What's In It For Us?

At Convention 2013, the per capita payment was increased by $10 per AFM member.

Here is what AFM intends to do with the money:

$650,000: AFM relocation fund

$100,000: Canadian international representative (IR)

$100,000: Reinstate IR travel

$350,000: Re-establish staffing levels

$100,000: Create a payroll service

$100,000: Legal compliance

$100,000: Organizing and recruitment efforts

Total: $1,500,000

Based on an estimate of 75,000 AFM members, $10 per member amounts to $750,000. So the above budget represents two years’ worth of spending the increased per capita payment.

We voted for this Administration believing that it understood what is happening to the AFM. But the above proposal is almost entirely devoted to beautifying the AFM offices, looking to the past, and keeping the status quo. There is zero consideration for the 75,000 members paying the bills.

This proposal continues the AFM’s decade-long obliviousness to shrinking locals, fleeing membership, and an imminent collapse.

I backed and voted for this Administration because I believed in its enthusiasm and intelligence. I respectfully propose that the President and Executive Board create a diverse commission of members to study and formulate a new structure and plan for the AFM.

If our leadership continues on this path, failing to confront the severe structural problems facing the union, we will continue to see nothing but dues increases that solely benefit the national offices, leaders, and employees, until there are no members left to pay their expenses.