Post Janus New York.

The unions, lead by the UFT, is sounding the alarm about what the Janus decision will do  to public unions.  Granted, the unions will lose the right for mandatory dues checkoff and data from Michigan shows that approximately 20% of members refused to pay union dues when the State banned mandatory dues to the unions. These members who refuse to pay their fair share of union dues but still must be represented by the union are known as "free riders".  How will it affect New York State public unions?  Here  is my best guess.

In a post Janus New York, unions will still have Civil Service protections in the form of the Taylor Law.    The Taylor Law requires that Municipalities must bargain in "good faith" with unions.  That includes arbitration, meditation, and hearing of grievances.  It also penalizes unions who participates in work stoppages or strikes.

One of the most important amendments is called the Triborough amendment.  The Tribourough amendment requires that all municipalities cannot change work rules or alter the last contract. until a new contract is negotiated with the union.  That means that once a contract lapsed, all the provisions of that contract stays in force until a new contract is agreed upon by the union.  You can read my take Here.

As for the UFT?  They have a political action wing that relies on voluntary contributions called COPE   Therefore, if you believe our union leadership that no union dues pay for political or social causes, then the reduction in union dues colected will have little or no effect on union contributions to politicians since COPE funds are unaffected by Janus.  Therefore, any future contract negotiations with the City should not be significantly affected by the UFT receiving less union dues, despite the scare tactics the union leadership will employ on their members.

When the UFT comes knocking at your door and tells you what Janus can do to the union's power and our benefits, TAKE WHAT THEY SAY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

Why I Don't Contribute To COPE.

I stopped contributing to the union's voluntary COPE program because of their lack of transparency on where the COPE funds go to and to the highly questionable causes our union leadership contributes to.  Lately, Chapter Leaders have been instructed to push COPE to the members for the "vote no" campaign to the State's Constitutional Convention, also known as ConCon and if I thought for a moment that all the COPE funding would go to that noble cause, I would contribute to it.

Unfortunately, the union leadership does not consult their members about how and for what causes COPE money is used.  In fact, the union leadership refuses to breakdown the amount of funding the union contributes to various organizations, without any input by the members.

For example, remember the Quail and booze party the UFT had in Albany, using COPE money?  Or their contribution to Al Sharpton's anti-police protest? How about the various fringe organizations that the union leadership supports with financial assistance?  That comes from our COPE money, whether the members support the organization or not.

Until the union leadership provides a detailed breakdown of the financial contributions that is funded by our COPE money, I will not provide one red cent to COPE and nor should the rest of the membership.

To discontinue your COPE contributions read my post on how to do just that.

COPE And The Constitutional Convention.

Our union leadership is pressuring the Chapter Leaders of the schools to push their members for increased COPE contributions.  They are telling the members, somewhat falsely, that the COPE funding will be used to  fight the upcoming vote on the New York State's Constitutional Convention, which, in theory, can see some of our benefits, like our TDA fixed option (7%) and even possibly, but not likely, our pensions being reduced.  While I am all for stopping the Constitutional Convention and would donate my time and effort to this cause, I must take into account the history of how our union used COPE funds.

Over the years our union leadership has claimed that all COPE funds go to advance member goals.  However, the union has used COPE funds for some very questionable causes that don't serve member interests.  Remember, our union was going to supply buses to transport picketers to Staten Island to support an Al Sharpton organized march against fellow union members of the NYPD, only to withdraw the offer when a backlash by members developed?   Read the article Here.  Then our union sees no problem allowing our COPE money to be liberally spent on Quail and Booze for selected friends in Albany and Boca Raton while the rank and file are served crappy cookies and soda.  Over the years our union leadership has treated the COPE funds as their own personal piggy bank to support favored causes and organizations that has little or nothing to do with member issues without member input or approval.  When was the last time the union leadership reached out to ask your opinion about how COPE money is spent?  The answer is never!  The union leadership does not care what you think, only what they and their friends decide is a worthy cause to donate to.

