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international per capita fee
July 25, 2007
TO: All WPEA/UFCW 365 Bargaining Unit Members, and Other
Members of WPEA/UFCW 365
FROM: WPEA/UFCW 365 Executive Board
RE: International Union Fees
The Personnel System Reform Act of 2002 gave state employee
unions the ability to negotiate wages and benefits with the
State for the first time ever. This, however, made WPEA
vulnerable to raiding by other state employee unions
affiliated with an international union. Our only protection
against these raids was to affiliate with an international
union and gain the protection of the AFL-CIO which forbids
raiding of one member union by another.
WPEA’s Board of Directors took action in 2002
by passing a resolution to create a member-driven task force
to explore affiliation options. The task force spent the
next several months conducting an extensive search to find
the international that would be the best fit for WPEA. The
task force’s recommendation to affiliate with the United
Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) was
approved by the Board.
WPEA then spent the following months
educating members about the pros and cons of affiliation,
giving everyone the opportunity to have a clear
understanding of the decision they would soon have to make.
A vote was put to the entire membership in 2003 and
affiliating with the UFCW was overwhelmingly passed. On May
19, 2003, the Washington Public Employees Association became
an autonomous local union (Local 365) chartered by the UFCW.
All affiliated locals are required to pay a
monthly per member (per capita) fee to their International
Union. To enable WPEA to continue member representation
without any lessening of services, the UFCW agreed to give
financial assistance by deferring a large portion of this
fee for 47 months following Affiliation. Per the Affiliation
Agreement, beginning with the 48th month, WPEA must begin
paying the full per capita fee, currently $12.54, to the
International. Up until now, WPEA has been able to pay the
reduced per capita fees without increasing your dues.
However, to maintain the level of service our members
require, this fee must now be passed on to the membership.
After months of discussion, this Board agreed
that passing the entire $12.54 per capita fee on to the
membership was not reasonable. At our June 2007 Executive
Board Meeting, we voted overwhelmingly to continue to
subsidize the per capita fee at a rate of $4 per member each
month. Therefore, effective August 1, 2007, each member will
be charged a monthly “International Union Fee” of $8.54, in
addition to their WPEA dues (1.25% of gross salary). This
amount will be taken from the first paycheck of each month
(usually the 25th payroll).
Please know that we too are hard-working
public employees just like you who take our role as your
union representatives very seriously. We remain dedicated to
our members who deserve a strong, vital union and who merit
great respect for the hard work you do every day for the
citizens of the State of Washington. Our decision to
continue to subsidize the International Union Fee confirms
this belief.
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