AFGE Dental Trust Problem

Members,

AFGE is planning a D-Day against the Rumsfeld DoD legislation. They are planning on a phone blitz on Monday 9/15/03 and then for D-Day on 9/16/03 they plan on sending 50 or more AFGE members to each of the House/Senate Conferees home offices back in the districts/states they represent. I will be in the Dallas are in mid-term negotiations next week. Thus, I will not be able to do much. I have phoned and e-mailed Senator's Bond and Talent as well as Congressman from Missouri.
I spoke with Eugene Martin, AFGE 9th District representative, about the plan for the St. Louis area. He said they plan to have members go to Senator Talent's (MO) St. Louis area offices on Tuesday. He said he will try to arrange an appointment with Talent's staff. According to AFGE National Staff, the key nationally is Senator Warner of Virginia. They are heavily targeting him and newly elected AFGE President Gage is trying to get a one on one meeting with Warner.
If I get more inforamtion on this I will let you know. For more information on the overall AFGE effort, please get on www.afge.org in the members only section under "campaigns" and within campaigns, select DoD workers.
Bob McCarthy and I attended the AFGE National Convention. John Gage beat incumbent President Bobby Harnage on the second ballot. Gage was seen as a more proactive President. Delegates passed a per capita tax increase of $2.50 per month per member. Our bylaws state that our dues will go up by the same amount on a biweekly basis as the monthy per capita increase. Thus, our dues will go up to $15.50 per pay period unless we vote on some other change. Some Union officials have suggested that we hold the dues to the current level. This would give us, assuming a 120 member base, operating gross income of $18,240 instead of $21,840 or $3600 per year less. ($30 per year/member X 120 members) We still have over a $200,000 balance in our accounts. We would have to vote on changes to the bylaws. Please let me know your feelings on this issue by responding to the Local website at afge3529@yahoo.com. The delegates also voted to have a one time assessment of $5.00 per member for legislative action such as the DoD effort. Legislative action differs from political action. The Political Action Committee (PAC) is not allowed to use dues money beacuse they support political candidates that support AFGE positions. The Legislative Action Fund (LAF) supports legislation that helps our members or fights (i.e Rumsfeld DoD Plan) legislation that hurts our members. I joined the AFGE PAC by using "mypay" and signing up for a payroll allotment. I beleive the AFGE web site contains information on how to do this.

Ray Downey
President
AFGE Local 3529