Bylaws and Constitution

Committee On Bylaws

Our bylaws are approved through a process that allows our members to decide which direction we will travel and is the roadmap to democratic compliance. The bylaws of Local lodge 2297 are amended periodically and gives our local clear and thorough guidance on how to conduct lodge affairs and defines limitations and boundaries when acting in a position or in the role of a representative. The lodge has an active Bylaw Committee whose purpose is to make sure every detail occurs as written. Bylaws govern such things as:

• When nominations and elections are held

• Which officers your Local has and their duties

• Local dues and how dues are set

• Local committees and how they are “staffed”

• When and how often Local meetings are held

• Procedures for approval of expenditures

• How Bylaws are changed

Preamble to the IAM Constitution

Believing that the right of those who toil to enjoy to the full extent the wealth created by their labor is a natural right, and realizing that under the changing industrial conditions incident to the enormous growth of syndicates and other aggregations of capital it is impossible for those who toil to obtain the full reward of their labor other than through united action; and recognizing the fact that those who toil should use their rights of citizenship intelligently, through organizations founded and acting along cooperative, economic and political lines, using the natural resources, means of production and distribution for the benefit of all the people, with the view of restoring the commonwealth to all those performing useful service to society;

Now, Therefore; We, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, pledge ourselves to labor unitedly in behalf of the principles herein set forth, to perpetuate our Association on the basis of solidarity and justice, to expound its objects, to labor for the general adoption of its principles, to consistently endeavor to bring about a higher standard of living among the toiling masses.

IAM Constitution  became effective January 1, 2017

 

Local Lodge Election Guide

 

AFL-CIO Constitution Preamble

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is an expression of the hopes and aspirations of the working people of America.

• We resolve to fulfill the yearning of the human spirit for liberty, justice and community; to advance individual and associational freedom; to vanquish ­oppression, privation and cruelty in all their forms; and to join with all persons, of whatever nationality or faith, who cherish the cause of democracy and the call of solidarity, to grace the planet with these achievements.
• We dedicate ourselves to improving the lives of working families, bringing fairness and dignity to the workplace and securing social equity in the Nation. We will prevail by building a strong, free and democratic labor movement.
• We will organize workers into unions allied by common purposes and mutual reliance.
• We will recruit generations of organizers, amass resources to sustain their efforts and inspire workers to achieve dignity and security through organization and collective bargaining.
• We will generate broad understanding of the necessity of organizing among our members, our leaders and all unorganized workers. We will give political voice to workers in the ­Nation.
• We will fight for an agenda for working families at all levels of government.
• We will assemble a broad progressive coalition for social and economic justice.
• We will create a political force within the labor movement that will speak forcefully and persuasively on the public issues that affect our lives.
• We will enable workers to shape a changing global economy.
• We will speak for working people in the international marketplace, in the industries in which we are employed and in the firms where we work.
• We will expand the role of unions to securing worker influence in all the decisions that affect our working lives, from capital investment to the quality of products and services to how work itself is organized.
• We will establish unions as active forces in our communities. We will make the voices of working families heard in our neighborhoods. We will create vibrant state, local and community labor councils.
• We will strengthen the ties of labor with our allies. We will speak out effectively and creatively on behalf of all working Americans. With confidence and trust in the inherent power and goodness of our people and in the virtue and promise of unionism, we proclaim this Constitution.