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.

The group is at work on a report expected to be completed in late October.

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.

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.

“I'm glad to work with you and the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division in enforcing the Standard Act so Georgia workers get the pay they are due,” Williams said to Secretary Walsh.

President Biden is harnessing the purchasing power of the federal government to promote and encourage domestic manufacturing. First with an executive order in the first days of his presidency, then through the creation of a Made In America in America office, now the government is issuing guidance to maximize the use of taxpayer dollars to create good-paying union jobs. The federal government spends $60 billion annually to purchase products and services, making it the largest buyer of consumer goods in the world. To strengthen supply chains and shape markets to increase innovation, the new r

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh visited Las Vegas on Aug. 9 for a roundtable on employment opportunities for young people. First-year wireman apprentice Quintin Gonzalez said he values the opportunity to learn the skills for a well-paying career without the cost of a four-year college degree. At the event also attended by U.S. Reps. Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, Las Vegas Local 357 Business Manager James Halsey encouraged Walsh to consider mandating the use of registered apprentices on all Davis-Bacon projects to increase apprenticeship opportunities.

A powerful voice for workers went silent Aug. 5 with the death of Richard Trumka, who rose from humble roots in the Pennsylvania coal mines to lead the AFL-CIO.

President Biden called out the necessity of IBEW linemen following the Category 4 hurricane that smashed into NewOrleans and continued to menace the country’s interior before inundating New York and New Jersey with massive flooding.

Touting ‘Build Back Better,’ Biden Tours Cincinnati Training Center

President Joe Biden took his pitch for a massive investment in infrastructure and American labor directly to the workers July 21, touring the IBEW-NECA Electrical Training Center in Cincinnati to learn about what IBEW electricians do every day on the job.

America’s rundown infrastructure is heading for a makeover following the passage in the Senate of the sweeping historic legislation in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Aug. 9. Together with the budget bill under consideration in the House of Representatives, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created as the Biden Build Back Better agenda comes to fruition.

Celebrating Labor Day with IBEW Members

President Biden spent the day dedicated to workers with members of the IBEW. Along with IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson, President Biden delivered sandwiches to members of Wilmington, Del. Local 313 on Labor Day, Sept. 6. He played cornhole and chatted with about 35 members of the local union. An article about the event described a moment when “the president began talking into an iPhone to a union member’s mom, telling her that he’d been with the union since he was first elected to public office in the early 1970s.”