Taxes Go Up

    So, yeah, the affiliates are going to be a little lighter in the pocket starting right away. The delegates approved raising the per capita tax to 65 cents per month per member.

    A little financial crunching: the per capita tax had been 61 cents. But that was made up of 53 cents that was permanent and a temporary 8 cents that was put in place after the Federation's last convention; the 8 cents had to be made permanent here.

    Then, when the CLCs and State Federations started rumbling at the start of the convention, the Executive Council met Tuesday morning and approved an additional 4 cent hike in the per capita that would go directly to a special fund that would deal with "(1) the financial distress that some state and central labor bodies will face because the disaffiliated unions will no longer be members of those bodies, (2) raids by the disaffiliated unions on AFL-CIO affiliates; and (3) the adverse impact on trade and industrial departments.

Comments

[Jeff D]

48 cents per member per year isn't going to balance the books. What is that? 4 million? And more downsizing of staff and consultants?

If either side of this stupid split had a real plan they would have put a $1 a month surcharge on our dues and built support for it with a slogan like: Would you pay $12 for a stronger labor movement?

[Robin O. Hunter]

Amen to you Jeff. I raised this issue a month ago on CtW's website and only mentioned a dime a week, as in "brother, can you spare a dime." Just $5.20 a year. A whiner from SEIU responded they'd just had a dues increase and couldn't afford more. I don't know what their dues are, but mine are more than $110 a month. I'd pay it and more. Instead, look what SEIU's cheapness bought.
Any union president who is afraid to go to their members and ask for a dime a week to help turn around the labor movement doesn't deserve to draw another paycheck.
While union presidents from both sides are in Chicago checking to see which one has the biggest ego, maybe they should check to see why they don't have any balls. Their inability to lead has split the labor movement and crippled the AFL-CIO which now faces another round of layoffs.

[belleunion]

Well, you say you pay $110 per month, but not how much you earn. I think that it's important to look at the question of dues in the context of folks' overall salary. If you are earning $8 or 9 per hour, $110 per month dues would be something like 7% of your salary. That's a pretty big hit for most low-wage workers to pay.

[Robin O. Hunter]

I understand that workers making $8 an hour make only $320 a week. But I don't believe that adding 10 cents a week to their dues is "a pretty big hit" on their paychecks. The union is the only thing stopping their employer from paying them the minimum wage, which the Republicans believe, as part of their compassionate conservativism, should never, ever be raised again. I think even low-wage workers would have wanted to contribute more in dues if the outcome were a stronger labor movement. But the option for a stronger, united labor movement led by courageous individuals has gone by. Now these workers are being asked to pay an extra penny a week to help patch the big hole in AFL-CIO caused by the split. As for my salary, it is proportional to my dues which are under 2 percent.