Page 13 - Work Force October 2016

Proposed amendments to CSEA’s Constitution and By-Laws Continued from page 12.
behind our adversaries. Unions continue to fall under attack and we must utilize every tool at our disposal. Electronic mail will give us a faster and more efficient means to notify, organize and mobilize our union officers and activists.”
The Committee does not support this proposal. The Committee referred the proposal for review and input to the CSEA Communications and Internal Operations Departments, which both have responsibility for
CSEA’s email systems. The Department Directors jointly provided the following feedback:
“This appears to be a well-intentioned proposal with an objective of improving the ability to reach officers and have them communicate with and on behalf of CSEA. However, it would duplicate capabilities we already have, while unnecessarily placing more strain on CSEA’s IT resources. CSEA already has personal email addresses for nearly all Local and Unit Presidents and
a reasonably good percentage of most other officers. A work group is currently focused on creating a strategy for filling in the limited gaps in email addresses for both officers and members. The responsibility for assigning, training and providing tech support to approximately 5,000 officers would be extremely labor intensive to achieve a capability we already have. It would place undue strain on our resources. Additionally, CSEA’s internal email system does not have the capacity at this time to support these added accounts. It would also be nearly impossible to enforce compliance with CSEA’s email use policies. For all of the above reasons, this proposal would create more problems than it would solve, no matter its good intentions. We would strongly advise against adopting this proposal.” The Committee fully endorses this rationale in its entirety.
FOR THE PURPOSE OF PLACING THIS AMENDMENT BEFORE THE DELEGATES, ON BEHALF OF THE COMMITTEE, I MOVE THE ADOPTION OF THIS AMENDMENT. THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS A “NO” VOTE.
Proposal 4
The following By-Laws proposal was submitted by Theresa Reagan of Local 866:
ARTICLE III. Statewide Elections
Section 1. Text Remains the Same.
Section 2. ELECTION PROCEDURE.
First Paragraph and (a) Text Remains the Same. (b) NOMINATIONS. Nominations for the offices
of President, Executive Vice President, six Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and for State Executive Committee and Local Government Executive Committee shall be made by official petition. Upon the written request of any member, official petition forms shall be provided by the Chairperson of the Statewide Election Committee or designated employee of the Association. When nominating petitions are given out, the name
of the candidate and the office that the candidate is seeking must be typed or clearly printed at the top
of the petition. A record must be kept of all petitions distributed.
(1) A member who is otherwise eligible may qualify as a candidate for Association President, Executive
Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer by submitting
a nominating petition carrying the signatures and the last four digits of their Social Security number or their
October 2016
membership ID number [identifying information] of not less than 1,000 members in good standing eligible to vote in the election.
Rest of Article Remains the Same.
EXPLANATION: This proposal was submitted with the following justification:
“In the 2016 election for Statewide Officers, Board
of Directors, and the Region Elections many members were not aware of their membership ID # and therefore their signatures were not valid. In future elections the use of either the last four digits of the social security numbers or the membership ID number should be allowed. Members need to be engaged at every level of our organization and making their participation easier in our elections is a good start. The limitations to the use of a membership ID number is actually an unfair burden to members who may want to run for these positions. Unlike incumbent officers the rank and file member
does not have a membership list inclusive of ID #’s.
The current limitations have decreased participation
in our union and have also caused approximately 40%
of all Statewide Board of Directors positions to remain unfilled.”
The Committee does not support this proposal.
The current language “identifying information” was added in 2002, replacing the term “social security numbers”, following widespread concern relating
to identity security and the use of social security numbers. The practice of using the last four digits
of the social security number was thereafter used as identifying information. After continued feedback by the membership complaining of the use of the last four digits of social security numbers, together with the State’s discontinuance of the use of the social security numbers with its transmission of member information to CSEA, CSEA began to utilize the membership identification number. Since 2010, CSEA has been using the membership identification number for purposes
of member identification. Information regarding the use of membership numbers and the cards containing these numbers have been disseminated to members.
In addition, members can look up their identification numbers on CSEA’s website. The Committee does not believe it is advisable to move back to using partial social security numbers when it is a generally accepted best practice in society today to avoid the use of full or portions of social security numbers for identification purposes.
FOR THE PURPOSE OF PLACING THIS AMENDMENT BEFORE THE DELEGATES, ON BEHALF OF THE COMMITTEE, I MOVE THE ADOPTION OF THIS AMENDMENT. THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS A “NO” VOTE.
Proposal 5
The following By-Laws proposal was submitted by Kim Teta of Local 689:
ARTICLE III. Statewide Elections
Sections 1-3. Text Remains the Same.
Section 4. ELECTION AGENCY. The Board of Directors shall select an impartial, disinterested agency outside the public service, prior to July 15 of the year preceding the election. The Board of Directors shall select an agency that offers a combination of electronic and mail balloting. Elections shall be conducted by the
selected agency in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association and any policies adopted by the Board of Directors. The agency shall notify all candidates of the election results.
Rest of Article Remains the Same.
EXPLANATION: This proposal was submitted with the following justification:
“In the 2016 election for Statewide Officers, Board of Directors, Region Elections and the AFSCME delegate elections, the voter turnout was extremely low. The use of electronic balloting is no longer new technology and many companies offer secure services for elections.
The use of electronic balloting must also be paired
with an option to request a mail ballot. Expanding the convenience and the use of modern day technology may increase voter turnout and engage our members. The cost of this technology is approximately 1/2 the cost of a traditional mail ballot.”
The Committee does not support this proposal. The United States Department of Labor, which has oversight jurisdiction for CSEA’s statewide elections, has not created rules to govern electronic balloting. The DOL has advised our international union, AFSCME, that if an election by electronic ballot is conducted and there is even just one challenge filed, it will order a rerun of the entire election. The risk inherent in having an election overturned should CSEA choose to utilize electronic balloting is too great to consider such a change at this time.
FOR THE PURPOSE OF PLACING THIS AMENDMENT BEFORE THE DELEGATES, ON BEHALF OF THE COMMITTEE, I MOVE THE ADOPTION OF THIS AMENDMENT. THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS A “NO” VOTE.
Proposal 6
The following By-Laws proposal was submitted by Danny Donohue:
ARTICLE IV. Finance
Sections 1 – 2(b). Text Remains the Same.
(c) RETIRED MEMBERS. Effective January 1, [2007] 2017, the annual membership dues of retired members shall be [twenty-four] thirty-six dollars ($[24.00] 36.00), fifty cents of which, exclusive of rebates, shall be put in the political action fund.
Rest of Article Remains the same.
EXPLANATION: This proposal was submitted with the following justification:
“Last July the AFSCME Retiree Council and the International Executive Board approved a minimum dues and per capita tax increase for 2016 and 2017. Effective Year 2017, the AFSCME per capita tax is increasing to six dollars ($6.00), thereby almost doubling what it was in 2015.
The dues for CSEA retiree members have not changed since 2007. The current dues of twenty-four dollars ($24.00) per year has not kept pace with the increased costs for staff, travel, printing, postage, retiree-specific litigation and many other CSEA expenses on behalf of the retiree membership. This fact, coupled with the increased AFSCME per capita tax, will further diminish CSEA’s capacity to serve its retiree membership.
For all these reasons, a modest increase in dues of twelve dollars ($12.00) per year is warranted at this time.”
Continued on page 14.
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