Lineman Appreciation Day
July 10, but Should Be Every Day

Safety Win for Rail
IBEW Helped Write Rules

Pioneering EV Truck Stop
'Next Frontier' in California

A Milestone
for Brightline

North of 49°
IBEW Asks Feds to Honor Pledge, Save Jobs at Beloved Alberta Radio Station

Au nord du 49° parallèle
La FIOE demande au fédéral de tenir leur promesse faite à CKUA

Aharon Segal

A Moment of Division
That Gave Way to a
Century of Unity

IEC Minutes
December 2023

For the first time in U.S. history, a nuclear power plant is going back online.

The recommissioning of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert Township, Mich., is just one part of an extraordinary turnaround in the nuclear industry engineered by a unique collaboration among the White House, the IBEW and American industry.

Palisades was shuttered in 2022, but a $1.5 billion loan guarantee, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will allow it to come back in 24 months for less than one-tenth the cost of a new nuclear plant.

And the whole project — including the small modular reactors proposed for the same site — is covered by a project labor agreement with the IBEW.

"Recommissioning Palisades is going to bring back middle-class, union jobs that we thought were permanently gone from this part of the state," said Sixth District International Vice President Mike Clemmons. "This was all made possible because we have the most important seat at the most important table in America today. When the nation's industrial and environmental policy was signed into law by President Joe Biden, it was 100% pro-labor."

Reopening Palisades will create or retain up to 600 permanent jobs next year and more than 1,000 temporary construction and maintenance jobs during the facility's regularly scheduled refueling and maintenance periods every 18 to 24 months.

"For the first time in generations, America is serious about becoming a manufacturing powerhouse, but it also needs to cut carbon emissions. We've always said we need nuclear to do that. But before Biden, that wasn't what was happening," Clemmons said.

Palisades was the 13th nuclear reactor to close down in the last 10 years. Six more closures have been announced. The U.S. Department of Energy issued a report in 2022 warning that half of the remaining 92 reactors were at risk of closing.

Just two years after that report, there are dozens of small modular reactors in the works, Diablo Canyon in California was rescued from closure, and Palisades — dark, defueled and in the process of permanent closure — already has dozens of IBEW members working to get the reactor back online.

Cooper:
Nuclear's Comeback
Noble:
Thank a Lineman

Brian K. Thompson;
Charles W. Tippie;
Glenn Brannen

'Historic' Agreement Brings IBEW's Amtrak Employees Improved Wages, Incentives;
Wisconsin Utilities Pledge to Use IBEW, Other Unions for Renewable Projects

Biden Administration
Moves to Protect Workers Making Retirement Saving Decisions;
Hawaii Members Exemplify 'Ohana' With Extraordinary Community Work

May 2024

For Apprentice of the Year,
a 'Touching' Letter Starts a New Tradition of Solidarity