AFT PROCEDURE FOR SETTLEMENT OF INTERNAL DISPUTES

WHEREAS, individual union members are entitled to the right of appeal before an impartial body where he/she feels his/her rights as a union member have been adversely affected by union action:

RESOLVED, that the Public Review Board be replaced by an AFT Settlement of Internal Disputes Procedure and that the AFT Convention resolution of 1973 be amended as follows:

The Executive Council hereby establishes a procedure for the selection of an arbitration panel for the settlement of an internal dispute. Such a panel will be made available to hear a complaint from a member or members concerning action by any local, state or national AFT body or official which the member[s] alleges to affect adversely his status or rights as a member[s] of the AFT. Before bringing a case to an AFT arbitration panel, the complainants] must first exhaust all his/her remedies provided in the constitution and by-laws of the respective bodies of the AFT.

Upon receiving a complaint, the Secretary-Treasurer shall ascertain whether the local or state affiliate against whose official or official body the complaint is made has previously agreed to abide by the internal disputes procedure. If such authority has been granted, the Secretary-Treasurer shall proceed in accordance with prescribed proce­dures. In the event that such authority has not been granted, the Secretary-Treasurer shall request such authority from the concerned affiliate. In the event that such a request is not granted, a panel may not be established to review the com­plaint of the member, and the Secretary-Treasurer shall report that fact to the complainant and to the Executive Council of the AFT.

An AFT arbitration panel shall consist of three members: one chosen by each party, and a third, a chairman, chosen by the first two. The chairman of the panel shall be chosen from an approved list of the American Arbitration Association. The chairman of the panel shall not be a member of the American Federation of Teachers, nor shall have been a member during any of the five previous years immediately prior to his or her appointment to the panel.

The American Arbitration Association shall monitor each step of the procedure.

The AFT shall assume the administrative and monitoring costs of the arbitration procedure and the fees and expenses of the chairman of the panel. The local shall assume the fees, if any, and expenses of its panel member and the complainant shall assume the fees, if any, and expenses of his or her panel member. Cases will be heard in the AAA region closest to the location of the local and complainant[s].

In order to insure that the complaint is not made frivolously or mischievously or that the complaint is utterly without merit, the complainant shall post a $250 escrow amount with the AAA. The panel shall not hear the case until the escrow is posted. The tripartite panel shall, by its majority, decide whether the escrow fund will be returned or forfeited.

A panel shall not have jurisdiction over any duly-enacted policy of the AFT or any of its affiliates, provided that such policy is consistent with appropriate local, state and national constitutions and convention policy, and with democratic due process.

A panel shall not have jurisdiction over any matter concerning employment relations between the AFT and any of its employees or relations between any AFT affiliate and any of its employees.

Decisions of a panel shall be final, and they shall carry with them the obligation of full compliance by the complainant [sl and any affected member[s] or official or official body of the AFT and any of its affiliates.

The findings of an arbitration panel shall be reported to the annual convention of the AFT, such report to be subsequently printed in the official proceedings of the convention. (1973 and Executive Council 1974)