Chicago, IL
In 1991, the AFL-CIO Convention amended Article XV of the AFLCIO Constitution to implement a new state federation affiliation program designed to encourage international unions to increase local union membership levels with state AFL-CIOs. In February 1992, the AFL-CIO Executive Council by a two-thirds vote, further amended Article XV to create a new Section 3 allowing the Executive Council to establish a target, state central body affiliation level. Later the Executive Council established a rate schedule beginning with a 40% national aggregate affiliation rate in 1992 increasing by 2% per year to 50% by 1997. Under this format and in conformity with the original constitutional amendment, those international unions which were not participating in the National Affiliation Program as established under Article XIII Section 2 (b) and which were unable to achieve the yearly affiliation benchmark would be required to pay a one cent, per member per month penalty per capita tax payment into an AFL-CIO fund reserved to assist state federations. This penalty per capita tax system was subsequently initiated for calendar year 1995.
In the years since the adoption of this program, international union affiliation rates with state federations have modestly improved. In calendar year 1995, 48 unions achieved the targeted aggregate affiliation rate of 44% while 31 international unions fell short.
As a result of the application of the one cent per capita penalty to these 31 internationals unions, a substantial fund has accumulated since last year. The next step in the process to fully implement this affiliation program is to finalize a disbursement schedule which would allocate the fund contributions to the state federations in a fair and equitable manner.
To do this, the Executive Council directs that:
Expenditures of the funds shall be based on a sliding scale formula under which all states receive a disbursement with a larger proportional share allocated to medium and small size state federations;
Such a formula shall recognize the resource needs of the smaller state AFL-CIOs as well as the generally lower union membership base within their jurisdictions from which new affiliations can be derived and;
Up to 10% of the fund may be reserved for expenditure as discretionary grants of no more than $5,000 per state based on proposals submitted by state federations for such program needs as affiliation initiatives, technological enhancements, grassroots development and other appropriate projects.
The amount of direct disbursement to state federations allocated under the sliding scale formula may be adjusted annually by the Secretary-Treasurer based on the yearly income derived from the penalty per capita tax paid by international unions. In addition, the Secretary-Treasurer shall annually fix the percentage of the fund reserved for grants subject to the 10% cap. The Secretary-Treasurer shall also have final approval regarding the grants submitted by state federations selected by the AFL-CIO for program funding.