Grand Lodge Convention Day 6
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
Today is the final day for the Grand Lodge. We started with many delegates calling Personal Points of Privilege. Most of them were to give thanks.
We then moved to our first speaker of the day, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. Chuck spoke very well of Unions and being Pro-Union. Compared to the many other speakers we have had, he spoke very well keeping the democratic campaigning to a minimum.
We then had many more Personal Points of Privilege where delegates addressed the body.
We then move to our next speaker. The President of the Canadian Labour Congress. She started by thanking David Chartrand, the General Vice President of the Canadian Territory. She then continued with how the IAM is working so hard in Canada and how good of a job we are doing. The many areas we are working hard to maintain and improve worker’s rights in Canada.
Next, it was announced that our General Vice President of the Western Territories Gary R. Allen will be retiring effective January 1st and our Chief of Staff Bobby Martinez will become our new GVP. Brother Martinez is currently with the negotiations team negotiating a new contract with Boeing as we speak. We wish Brother Martinez the best as he leads our Territory into the future.
Next, the IP Brian Bryant introduced all the new members to the 50 Years Gold Club. These members have all been in our Union for over 50 years.
After a short break we welcome back to the podium, Craig Martin General Vice President of the Southern Territory. He explained his past and how he joined the Union. He explained what its like to Unionize in the South of the US. The Southern Territory of the IAM runs from Texas to Florida. He then announced that the next Grand Lodge Convention will be held in New Orleans Louisiana.
We then had a surprise speaker of Vice President Nominee, Governor Tim Walz. He spoke as he has on his campaign. He talked of being pro-labor and then continued to hope for our Unions endorsement.
We then move to the Resolutions Committee for Resolution No. 28 which was to vote to endorsement of Kamala Harris. As you can tell by the way the convention had proceeded thus far, it ended with the vote going to support Kamala Harris. with only 8 delegates being able to speak on the amendment before the question was called, only one Brother was able to speak against the amendment. IP Brian Bryant felt that that was sufficient debate to allow the call for the question to hold. This meant the many Brothers who wished to speak against the amendment were scilenced without a chance to speak. I will also add that when our Brother who spoke against the amendment he was boo’ed several times as he spoke and was not shown respect by the delegate body. This was unacceptable to show disrespect to our Brothers and Sisters.
After voting a delegate did come to the mic for a point of privilege to show some respect for the Brother who had the bravery to speak what was clearly an unpopular opinion with the delegates in attendance.
https://www.goiam.org/news/600000-member-iam-union-endorses-harris-walz-presidential-ticket/
Next went to many thanks being given out to the membership. Thanks to the staff of the hotel who hosted us, thanks to the vendors who came, thanks to the event staff making sure everything ran smoothly, and thanks to many many more…
The Grand Lodge Convention came to a close with a formal motion to adjourn the meeting. With the passing of this motion, the 41st Grand Lodge Convention was officially concluded, marking the end of a successful and memorable event filled with lots of insight among all the attending Delegates.
Thank You Brothers and Sisters for the opportunity to represent you in this Convention and allowing me the perfect opportunity to make sure you stayed informed of what was presented. It might not have been a full representation of all of our members but this was very educational. All of your Delegates definitely will be able to bring back something to make our Local and Union stronger.
Thank You,
Your Delegates of Local 727p here from New York and the 41st Grand Lodge Convention.
