IAM Delegates meeting in Toronto, ON, for the 38th Grand Lodge Convention voted overwhelmingly to formally endorse Barack Obama and Joe Biden for a second term as President and Vice President of the United States.
IAM Grand Lodge Conventions are scheduled in part to coincide with U.S. presidential elections and to give delegates an opportunity to express support for political incumbents or challengers.
Candidates previously endorsed by lAM Convention delegates include Barack Obama in 2008, John Kerry in 2004, AI Gore in 2000 and Bill Clinton in 1996 and 1992. The delegates’ endorsement in Toronto follows a unanimous endorsement in February from the lAM’s Non-Partisan Political League (MNPL), which evaluates local and national candidates and makes recommendations for lAM members.
Prior to the vote, lAM International President Tom Buffenbarger urged delegates to carefully consider how a Romney administration would handle the upcoming retirements of at least four, and possibly as many as seven, U.S. Supreme Court justices. “A seven-to-two Supreme Court will be the darkest, longest running and strangest nightmare any of us will ever have,” said Buffenbarger. “0ur right to strike, our right to bargain collectively, our right to belong to a union, and even our right to assemble- can be rewritten, refined and reworked out of existence by the Supreme Court.”
“We welcomed President Obama’s appointments of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court;’ said Buffenbarger. “Not because they were especially pro-labor, but because they displayed the kind of non-partisan competence most Americans want to see on the Court.”
“If Romney is elected, we can forget about fairness, forget about the facts, forget about the law and forget about justice being blind,” said Buffenbarger. “The scales of justice will tip in one direction only; the direction that gave us Citizens United, Bush v. Gore and corporate personhood.”
“TCU is pleased with the IAM endorsement of the Obama, Biden ticket,” said TCU President Bob Scardelletti. “This election will be critical for the rights of TCU members.”