President Spence and Secretary-Treasurer Donahue oppose an increase given PEF’s financial stability
August 7, 2024 — Convention delegates had until June 28, 2024, to submit resolutions for presentation to the 2024 PEF Convention. One of the 26 resolutions submitted calls for a dues increase. In view of PEF’s sound fiscal position, the PEF Administration opposes any increase.
PEF has not increased its dues in more than two decades. The current payroll deduction amounts to 0.9% of an employee’s salary.
Notice to Membership of Proposed Change in Dues
Under PEF’s Constitution, the membership shall be given 60 days written notice of the pending consideration by an upcoming Convention of any change in the dues or dues structure.
Resolution 9 resolves to modify PEF’s dues structure as follows:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, Effective April 1, 2025, the union will modify its dues structure to 1.0 percent of salary with no cap on earnings;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, Effective April 1, 2027, the union will modify its dues structure to 1.1 percent of salary with no cap on earnings.
Sponsor Cites Staffing, Other Unions, and Inflation in Support of Increase
PEF Region 5 Coordinator David Dubofsky submitted the resolution.
“I think we need extra funding to help the members and for the union to function better,” he said. “I think we need more Field staff and another dedicated person in Finance. The dues increase for an average grade 18 would be $3 a pay period. We haven’t had a dues increase since I was hired 23-plus years ago. We have only fallen further behind other unions in our dues structure.
“Our parent unions, SEIU and AFT, have increased dues to us 21 times and we have not passed that along to the members at all,” Dubofsky noted. “Our dues structure has not kept up with inflation. When we established that dues structure, we were living in a different world where most of our Council Leaders and Regional Coordinators were on full union leave granted by our facilities. Since then, OER (NYS Office of Employee Relations) and the state have not been as lenient with union leave and everything, for the most part, has to be paid with EOL (Employee Organization Leave).”
PEF administration opposes the proposed change as unnecessary given the union’s financial stability
“We are in a fiscally sound position,” said Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Donahue. “Because PEF dues are calculated as a percent of salary, not a set dollar value, PEF has been able to keep up with the dues increases of our parent unions throughout the years with just the salary increases built into the New York state contracts. PEF essentially gets a dues increase every time our members get a raise.”
President Spence also underscored the union’s financial stability.
“Despite the Janus decision and anti-union forces that seek to attack our union values, I am very proud of PEF’s fiscal position,” he said. “Since my election in 2015, my administration has not proposed a dues increase and the increase presented in the Convention resolution is unwarranted.”
The PEF Constitution provides that dues shall be set by a sixty percent (60%) vote of the Convention. The Convention will be held September 15-18 in Syracuse.