The Immigration Debate and Roll Call

Where to begin and where to end? Will it ever end?
Some of the most inspiring and thought provoking speakers on the floor this week have been young women of color. Some of the most frustrating and disrespectful speakers from the podium have been old white men, especially the Glorious Leader. As a white man who aspires to become old one day I must say I am ready to elect some of the youthful talent I saw in Boston this week to leadership roles in our Union.

The election took place early on Thursday morning so you could vote, then go out to breakfast and be back in time for the convention to re-convene at about 10:30.

After the speakers (Ed and Donna) we moved through a number of Resolutions. When we got to one resolution that concerned “illegal” immigration and health care for all, or not. Things got quite contentious. It seems that many members have forgotten that unless we are card-carrying tribal members we are all immigrants, most voluntary some not at all voluntary.

The rights that apple pickers, drywall hangers, linen launderers, child care providers, and every other worker who came here out of a sense of survival is currently fighting for are the same rights that were denied many of our Italian, Irish, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, African……ancestors when they first arrived here.

Targeting immigrants is about divide and conquer. Brown vs White, Mexican vs Black, Muslim vs Jew, Straight vs Gay, Private vs Public sector……These tactics have been used for thousands of years to pit one faction of working people against another.

The clear winner is the owning class, the investor class, the sit-on-their-ass class. They sit by and watch us “little people” snipe and pick at each other while their bank accounts get fatter and everyone else works harder to make ends meet.

I’m about to the point of calling on all white folks who don’t want to share the country with the immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America (who for the most part are Indigenous people, meaning they were here first) to just pack up and go back to Europe. Take whatever you can carry just like your ancestors did when they came here and get your ass back across the pond. Those of us willing to share will stay behind and work with our non-Euro-American brothers and sisters to build a more equitable society here on Turtle Island. It is about survival.

As the debate dragged on one member stepped forward and “called the question.” This is a procedural maneuver done when a member feels there has been enough discussion already and the issue should be put to a vote. Now before the question can be called both sides of an issue must be heard from, unless one side has no supporters, which often happens when the Resolution calls for supporting something all members agree upon, like supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. After both sides have been heard from the members can vote to close discussion/debate and move the issue to a vote.

The first round is an oral vote with a yeah or a nay. Generally this is all that is needed to get the sense of the room and determine if a resolution is adopted or not. If this determines the outcome we can move on to another resolution or a video or a speaker or whatever.

If the voice vote is too close to call then “Division” can be called. Even if the Chair had made a decision from the podium any member can call from the floor for division and if it is seconded it will take place. At this point all those who want to vote Yeah are called upon to stand. After they have been reseated the Nay votes are called upon to stand. The Chair then decides which group was larger and whether the Resolution or Amendment has passed or failed.

Should any member feel that the estimate during the Division process was insufficiently different to warrant calling it for either side then a Role Call may be proposed. At this point the 50% plus one to pass an amendment, changes to 25%.
If 25% of the body stands to vote for a Roll Call vote then the Roll Call process should kick in. Each Local in attendance at the International Convention must be individually polled on the matter. As you can imagine this must be a long and tedious process. I say must be because I have never seen it in action. But this is how Union Democracy is supposed to work.

Back to the debate on the Resolution regarding the rights of immigrants. The original proposal had been about healthcare for all and included language that recognized health care as a right for everybody including people without legal permission to be here. After all an injury to one is an injury to all.

Some wise member stood to call for the language recognizing the rights of non-citizens to be removed from the resolution. This sparked a debate and voice vote, which was inconclusive. Division was called and when members were asked to stand to support Yeah or Nay it was still not clear which side had prevailed. A member then proposed that a Roll Call vote be taken. The chair then called for the members who wanted to proceed to a Roll Call vote to stand. Many hundreds of delegates stood to support the call for a Roll Call vote but the Chair ruled that it did not meet the 25% threshold and there would be no roll call vote. The matter was decided by Mr McEntee as chair of the Convention.

This issue would come up again on Friday and again a Roll Call would be called upon from the floor. Stay Tuned.

21st Century Fix- instead of giving us a new T-Shirt every day at Convention they could give every delegate a FOB with which we could vote on a resolution or an amendment. Electronic readers on each table would pick up the votes from the member’s FOBs and relay it to a computer where it would be tabulated. One vote, no question of the results. This way there would never be a time when the Chair is calling a vote one way but many members are seeing or hearing it go another way. This way of voice voting is a hold over from when he Declaration of Independence was first read from the balcony down the street from the hotel here in Boston. “All yeah who be in favor of severing all ties from the Crown signify forth with by hollering Ay!” “All ye Pilgrims and Journeymen against signify by muttering no.”