Grand Lodge Convention Day 5
Hello Brothers and Sisters,
Welcome to Day 5 of the Gland Lodge Convention. Today we started the session with a video from NFFE-IAM.
Next was a speaker from the AFL-CIO from the Common Sense Economics Department. There were several charts and graphs given of examples of the wage/wealth gap that had grown since 1945. However, what these charts failed to understand is many of the examples used were the result of a free market of supply and demand. Coorpate greed does exsist. When a CEO makes 200 times that of their average worker that is a prime example. However, the cost of housing that was used is fully based on what people are buying in an area. As an example, if I list my house for 1.5 million and someone buys it, the neighboring houses go up in value. So long as people keep buying products at set prices, prices stay high. Ultimately this presentation was not so common sense.
Next was a speaker who spoke on Trade Agreements. The presentation on trade was very good in showing how trade affects all our jobs and it was very informative in a Bi-partisan way.
After that, our brother Brett Martin took the mic for a Personal Point of Privilege to address the body concerning the one-sided viewpoint presented throughout this convention. The perception of only supporting Democratic political leaders was again, troubling. He spoke on behalf of our local, reminding everyone that we are not all Democrats or Republicans; we are made up of many viewpoints, and we must all remember to represent our membership.
Next, we moved to the Resolutions Committee for continued business of voting on resolutions.
After a short break, we then heard from the Human Rights Committee. They informed us of their support and endorsement of several Resolutions. They also encouraged both Districts and locals to create Human Rights Committees. To create this committee to make significant steps towards fostering a culture of respect and dignity.
The following Committee to speak a report what the Young Workers Committee. After thanking everything the Reaffirmed recommendation from 2022.
Creation of Non-Voting Advisory Positions
Investment in Young Workers Education
Development of Mentorship Programs
Utilization of Young Worker Committees
New Communication Methods
Next were their recommendations for 2024 and beyond.
Create a Stand-Alone Young Workers Department
Invest in the Committee on the Future’s recommendation for Internal Organizing
Establish a Young Workers Conference
Revive Local Bylaws to Lower Barriers to Participation
Develop a Meaningful Mentorship Program
Create Welcome Committees
Grant Funding for Young Worker Development Programs
Promote and Celebrate Young Worker Achievements
Next we moved back to the Resolutions Committee for continued business of voting on resolutions.
After Lunch Recess, we had the IAM Director of Healthcare, Shane Brinton. Shane comes to IAM with more than 15 years of experience in labor and political campaign strategy, representation, and advocacy. He is dedicated to building powerful worker organizations with the industrial and political strength to remake the healthcare system to serve healthcare professionals and their patients.
For the past decade, Brinton has represented and bargained on behalf of thousands of healthcare professionals, including laboratory and pharmacy staff, advanced practice clinicians, behavioral health staff, physical and occupational therapists, registered nurses, and nursing support staff. Brinton’s diverse experience also includes representing a wide range of public and community service employees, including county, city, and community nonprofit workers.
This led to a round table discussion with many IAM Healthcare Worker Union Members.
The discussion brought to light the urgent need for why pharmacists came together and unionized with the IAM. For too long, pharmacists have found themselves understaffed and overworked, struggling to meet the demands of their profession while ensuring the safety and well-being of the public. This issue has been particularly prevalent in large pharmacy chains such as Walgreens and CVS. Unionizing could provide pharmacists with the collective power to negotiate for fairer work hours, competitive wages, and improved workplace environments. Additionally, it could enable them to more effectively address concerns related to patient care and the quality of pharmaceutical services.
A short break for a set change and we reconvened for business. It started with a video from the Aerospace Territory.
Next, we had yet another guest speaker. Ambassador Katherine Tai of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Next to speak is the IAM National Political and Legislative Director, Hasan Solomon. He tried to be passionate about being pro-labor but all it came off as was an anti-right campaign speech. He then continued about how we have to be involved in politics. He used Lockheed as an example. Funding those programs is politics but the disrespect to those across the aisle was unfathomable. As I have stated before, this feels like we are at the Democratic National Convention. He did express about our union being Nonpartisan, “We are not a Democratic organization, we are not a Republican organization; we are a trade union, we are nonpartisan,” but with the way this convention has gone and you could have fooled our delegates. It was expressed, if a politician supports us, we will support them. However, as he states, "No GOP representative has supported us so we won’t support them.” This is where what Brother Brett was concerned about. We have to start trying to work, as an organization, with those who are not working with us. How can we ever expect to have Republican Candidates want to support us if all we ever do is try to get them '“Fired”? If you wish to read how the International wrote their article please click the link below.
He then went on a Trump-smearing campaign. Talking about how he is dumb and not worthy of office. With the way he addressed the issue, he basically called anyone who supports Trump dumb for considering taking him back as President. He even used the example of a girl taking back a bad boyfriend. Your delegates here were not to happy with how Hasan addressed the body.
Finally, after all the terrible campaigning we moved back to business with the Law Committee to vote on Propositions.
There was a motion made to suspend rule 1 of the convention that related to the time in which we would recess for the day and was voted through to maintain the convention until no later than 7 PM local time to make sure we had enough time to finish the business we had for the day. Personally, we’d have had more than enough time to do business if it was for all the “Motivational” speakers, but that's just my opinion.
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Thank You,
Delegates of 727p at the Grand Lodge Convention.
