The Bigger They Come

By Gerald W. McEntee

AFSCME was recently declared the largest union in the AFL-CIO, and while this is cause for celebration, it also brings us more than our share of scrutiny from every angle.

When an organization is as large as AFSCME and as public about fighting for the rights of working families as AFSCME, it becomes an easy target. That occurred recently, and we took a few hits in the media that some of you might have seen.

As is frequently the case with news stories, if you failed to read past the headline, then you got a mistaken impression of our union. These articles took the dishonest actions of 35 of our 28,000 elected officials and made them seem characteristic of our entire union.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of our elected leaders are totally honest in their stewardship and put the interests of members first in every decision.

It is somewhat ironic that the only reason that newspapers were able to report on these isolated instances of wrongdoing was that we had already uncovered them, due to our own internal processes. Unfortunately, the fact that we had already dealt with the responsible individuals and have a comprehensive program to combat financial impropriety was glossed over in these stories.

I want each of our 1.3 million members to know that AFSCME has a zero-tolerance policy for corruption. When it comes to the hard-earned dues and good faith of our members, I allow no latitude. I repeat: it is zero-tolerance.

There are many components to this policy, but I think these are the most important:

• The International is required to audit the financial records of all councils and locals with 2,000 or more members. This policy covers about 98 percent of our membership.
• AFSCME has published a Financial Standards Code, which serves as a guideline for all those officers with fiduciary responsibility. The code is available on-line at www.afscme.org.
• AFSCME conducts training for all financial staff and officers of local unions regarding their fiduciary responsibilities. In 1999, approximately 1,700 completed this training.
• Most importantly, when our stringent internal accountability process uncovers wrongdoing, we remove violators from office, help prosecute them when appropriate and work to correct any improprieties as quickly as possible.

That is what I mean by zero-tolerance.

This policy brings us additional scrutiny because it seems to some outsiders as extreme. But believe me, Sisters and Brothers, I see abusing the trust of our members as an extreme violation worthy of an extreme penalty.

But AFSCME is not a top-down organization. We are a decentralized, democratic body in which locals and councils make decisions with a great degree of independence.

This is part of our great strength, but it occasionally means that a few individuals will perpetrate wrongdoing. That is the price of being part of a decentralized organization, but no one should interpret this to mean that we will accept this reprehensible behavior in any way, shape or form.

As I noted previously, when you are as public about standing up for the rights of working families as AFSCME is, you are bound to take a few hits. But that’s OK: We are big enough to take it.

I wanted to share this information with all our members and let them know that they should continue to stand tall and walk proud as AFSCME members.

While we view any wrongdoing with absolute seriousness and work to correct it upon identification, first and foremost we continue the work that our members care about most — protecting the rights and interests of American workers and their families.