Update on the TWU 22^nd Constitutional Convention.

Your delegates at this convention were President Nick Massi, Vice President John Mazza, and Recording Secretary Mark Hnat. The Convention Began on Monday September 19 and was scheduled to end on Friday September 23, 2005. The Convention was cut short by one day and ended on Thursday September 22, 2005; this was due to Hurricane Rita which was due make land fall, somewhere between Galveston and Houston. A large contingent of the delegates needed to return home to attend to both professional and personal concerns.

     At this convention there were several speakers presented, but, not as many as have attended in the past, some of those present were,

     John Sweeney AFL/CIO President

     Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

     Bill George President Pennsylvania AFL/CIO

     Ed Wytkind President AFL/CIO TTD.

     The opening day speeches and those that followed addressed the recent events surrounding the situation in AFL/CIO, and the cause and effect it will have on the current remaining member unions. The other main topic for discussion was the impact Katrina has had, and the governments’ poor response to the crisis.

     The Resolutions and Constitutional amendments that were voted on and passed have been posted on both Local 562s’ and the Internationals’ web site. Due to the fact that the convention was cut short by one day several Resolutions and Constitutional amendments, were not voted on by the body of the delegates, these  will be carried forward to the IEC (International Executive Council) for passage or rejection, the IEC is scheduled to meet in February 2006.

     While this past convention was not as acrimonious as the preceding one it was not with out its share of controversy. Several members of Local 100 rose in both support and opposition of several resolutions and constitutional amendments, those in opposition were heckled from the audience and to their credit they continued to voice their opinions. This Local voiced their opposition of the continued attempts to censure and stifle free speech thru intimidation from the audience; the chair assured all speakers the right to speak and to not be harassed from the audience.

     Among the resolutions passed was Resolution #1, Hurricane Katrina Relief, this resolution allows the International to collect and distribute donations to the victims. Also written and passed was resolution #43, which calls on this government to stop the profiteering of corporations during this crisis and the re-instatement of the Davis-Bacon act, which calls for the payment of prevailing wage rates, among other issues pertinent to this situation.

     On Wednesday September 21^st the election of the International Officers, Vice Presidents, Council Members and Executive Board took Place. All positions ran unopposed. For the purpose of brevity I will only list the officers elected,

     Michael O’Brien, President

     James Little Vice President

     John Kerrigan Secretary-Treasurer

     Hubert Snead Administrative Vice President

     Michael Bakalo Administrative Vice President

     My only concern and disappointment was with the fact that with Brother Dean no longer on the IEC, we on the line no longer have a voice to carry our concerns and opinions before the council.

     The only other point at which there was serious debate on the floor was during the acceptance of the appeals committees report, one Brother chose to have his appeal extracted from blanket approval of the report and asked that it be voted on separately. There were a few in the audience who felt that we should blindly accept the committees report with no rancor or question. After some debate the Brothers motion was carried and the issue was voted on separately, this vote was only to accept or not accept the committees report, on his case,  the Brother never appealed the Committees decision to the body.

        There will be a video of the Convention, as soon as it is made available to us we will post it on our web site, if any member has a question as to how your delegates voted on any issue please seek us out and we will gladly let you know. The voting system in place was still the archaic method of yeas’ and nays; we would still like to see an electronic method of voting. If one was in place it would provide an accurate record of voting and would remove any question as to the validity of the vote. During this convention whenever there was a doubt as to the results of a vote the chair called for a division of the house.

     If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact myself or any of the delegates who were present.

Fraternally;

John J. Mazza

Vice President

Local 562