheers for infrastructure projects that will employ IBEW members far into the future, championing unions like none of his predecessors, fighting to cut taxes for working families and make billionaires pay their fair share, among other historic progress and plans for a better, more just America.
Members of the IBEW were front and center for President Joe Biden’s White House announcement of Siemens USA’s plan to invest $54 million to expand its manufacturing facilities, a growth that promises to bring at least 300 new jobs to the company’s IBEW-represented workplaces in California and Texas.
The opportunity to bask in the glow of appreciation for working people does not come often, particularly in the presence of high-ranking elected officials, including the President of the United States.
But that’s where Duluth, Minn., Local 242 President Kyle Bukovich found himself on March 2 at the University of Wisconsin-Superior with President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith (both from Minnesota), and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.
President Biden met with IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson and labor leaders to discuss strengthening America’s labor unions and support workers.
Federal guidance for the creation of a national network of electric-powered vehicle charging stations explicitly recommends that agencies consider the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program as they look to spend billions in funds allocated by President Biden's infrastructure bill, which passed last November.
A labor department plan to strengthen federal prevailing wage rules and enforcement under the Davis-Bacon Act would put more money in the pockets of an estimated 1.2 million U.S. construction workers.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said the changes would “help us make sure our skilled workers and wages can’t be undercut” and are especially timely as projects funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law surge nationwide.
The first-of-its-kind task force that President Joe Biden created last year to identify ways that his administration can help empower workers and strengthen unions has returned with nearly 70 recommendations for federal agencies to pursue.
President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that will require project labor agreements on federal construction projects over $35 million.
"The executive order … is going to help ensure that we build a better America, we build it right, we build it on time and we build it cheaper than it would have been otherwise," Biden said before signing the order on Feb. 4.