WEIGHING THE FACTS — PEF Convention delegates review handouts and listen to speakers before voting on the union dues proposal. — Photo by John Epting
Hallum lays out case for increase
Delegates approve dues hike
By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
and MEL HYMAN
The proposed dues increase took center stage during PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum’s address to the delegates attending the 22nd Annual Convention in Syracuse last month.
The message she delivered was clear and concise. Without the increase from .8 percent to .9 percent of salary with no cap on earnings (except for members in Salary Grade 38), the union would be operating in the red over the next five years.
Where’s the money going?
Hallum said the Benson Administration has cut services to the bone, leaving staff vacancies unfilled and denying all but essential expenditures, even while facing rising costs from the union’s contract battles with the Pataki Administration.
But, she added, one cost that cannot be cut is the annual contribution PEF makes to its international affiliates, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). These per capita expenses continue to increase.
And Hallum noted the services provided by the union’s staff also comprise a necessary expense.
“We don’t think about our PEF departments until we’re fighting an unfair discipline or ‘house arrest’ or an illegal reclassification,” Hallum said. “These services come at a cost.”
The bottom line? The union’s income is not keeping up with its expenses.
“Last year we spent $151,000 more than we took in,” Hallum said. Without an increase in the dues structure, PEF would have increasing deficits culminating in a $2.6 million shortfall by 2005.
But beyond paying the bills, Hallum urged delegates to approve the dues hike to allow the union to build on the progress of the past three years. And she invoked the title of a favorite Motown tune — Ain’t no stopping us now — in closing her speech.
“Today I see a different union ... a union that has respect. I don’t want to go back to the union we were,” Hallum said. “Brothers and sisters, there ain’t nothing stopping us now but ourselves.”
Accountability ensuredDuring a question-and-answer period following the Secretary-Treasurer’s presentation,a delegate asked what measures would be in place to ensure accountability for the new funds.
Hallum said that use of the funds for anything other than a new contract campaign or member mobilization or political action would require approval by at least three-quarters of the Executive Board, including the 3 percent being set aside for the union war chest.
“That’s your first line of defense,” she said. “Your second line is the PEF trustees” (the union’s fiscal watchdogs), and she said there’s also the annual independent audit which tracks new expenditures.
The $3 million war chest would be tapped only if PEF needs to mount an immediate political-action effort to safeguard members. That money will not be used for operating expenses, Hallum said.
Delegates reject opposition
There were some attempts to derail the dues-increase proposal. In the morning session a few delegates argued that the union can get along for another year or two on its cash reserves while the dues-increase measure is studied further. But motions to defer garnered little support.
Later, a compromise measure calling
for a dues increase from .8 to .85 percent was proposed,
along with a suggestion to hold the PEF convention
biennially, instead of annually, as a way to make up the
projected revenue shortfall.Hallum responded that going to .85 percent “would not in itself raise
sufficient money to even pay the per capita fees to our affiliated unions
.”
Another delegate proposed an amendment to remove all salary caps and to retain the .8 percent dues structure. It, too, was defeated.
A motion to adjourn the meeting and a motion calling for a roll-call vote (a process estimated to take three hours to complete) likewise went down to defeat.
Delegate Hiram Eberlein voiced the prevailing sentiment among supporters, acknowledging that while the increase to .9 percent made “some folks really upset ... for a paltry $1 (93 cents) a week, we will honor our legally obligated commitments, keep the union functioning properly and allow our leaders to prepare for an even better contract in 2003.”
The original dues-increase proposal then breezed through on a standing vote, as the delegates wrapped up the most important business of the convention on the first day.