Vol. 19 | No. 4 | April 2025

Taking Our Meetings to Our Members

From left, Local 440 Boxing/Health Club members Richard Ramos, Jesus Gomez, Colton Torrez, Noah Newman, Vicente Aguirre and Bernie Balland. (Not Pictured: Alton Harris)

L.U. 440 (i,rts&spa), RIVERSIDE, CA — Members ended 2023 on a productive note and attended our local’s first boxing/health club event. Long ago, Local 440 understood that not every member is able to attend monthly meetings as frequently as the labor movement would hope. So we created the motto and culture that if our members are unable to attend the meetings, we will bring the meetings to them.

To date, we have created and maintained the Local 440 softball team as well as golf, gun, mountain bike, poker, flag football, off-road, prayer request, car/truck/motorcycle, dominoes and chess clubs. We also have our internationally recognized and chartered RENEW chapter and Veterans Committee, all of which we use to promote and grow our Local 440 mentor program.

If you’re reading this and want information on participating, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected], and I will put you in touch with the chairman of the club you’re interested in. All clubs have annual events, with the possibility of extras throughout the year. We hope to see you at one of them!

From apathy to activism — through brotherhood we will change our jurisdiction!

Bernie Balland, P.S.