United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the

Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada

The General Executive Board is empowered to publish the Ritual of the United Association and may from time to time make such changes in the Ritual as it determines are necessary.

No part of this Constitution shall be suspended at any time, nor can it be amended, except at conventions or by referendum vote as provided in the following sections.

Ten percent of the total number of Local Unions in good standing may jointly propose an amendment to this Constitution. By a majority vote of the membership of each Local Union constituting a sufficient number of Local Unions to comprise 10 percent of the Local Unions in good standing, a written resolution proposing such amendment shall be adopted. Such proposed amendment shall be published in the official UA Journal, where arguments may be made for or against it for at least three (3) issues. If, within sixty (60) days from date of first publication of the proposed amendment, 25 percent of the total good standing membership of the United Association endorse the same, the amendment shall be submitted by the General Secretary-Treasurer for a general vote of the entire membership at their next regular meeting. Each Local Union shall vote by secret ballot (yes or no) on the amendment as submitted and shall immediately report to the General Secretary-Treasurer the total number of voters eligible to vote on the question and the number voting yes and the number voting no.

The General Secretary-Treasurer shall compile and publish the returns in the UA Journal, and it shall require 55 percent majority of the members voting to carry an amendment. No amendment shall be considered adopted if less than 55 percent of the total membership vote. Amendments so adopted shall take effect upon their passage or as specified in the amendment.

(a) If any provision of this Constitution shall be declared invalid or inoperative by any competent authority of the executive, judicial or administrative branch of federal or state government, the General Executive Board shall have the authority to suspend the operation of such provision during the period of its invalidity and to substitute in its place and stead a provision which will meet the objections to its validity, and which will be in accord with the intent and purpose of the invalid provision. If any section of this Constitution should be held invalid by operation of law or by any tribunal of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of this Constitution, or the application of such section to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it has been held invalid, shall not be affected thereby.

(b) The General President, with the approval of the General Executive Board, is authorized to grant administrative relief to the Canadian Local Unions from certain provisions of this Constitution which, in the General President’s sole discretion, are in the best interests of the United Association or are necessary to comply with applicable Canadian Federal or Provincial laws.

(a) The General President and the General Secretary-Treasurer in conjunction with the Laws Committee shall have the power following convention adoption of amendments to this Constitution prior to the printing thereof, to make such corrections, typographical, grammatical, punctuational, or otherwise, including the supplying or remedying of inadvertent omissions or errors as are necessary to carry out the spirit and intent of any amendments adopted, as well as the power to incorporate in the appropriate places in the Constitution salary adjustments approved pursuant to Section 45; the power to incorporate changes in sections of the Constitution resulting from amendments to other sections of the Constitution such as the per capita tax and fees in Section 133; the power to rearrange, renumber and recaption any of the sections of the Constitution and the power to incorporate in the Constitution in the form of new sections some but not necessarily all of the resolutions and reports adopted by the convention that have the force and effect of law.

(b) Wherever any words are used in this Constitution in the masculine gender, they shall be construed as though they were also used in the feminine gender or neuter gender in all situations where they would so apply.

All amendments to the United Association Constitution adopted at the 37th Convention shall be effective January 1, 2007, unless otherwise provided. Those sections of the United Association Constitution not amended at the 37th Convention shall remain in full force and effect until amended at a future UA Convention.