I keep thinking, as I read the AFL-CIO confidential budget, that it may be the only reason a deal is still possible that avoids one or more unions leaving the Federation, but would include John Sweeney agreeing to step aside and not run for re-election and acceptance of some of the major structural changes being pushed by the Change To Win coalition. Follow my bizarre logic here and, admittedly, it’s highly speculative…
This proposed budget –which includes the already-announced 25 percent staff reduction and cuts in other parts of the Federation’s operations–assumes a total income of about $126 million in 2005-2006. Now, $95 million of that comes from per capita dues (the other big chunk comes from the $26 million in credit card royalties from the Member Privilege program).
But, that per capita tax income assumption means every Executive Council member has to ignore what’s happening in the real world. SEIU is gone from the Federation–perhaps even if Sweeney steps down. That’s $9-10 million less in per capita tax income (by the way, for real labor geeks, affiliates pay 61 cents per member to the Federation, which includes an 8 cent special assessment…at least, on the membership they report to the Federation…it’s not uncommon for affiliates to, how shall I say it, be less than forthcoming about their total membership numbers when it comes to paying per caps).
If you take the five unions that make up the Change To Win coalition (SEIU, Laborers, UNITE-HERE, Teamsters and UFCW), they pay about $31 million to the Fed–give or take, about one-third of the per cap income.
If you’re one of a group of unions that doesn’t have a steadfast allegiance for either side and you think the debate has gone off the deep-end (take the American Federation of Teachers, for example) or you’re a union that has sympathy for what the Coalition is trying to do but you have no stomach for tossing Sweeney over the side, it has to be a come-to-Jesus moment when you look at the budget and say, “shit, if these guys walk, forget the member mobilization political program (in for $27.7 million), forget the rebates some of us are counting on (a $15 million hunk), we might not be able to pay the electric bill.”
And I’m only dealing here with the permanent capita tax of 53 cents…wait until I examine the special assessment tax of 8 cents here today or tomorrow.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if one or more affiliates asked Bob Welsh (Sweeney’s executive assistant and chief of staff) to prepare an alternative “what if” budget for the upcoming Executive Council meeting to show the Council how the Federation would function without the income from the Coalition unions–or, heck, just subtracting SEIU’s contribution?
