IBEW Local 90

IBEW Now Participates in US Trade Talks

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

Build Back Better, July 2022

8M New Jobs Fuel Stronger Employment Market

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

Build Back Better, July 2022

Domestic Renewable Manufacturing Ramps Up

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 has weakened supply... Read More

Build Back Better, July 2022

VP Harris,Cabinet Secretaries Meet with IBEW Members, Visit Training Centers

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 in Lexington, Ken. where she... Read More

Build Back Better, July 2022

Presidential Visit to IBEW Work Site

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 union... Read More

Build Back Better, July 2022

President Biden Mandates PLAs on Large Federal Projects

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.

A PLA is a multiemployer contract that covers an entire construction project or projects and creates a uniform and stable labor relations system by setting terms like wages, employment conditions and dispute... Read More

July 2022

Milestone Federal Policy to Empower Workers

The Biden administration’s high-level task force is actively instituting policies to support unionizing and collective bargaining.

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 Lonnie R. Stephenson said. "By... Read More

Build Back Better, July 2022

Biden Administration Plan Would Raise Wages on Federal Projects

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 good for... Read More

Build Back Better, July 2022

IBEW Members Highlighted at White House Rollout

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

Build Back Better, July 2022