CONSTITUTION 2019 FOREWORD Organizing workers and reorganizing unions to act powerfully and effectively in the struggle to improve society must be the central task of every progressive trade union. For over a hundred years members of the unions that now comprise UNITE HERE have struggled against powerful forces and incredible odds to bring dignity and respect to the workplace. Whether our predecessors were cooks or tailors, seamstresses or room attendants, bartenders or mill hands, they had much in common. They often arrived in North America only a short time before they picked up their brooms or sat down at their sewing machines. Many of their forbearers came in the holds of slave ships. They often worked in family owned enterprises, bravely looking their employers directly in the eye as they asserted their rights and fought for their economic freedom. They labored long hours for low pay and made heroic sacrifices on the front lines of the labor movement of the twentieth century. In the twenty-first century, workers from across the globe continue to come to North America to work in our industries. Together with workers whose families have been here for generations, they confront the challenges of working for, bargaining with, and organizing global corporations. Workers today also confront a North American labor movement whose strength has been waning for decades. Our ability to achieve the gains we need--both on the job and in society more broadly--is in serious jeopardy. These realities are cause for grave concern not only for labor unions but also for all those who see unions, and the rights of workers, as an integral part of a democratic and equal society. The challenges we face are great. But the opportunities before us are also vast. We have the opportunity to build a new labor movement, to make unions mean something new, and to make unions relevant to many more people. We have the opportunity to bring great numbers of workers into our union and our movement. Doing so will not only make our union and our movement larger and more powerful, but also more diverse, varied, and vibrant. We have the opportunity to significantly advance the struggles for equality for women, immigrants and African Americans. Women, immigrants, and African Americans have built our union and our industries, but remain overrepresented among the unorganized. There can be no freedom for workers in general until those specific battles are won. i If we are successful in bringing the union to many more people, we have the opportunity to reshape the structure of power in North America away from corporations and the rich and toward ordinary working people. We have the opportunity, through our movement, to provide ordinary people the chance to do extraordinary things: to win the power to make profound changes in our own lives and in the lives of working people in our two countries. We will only begin to realize these opportunities if we are a democratic and worker-driven union and labor movement. The strength of our union and our movement, and the promise of the future, resides in us and in the affiliates to which we belong. We are the union, and only through our collective strength can we achieve the more just, equal society for which we fight. Throughout North America and around the world, UNITE HERE will continue with renewed determination our historical mission: providing the power, dignity and independence that only democratic trade unionism can bring to the unorganized and the dispossessed. CONTENTS FOREWORD i CONTENTS ii ARTICLE 1 CONSTITUTION, JURISDICTION, OBJECTIVES ................................................... 1 Section 1 Name .......................................................................................................................... 1 Section 2 Definitions ................................................................................................................ 1 Section 3 Official Constitution; Constitution and By-laws of Affiliates ................. 1 Section 4 Jurisdiction ............................................................................................................... 2 Section 5 Objectives ................................................................................................................. 2 Section 6 Indigenous Peoples ............................................................................................... 3 Section 7 Headquarters ........................................................................................................... 4 Section 8 Dissolution ................................................................................................................ 4 ARTICLE 2 CONVENTIONS .............................................................................................................. 4 Section 1 Authority ................................................................................................................... 4 Section 2 Five-Year Convention ........................................................................................... 4 Section 3 Composition of Convention .............................................................................. 4 Section 4 Eligibility of Local ................................................................................................... 4 ii Section 5 Number of Local Delegates ............................................................................... 4 Section 6 Voting ......................................................................................................................... 5 Section 7 Notice, Nomination, Election ............................................................................ 5 Section 8 Eligibility Requirements ....................................................................................... 6 Section 9 Recently Merged Locals ...................................................................................... 7 Section 10 Officer and Business Agent ................................................................................ 7 Section 11 Financial Status of Affiliates ............................................................................... 7 Section 12 Joint Board of Delegates ..................................................................................... 7 Section 13 Delegate-Credentials ............................................................................................ 7 Section 14 Convention-Committees ..................................................................................... 8 Section 15 Rules of Procedure .............................................................................................. 10 Section 16 General Order of Business ................................................................................ 10 Section 17 Quorum and Decisions ...................................................................................... 10 Section 18 Resolutions ............................................................................................................. 11 Section 19 Speakers .................................................................................................................. 11 Section 20 Special Convention ............................................................................................. 11 ARTICLE 3 INTERNATIONAL OFFICERS .................................................................................... 12 Section 1 International Officers .......................................................................................... 12 Section 2 Term of Office and Filling Vacancies ............................................................ 12 Section 3 Duties and Authority of President ................................................................. 13 Section 4 Duties and Authority of the Recording Secretary ................................... 15 Section 5 Duties and Authority of the Secretary-Treasurer .................................... 16 Section 6 General Vice Presidents ..................................................................................... 17 Section 7 Duties and Rights of Executive Vice-Presidents ...................................... 18 Section 8 Duties and Rights of International Vice Presidents ................................ 18 Section 9 Duties and Powers of Executive Committee ............................................. 18 Section 10 UNITE HERE GEB .................................................................................................. 19 Section 11 Compensation and Expenses of Officers .................................................... 22 Section 12 International Officers’ Right to Information .............................................. 22 Section 13 Annual Budget ...................................................................................................... 23 Section 14 Appointment of AFL-CIO Delegates ............................................................ 24 iii ARTICLE 4 TRUSTEESHIP ................................................................................................................ 24 Section 1 Purpose of Trusteeship ...................................................................................... 24 Section 2 Authority of the Executive Committee ........................................................ 25 Section 3 Appointment of Trustee Before Hearing .................................................... 25 Section 4 Hearing on Trusteeship ....................................................................................