Welcome to IBEW 177

In July, President Biden traveled to Ohio to celebrate the most significant effort to protect multiemployer pensions in 50 years. The Butch Lewis Act was one of the IBEW’s most pressing priorities when President Biden signed it in early 2021. Saving hundreds of plans from insolvency and shoring up the backstop Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, this special assistance program will ensure benefits to multiemployer pension participants through 2051. “We turned a promise broken into a promise kept,” Joe Biden told a crowd of union workers in Cleveland on July 5. Among those in... Read More
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. Siemens makes components that support a variety of technologies, including electric vehicle chargers, computer circuit boards and the file servers that fill data centers. The company’s planned expansion will send about $40 million to Pomona, Calif., to build a new hub where Los Angeles... Read More

President Biden met once again with the leaders of America’s top labor unions in March. IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson is pictured third from left in the back row.

President Biden met with IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson and labor leaders to discuss strengthening America’s labor unions and support workers. “Together, we’re building the economy from the bottom up and middle out,” Biden tweeted after the March 8 meeting, the latest in several gatherings Biden has held with labor leaders. The meeting in Delaware was organized by President Stephenson and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who is also a member of the IBEW
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. The move is an important first step in following through on Biden's pledge that America's expanding EV charging network will be built by IBEW members. "We're pleased that this guidance sets the foundation for the... Read More
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. “It was great to be in the same room to be with so many... Read More
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.   “Federal dollars should be used to create good jobs in local communities all across our country,” Walsh said. “These proposed regulations are... Read More
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. “It was great to be in the same room to be with so many... Read More
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. Their 43-page report is a roadmap for bolstering workers' rights and bettering their lives through policies that support union organizing and collective bargaining, goals Biden has championed from the White House bully pulpit like no president before him.   "This is a significant milestone," International President... Read More
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. Their 43-page report is a roadmap for bolstering workers' rights and bettering their lives through policies that support union organizing and collective bargaining, goals Biden has championed from the White House bully pulpit like no president before him.   "This is a significant milestone," International President... Read More
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Durham, N.C. to call for more unionization in the state. “To continue our recovery, we must then create more good-paying jobs, good union jobs. In big cities and small towns across our country, union workers are building the future,” Harris said in her Durham speech, where she was joined by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Alvin Warwick Jr., Winston-Salem Local 342 business manager, had the opportunity to meet with them on their visit.   Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm joined IBEW members for a roundtable... Read More
President Biden traveled to Portland, Ore., on April 21 to visit the site of a massive project to upgrade the Portland International Airport and discuss the infrastructure law’s role in transforming the economy of the Pacific Northwest.   “Through the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we’re investing $25 billion this year to modernize American airports all across this country and across this state, not just here,” Biden said. “Best of all, this project will support more than 1,250 good- paying jobs constructing the terminal. Over 95 percent of the construction is being done by... Read More
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Durham, N.C. to call for more unionization in the state. “To continue our recovery, we must then create more good-paying jobs, good union jobs. In big cities and small towns across our country, union workers are building the future,” Harris said in her Durham speech, where she was joined by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Alvin Warwick Jr., Winston-Salem Local 342 business manager, had the opportunity to meet with them on their visit. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm joined IBEW members for a... Read More
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.   Taken together, IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson said the suite of executive actions will build America’s energy arsenal and spur domestic energy manufacturing while reducing energy costs, supporting good-paying union jobs, and strengthening U.S. energy independence while maintaining strong labor standards.   “The outsourcing of critical American goods like solar panels... Read More
Nearly 8 million new jobs have been added to the U.S. economy since the end of 2020. This means that employment is nearly matching pre-pandemic levels from two years ago. Construction is among the leading sectors for job growth, and that is only likely to improve as funding for infrastructure projects resulting from the historic new law comes to fruition. Economists predict the job market will return to pre- pandemic levels by the end of 2022. “It’s mindbogglingly fast and sustained growth – well over half a million jobs added per month on average for... Read More
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai met with business and labor leaders at the Port of Baltimore on March 21 to discuss Atlantic trade with her counterpart from the United Kingdom. Discussions over terms of a bilateral trade agreement between the two countries under consideration previously changed when the Biden administration took over, said Baltimore Local 24 President Sam Curreri. Curreri said he was glad to participate in talks representing labor in a global trade setting and cautioned that even industrialized countries like the United States... Read More