Pres Biden Celebrates the IBEW in Historic Convention Presidential Speech

President Joe Biden electrified the IBEW Convention in Chicago on May 11, drawing thunderous cheers for infrastructure projects that will employ IBEW members far into the future, championing unions like none of his predecessors, fighting to cut taxes for working families and make billionaires pay their fair share, among other historic progress and plans for a better, more just America.



"The only reason I’m standing here now as president of the United States is because the IBEW came on with me early,” Biden said as he arrived on stage at the 40th International Convention to a raucous standing ovation — somehow possible even with every other hand appearing to hold a camera phone in the air.



Biden is the only sitting president to address an IBEW convention, building on an already significant record of visits to IBEW halls and workplaces and shoutouts to the union and its members everywhere, from road speeches to the State of the Union.

Introducing him, International President Lonnie R. Stephenson detailed the IBEW’s exhaustive efforts to put Biden in the White House — and why.

“Joe Biden always makes sure that the IBEW’s agenda is his agenda,” he said. “He has our back, and we have his.”



Biden harkened back to a campaign promise that his audience knew by heart. “I said early on that I was going to be the most pro-labor union president we’ve ever had, for a simple reason: you allow workers to maintain their dignity, you allow them to hold their heads up high.

For more on President Biden’s historic visit to the IBEW Convention, click here