The AFT executive council in May adopted a resolution on the payment of per-capita dues and required audits by the national union’s local affiliates. Under the new procedures, affiliates that are two months behind in per-capita payments will receive notification in writing, along with a request for full payment. Failure to remedy the per-capita arrearage within 30 days “shall precipitate direct communication within two weeks from the AFT to the affiliate’s executive board and its state affiliate.”

If dues are not paid within 30 days of that communication, the AFT will communicate directly with the affiliate’s members within three weeks, informing them of the arrearage and how it affects their local, and their rights and status as AFT members.

The national union also is authorized to require an audit of a local that is in bad standing due to per-capita arrearage and/or if it has not submitted its required biennial audit or financial review within six months of the close of its fiscal year.

The executive council took action on the per-capita and audit procedures after serious financial difficulties came to light in recent months within two large AFT affiliates—the Washington (D.C.) Teachers Union and Miami’s United Teachers of Dade. Both affiliates are now under AFT administratorship.

Bookstore privatization threatens California college employees

When a huge chain offers to take over a college bookstore and make a $500,000 profit, most administrators can’t resist. That’s what happened at Orange Coast College in California, where the bookstore employees are members of the Coast Federation of Classified Employees. After profits at the store fell in the past two years, the administration turned to Barnes & Noble to take over.

The college includes three campuses, each with its own bookstore, and union leaders are concerned that the same thing might happen at the other two stores. Local president Diane Sharp led a four-person team from the local, which came to AFT privatization training in June at the Meany Center outside Washington, D.C. “This is all pretty new to us,” says Sharp, adding that they returned home with information about how to find out more about the company, mount public campaigns and monitor the progress of the contract, among other things. “We think management jumped the gun because they had a bad manager at that store who didn’t do things right,” she says.

If the seven current employees remain at the store, Barnes & Noble will reimburse the district for their salary and benefits. But once they leave, those positions no longer exist in the union. The employees want to leave, Sharp says, but it’s tough to find positions, especially with the state’s terrible budget problems. The union plans to keep track of the contract to see if the company’s promises are kept and to develop a strategy if it looks like the other stores also are going to be privatized.

New PSRP affiliates join thet AFT

The AFT enjoyed a busy and successful spring organizing and bringing on board hundreds of new PSRP members. In New Hampshire, the end of the school year brought success in two organizing campaigns. In March, the Ellis School Support Staff in Fremont voted 25 to 0 to join the AFT and the New Hampshire Federation of Teachers. The unit of 34, which includes paraprofessionals, secretaries, food service and custodial employees, has already elected officers and is preparing for first contract negotiations in the fall.

In June, a unit of 90 employees voted 46 to 13 to be represented by the Hudson Federation of PSRPs. The union includes part-time paraprofessionals and full- and part-time food service employees.

AFT Utah also won a big victory by gaining collective bargaining rights for 97 school bus drivers and bus assistants in Salt Lake City. Another organization had held bargaining rights, but Utah law allows a group that gets more than 50 percent membership in the bargaining unit to win those rights, which is what AFT Utah did.

In July, the Houston Federation of Teachers reached an affiliation agreement with a large, formerly independent group of district employees known as the Houston Educational and Support Personnel (HESP). Founded only two years ago, the group has about 500 dues-paying members across the whole range of school support staff job categories. As follow-up to the affiliation, the HFT and AFT are planning leadership orientation, membership recruitment, production of new literature and a back-to-school organizing drive.