february - IAM Local Lodge 839

PAGE 7 FEB RU ARY 2009
MACHINISTS MATTERS
Union Member Profile
Larry Stafford, Closet Actor
By Larry Stafford
Many of you have seen me wear many hats. I mean
that literally, but figuratively also. I have always enjoyed
acting but life sometimes gets in the way of some
of our passions. I was in some plays in high school,
back in the dark ages, and a little in college, but I did
not pursue it. I joined the Fraternity of Masons in 1992
and became involved in the Ritual work of the Fraternity.
I enjoyed that greatly, but little did I know that
advancing in Masonry, I would get to fulfill my desire to
be on stage.
I became a Scottish Rite Mason in 2000 and a Shrine
Mason in 2004. It is a well kept secret, which we are
trying to let out, that there is a wonderful 700 seat
theater and stage in the Scottish Rite Center at 1 st and
Topeka. There are also hundreds of costumes there,
with some a hundred years old. We
perform our rituals on that stage in
those costumes. I have been lucky to
have been given many roles to learn
and perform there. Most of those are
performed to a closed audience but
there are a couple we have performed
for the general public. When
I joined the Shrine, I became involved
in their stage work.
We have one ceremony that we perform
that I have a major role in. It
is called the Arch Ceremony. The
next time we will perform this will
be March 14 th at 2:00 in the auditorium
of the Scottish Rite Center.
This is open to the public and if anyone
would like to come down and see
what I do away from the Local,
which is now taking up a lot more time, I am inviting
all of you to come. It is right after our membership
meeting. Just park in the lot north of the building and
come in the North door. It will only take about 45 minutes
from start to finish. Come a little early so you can
find you way up stairs and get a seat.
Editors note: This is the first Union Member Profile article
that I am trying to start on a monthly basis. If you
know of any member with any interesting hobby or activity,
send in a short article and I will see if it can be
printed. As you can see above, you can write about yourself.
Include pictures if you want. E-mail the article to
lstafford@ll839.org or lair68@cox.net
QUOTE BY
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.:
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must
guard against being fooled by false slogans, as
'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no
'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions
and the freedom of collective bargaining... We
demand this fraud be stopped.”
Solidarity in 2010
By Becky Ledbetter
It has been a good month for our brothers and
sisters in the way of grievance issues. I have 2
terminations coming back. I am working on 2
more at this time. My grievance log at this time
is 14 and 9 are set to close out at 10:00 this morning.
They should all be wins for our membership.
I know we have many issues still in front of us
but we will keep fighting for you to get these resolved.
In walking the floor and talking to our
membership I know there are very hard feelings
about the bonus your CEO received and I don’t
blame you. We have got to grow this membership
and show solidarity in 2010 and I know
we can do this, as we are all in this together.
I would also like to say that 3 weeks ago, I was
issued my Hawker badge. Many brothers and
sisters are hurting over there. I will need to
break away a few days a week and go see them. I
know it is hard to be laid off, as I have been before.
They compare the depression to a death in
the family or a divorce.
I just want you all to know I am not forsaking any
of you; I just have to get out there on the floor as I
do with you. Please know if you don’t see me at
Spirit, I am at one of the other plants. In closing,
I would like to say keep our brothers and sisters