[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 188 (Tuesday, October 26, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1147-E1148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  RECOGNIZING PATRICK LAVIN ON HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL 
         BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW) LOCAL NO. 47

                                 ______
                                 

                       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

[[Page E1148]]

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.''

                          ____________________