When it comes to having my already inadequate paycheck, thanks to the inferior contracts our union leadership has negotiated since the turn of the Century,  to be further reduced by giving the union leadership the right to deduct COPE from it.  Well I stopped contributing a long time ago when our disconnected union leadership treated the ATRs as second class citizens with no real representation and refuses to reach out to the 1,400 ATRs who simply wanted their voice heard when negotiating with the DOE.  Add to that how our union leaders will use COPE money for questionable causes and if reading this post you still continue to let the union take out for COPE, I have this old saying that you need to read since it applies to you..

"Fool me once shame on you  Fool me twice shame on me".

If you want to remove COPE from your paycheck then read my COPE article Here.

NYS Constitutional Convention Update.

In ten months (November 7. 2017), New York State will have a Constitutional Convention referendum to determine if the state will have a Constitutional Convention and appoint delegates.  The delegates are elected on November 8, 2018 and the Constitutional Convention is connived on  April 2, 2019, where each and every referendum is voted on in the November 2019 election day. Any amendment that is approved probably comes into effect on January 1, 2020.

Apparently, Governor Andrew Cuomo's support of the Constitutional Convention has cooled considerably since 2015 and in his latest budget, the Governor even failed to include funding for the Con-Con Commission that's needed to organize the Constitutional Convention.  Without funding, it will be very difficult to publicize and propose different amendments.  Moreover, the Democratic Assembly have shown little interest in supporting the Constitutional Convention.  Even the Senate Republicans are lukewarm in their support since they can see an amendment of reducing large corporate donations being approved under the Constitutional Convention.

While the State must have a Constitutional Convention every twenty years.  Hopefully, with the lack of supportive politicians in both sides of the aisle and a Governor who seems to not to be so anxious in funding the Constitutional Convention, it will go down to the same overwhelming defeat as in 1998.

That brings me to our union leadership's appeal to have the members increase their COPE contributions so that they can more effectively lobby for the Constitutional Convention's defeat.  While, the union's appeal is understandable if the COPE funds were only used to for the defeat of the Constitutional Convention, the truth is our union leadership uses our COPE contributions to fund many different organizations, many of them I do not support or should not be funded.  Remember this?

 Until our disconnected union leadership starts to ask its members where our dues and COPE contributions should go to, they get no COPE money from me.

 How to withdraw from COPE can be found Here.

How To Deny The Union Your COPE Money.

I have made no secret for my contempt of the UFT leadership's use of our union dues and COPE money for questionable causes and political action that gives its members no say in the matter.  Since the union leadership feels that its members don't count when it comes how they spend our money, this post is dedicated to those members, who believe as I do, that our hard earned money should not go to our quail eating leadership or supporting a racial arsonist like Al Sharpton, who has never apologized for his false rape accusations, anti-Semitic statements, or his failure to pay his overdue taxes, like the rest of us are required to do.  All our money should be going to making our profession better and the classroom a less hostile place. The union took in $6 million dollars of COPE contributions last year and that should be used for the members, nobody else!

If you want to withdraw your COPE contributions, one of my anonymous commenters was kind enough to supply the information. Below, in red is the procedure.

How to cancel your COPE contributions from your paychecks:

Please send a fax requesting to cancel your COPE contribution. The information they need from you is displayed below.

They will send a cancellation card to your address on file along with a pre-paid return envelope so that you can fill out the card and send it back right away. As part of procedure, they must also receive the following fax from you:

RE: COPE Cancellation
TO: Danny Corum, COPE Coordinator

My name is ___________, File # _______________. I would like to cancel my COPE contribution as soon as possible.

[SIGNATURE]
[PRINTED NAME]

Please do not forget to sign and print your name on the fax. The fax should be sent to (212)510-6435. Your contribution will be cancelled when they receive the fax and the cancellation card back from you. Please do not hesitate to contact them at (212)598-6826 or at dcorum@uft.org should you have further questions.

Danny Corum
COPE Coordinator
United Federation of Teachers
Legislation & Political Action
52 Broadway, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10004
dcorum@uft.org
phone: (212)598-6826
fax: (212)510-6435

 Maybe if enough of the members stop contributing to COPE, our union leadership might get the message and start listening to member concerns and not misuse money for their own personal ideology and needs.