The publication is reproduced in full below:
RECOGNIZING PATRICK LAVIN ON HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW) LOCAL NO. 47
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HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, today I want to recognize Mr. Patrick Lavin, who has retired after serving seven terms as Business Manager and Financial Secretary of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local No. 47 in Diamond Bar, California. I thank Pat for his years of friendship and counsel and congratulate him on his retirement following his 55-year career at IBEW, during which he was one of the most effective and longest-serving members of the IBEW International Executive Council (IEC), among many other roles.
A journeyman lineman by trade, Pat joined IBEW Local 9 outside Chicago as a summer helper before his sophomore year in high school and came on the job full time in 1968. In 1969, Pat interrupted his IBEW career and volunteered to serve his country in the U.S. Marine Corps during the height of the Vietnam War.
Over his lengthy career, Pat was a lineman for four different utilities. He worked for Southern California Edison (SCE) as a lineman, service crew foreman, and heavy crew foreman in Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach, and Santa Ana.
Pat has said that he saw many different changes in the electrical industry over the course of his career, and that the need for the services of electrical workers has grown immensely over the past twenty years. In his decades on the job, Pat also weathered numerous challenges including recessions and periods of anti-union rhetoric. In his own words: ``As a groundman, an apprentice and a lineman, I have helped keep the lights on since 1969.''
In addition to seven terms as Business Manager and Financial Secretary of IBEW Local No. 47, Pat served five terms as the IBEW 7th District International Executive Council member. He was chosen as Secretary of the Council by the IEC in June 2003. During his many years in the field, Pat has worked for numerous IBEW signatory contractors and four utilities out of various local unions around the United States. When Pat took over Local 47 in 1999 it was a 4,500-member utility. Today, it serves 14,000 members in nearly 200 classifications over a nearly 80,000 square mile jurisdiction from the Pacific to Arizona and from Mexico to just south of Lake Tahoe.
Pat was also chairman & treasurer of the Coalition of California Utility Employees (CCUE), a board member of California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), an executive board member of the Califomia State Association of Electrical Workers (CSAEW), and a member of the board of directors of California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy (CFEE). He was a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and served as chair of the IBEW No. 47 Retiree Medical Trust Fund, along with being a trustee of the Cal-Nevada IBEW/NECA JATC Board.
As a member of the IBEW International Executive Council, Pat was a trustee on the IBEW Pension Benefit Fund and all funds of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. In addition to those duties, he served on the National Employee Benefit Board (NEBB), which is the board of directors for the National Electric Benefit Fund
(NEFB), National Electric Annuity Plan (NEAP), and the National Electric 401 K (NEFP). In June 2017, Pat was nominated California Veteran of the Year by the California State Assembly.
Pat holds a Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Management from Southern California College. He was married to his wife, Ellen, for 45 years prior to her passing in 2019 and recently married his current wife, Dianne. Pat has two daughters, two sons, and eleven grandchildren.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing and thanking Mr. Patrick Lavin for his many years of outstanding service to electrical workers in Southern California and nationwide and for his exemplary leadership ``keeping the lights on.''
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 188
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