Tripled Your Assessment

To pay for their massive overspending The Unity Team has TRIPLED your assessments and supports plans to take even more of YOUR hard earn money after the election. Of course denying you a membership vote!

History Lesson 101:

In 1977 the membership of the New York City District Council VOTED on and passed a referendum which ask for a $0.15 assessment on hours worked to be payable to the District council.

In December of 1988 the membership of the New York City District Council again VOTED on and passed a referendum which ask for the elimination of the $0.15 assessment on hours worked to be replaced with a 1% assessment on hours you have worked.

A mail out was sent to all members explaining the need for the 1% assessment saying "this will allow us to enter the 21st century as a strong, viable District Council dedicated to improving your standard of living."

This 1% assessment served our District Council well for over twelve years and past administrations were fiscally responsible and held their spending budget to the 1% assessment.

As we all know the revenue the council receives from the 1% assessment, increases their budget each time we receive a wage increase or an increase in hours worked for the year.

In June of 2000 after being in office for only six months--The Unity Team called a special call meeting of the Delegate Body to consider a resolution for a proposed "NEW", $0.30 an hour "working dues" payable to the District Council. The new dues would be in addition to the 1% union assessment on hours worked the district council already collects.

The Unity Team DID NOT seek a VOTE of the membership for their proposed “working dues increase” like past administrations. Instead the Unity Team hires expensive smart lawyers to find loop holes with YOUR money to get around any membership VOTE.

The Unity Team always acting in less than honest ways and always denying the membership any democratic rights called this additional assessment a “working dues increase” which allowed them to bypass the membership VOTE and instead call for a delegate body VOTE, which the outcome can be controlled.

At the time of this new dues increase Unity Team President Peter Thomassen said “This is probably the best thing we have ever done as a membership because we are in a booming economy. Most members are working and we are planning for our future.”

Fast Forward to January 1, 2007:

The Unity Team again called a special call meeting of the Delegate Body to consider a resolution for a proposed $0.60 an hour “working dues” payable to the District Council, doubling the $0.30 per hour increase of 2000 that we were told was "planning for our future!"

Again the Unity Team denied any VOTE by the membership instead telling us that this additional dues money will make us "stronger."

On their watch, council spending soared some 163 percent, from $19 million in '99 to over $50 million this year! This is Outrageous and it’s time we march on the council in protest!

In the past eight years the Unity Team has TRIPLED our assessments with NO membership VOTE or ACCOUNTABILITY, this is not the way our council should be governed!

Balancing the budget and acting fiscally responsible with members money went from a core principle of past administrations to lip service of the tax and spend Unity Team. Its time to cut spending across the board and reduce our budget.

We should demand an end to the system by which Assessments and Dues are imposed on members without their review. We endorse the right of members to vote for or against any assessments or dues proposed. Before any such vote, we propose 1. That the full and accurate terms of any assessments or dues be reported to the membership far enough in advance of the vote to permit intelligent review, and 2. That provisions be made for democratic discussion of the proposed Assessments and Dues.

This is why you cannot trust anything The Unity Team says!