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We Offer These Amendments...

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Delegates debate on amendments to AFSCME's International Constitution and resolutions for future action made this one of AFSCME's liveliest Conventions.

Delegates arriving in Honolulu had their work cut out for them. At registration, they received much of that work: two books of proposed amendments to AFSCME’s International Constitution and four books of resolutions. On Monday, the sergeants-at-arms passed out a fifth book.

No one amends a constitution lightly, and the 18 proposed amendments deserved and received serious consideration in small group meetings and on the Convention floor. Many of them came from suggestions that were part of the report submitted by AFSCME’s Task Force on the Future — a committee established as a result of resolutions passed at the 1996 Convention.

The complete text of all amendments and resolutions will be available on the AFSCME web page.

Constitutional Amendments

  • An Amendment to Increase the Minimum Dues Rate and the Rate of International Union Per Capita Tax — calling for a 50-cent per capita tax increase Jan. 1, 1999, and another 50-cent increase Jan. 1, 2000.
  • An Amendment to Eliminate the Hardship Exemption from Increases in the Minimum Dues Rate and to Require that Locals that Have Previously Received Such Exemptions Increase Their Dues to the Current Rate — creating a more uniform dues structure.
  • An Amendment to Establish Financial Reporting Requirements for Councils, as Well as Local Unions with 2,000 or More Members and
    An Amendment to Require the International Union to Examine the Finances of Councils and Large Local Unions Once Each Year and
  • An Amendment to Give the International Union the Authority to Initiate Legal Action on Behalf of a Subordinate Body to Recover Funds Lost by the Subordinate Body as a Result of the Dishonesty of an Officer or Employee of the Subordinate Body — developing a system to ensure financial accountability.
  • An Amendment to Modify the Requirement that Internal Union Remedies Be Exhausted Before Resorting to Outside Tribunals — old language is not enforceable.
  • Decisions of Council Trial Bodies — sets up decision deadlines.
  • An Amendment to Require Objectors to Identify Those Partisan Political or Ideological Activities to Which Objection Is Made and to Permit the Union to Limit the Rebate to the Expenditures for Such Activities — to help AFSCME more clearly understand members’ concerns on political issues.
  • An Amendment to the Preamble — changes the last sentence to read: “A country that voyages into outerspace can provide adequate education, protection and family preservation for all its children.”

Resolutions

Delegates to AFSCME’s 33rd International Convention passed resolutions dealing with such issues as organizing, educating and communicating with AFSCME members, stopping privatization, raising workers’ living standards, fighting corporate greed and protecting the social safety net.

Organizing

  • Cooperative Strategic Organizing Program
  • Internal Organizing
  • Using Effective Communications in Support of Organizing
  • Labor Law Reform — A Tale of Two Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States

Educating and Communicating with AFSCME Members

  • Common Sense Economics for AFSCME Members
  • Workforce Development
  • Education/Leadership Development
  • Steward/Worker Educator Program
  • Provide Labor TV Programming to Bring Information/Education to Workers in America
  • AFSCME Leadership Academy
  • Strategic Assistance and Input for AFSCME Communicators
  • National Labor College
  • AFSCME Family Scholarship

Stopping Privatization

  • Fighting Contracting Out
  • Privatizing Health and Human Services
  • Proposed Anti-Privatization Fund Dues Increase
  • Opposing School Vouchers
  • Social Security Privatization
  • Implementing Quality Services in Government
  • Opposing Prison Privatization
  • Preserving the Safety Net and Protecting Jobs in the States
  • Devolution of Unemployment Insurance Programs to the State

Raising Workers’ Living Standards

  • Fighting for Living Wages and Labor Rights
  • Prevailing Union Wages and Collective Bargaining
  • Minimum Wage
  • Welfare to Work: Doing the Right Thing

Fighting Corporate Greed

  • Worker Rights and the Global Economy
  • Fighting Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
  • Corporate Welfare and Tax Breaks for Economic Development
  • Countering the Right-Wing Assault on American Workers
  • Budgeting Responsibly in Good Times
  • Keeping State and Local Tax Systems Up-To-Date with New Internet Economy

Protecting the Social Safety Net

  • Preserving a Continuum of Quality Services for the Elderly and Disabled
  • Disability Process Redesign
  • Managed Care
  • The Future of Medicare

Supporting Workplace Safety and Health

  • Occupational Safety and Health
  • Workplace Violence

Focusing on Problems Facing Workers in Corrections

  • AFSCME Corrections United
  • Federal Legislation for Corrections Workers

Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality

  • Endorsing PEOPLE Checkoff and Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs)

Miscellaneous Resolutions

The Convention went on record in support of the AFL-CIO’s constituent organizations, against domestic violence, favoring defined benefit pension plans, against electricity deregulation, and in favor of tobacco regulation.

By Susan Ellen Holleran

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