Minnesota – As of January, 40,000 public sector workers in 129 local unions across Minnesota are now in one statewide union, AFSCME Council 5. Council 5 is a merger of three previously separate state union bureaucracies.

This merger weakens the locals while strengthening the statewide bureaucracy. Under Council 5, fewer locals have representatives on the Council’s decision-making body. Additionally, the new Council’s dues structure drains money from the local unions and redirects it to the Council, through a higher per-capita tax. This higher per-capita tax forced most locals to either raise dues or face cuts in income of up to 60% after two years. Union locals are the most grassroots level of the union, where workers directly elect their leaders from the rank and file; if the locals are weaker, the union is weaker.

The decision to try to merge AFSCME Councils 6, 14, 96 and 65 was made by some state AFSCME leaders over a year ago. Rank-and-file members didn't get to vote on the merger – it was decided by a handful of delegates representing each local. The merger was sold to local union leaders as a way to increase unity and power in the face of an anti-worker state and federal government.

After a year of trying to line up support, the merger was formally rubber-stamped this past summer at special conventions of delegates to Councils 6, 14 and 96. But Council 65, which represents about 12,000 members, voted against joining Council 5. The director of Council 65 told Workday Minnesota that delegates were concerned about potential loss of autonomy among smaller locals and about accountability in a single state council.

Others have also questioned how this merger will increase the power of rank-and-file workers. And some have questioned why the Council leadership insisted on attaching a significant dues increase to the merger proposal. Kelly Alaghamdi Zimmerschied, a delegate from Local 3800 to the Council 5 founding convention, said, “I think most members are positive about the unity involved with the merger, but I think they’re very apprehensive about the dues increase and the expenditures by the new Council in general. A merger shouldn't cost so much more.” According to Kelly Ryan, another delegate to the founding convention, “For most members, the main visible effect of the merger will be the dues increase.”

Delegates from AFSCME Local 3800, one of the largest locals in the Council, raised their concerns at the Council 6 merger convention by supporting a motion to allow a direct vote of all members on the merger instead of just delegates deciding. They also proposed to take separate votes on the merger and on a dues increase. Both efforts were unsuccessful.

At the Council 5 founding convention, Local 3800 delegates waged a floor fight by presenting amendments to the proposed Council 5 constitution. The main amendment would have altered the proposed Council 5 dues structure to make it progressive, so that locals with a lower average wage would pay less per capita dues to the Council.

When this amendment failed after vigorous debate, another amendment was offered that would have maintained the current dues structures, hence blocking a dues increase. Phyllis Walker, Local 3800 president and convention delegate, stated, “I talked to a lot of Local 3800 members about this council merger and the dues increase that would come with it. The members I talked to said they supported more unity in AFSCME, but didn't want a dues increase. Our amendments failed, but we represented the will of our members by doing all we could to try to stop the dues increase. We had a big impact on the convention. We'll continue to fight for a progressive dues structure in Council 5 and for more rank-and-file democracy and participation.” Walker was elected to the Council 5 Executive Board at the convention.

One bright spot of the merger is that a newly formed organizing department will put significant resources into trying to organize more people into AFSCME unions. This is a shift in Minnesota AFSCME. The old Council 6, for example, hasn't organized any new locals since 1991 and the other Councils didn't put a lot of resources into organizing either.

But some caution that just creating an organizing department doesn't guarantee organizing victories. According to J. Burger, a Local 3800 delegate to the Council 5 founding convention, “After decades of declining union membership, those at the top of the union bureaucracy have finally acknowledged a crisis. But they only seem to come up with bureaucratic solutions like this merger. More people will want to join unions when they see unions actually stand up and fight for workers. Unions need to lead protests, strikes and other creative actions to win decent wages, health care and more power. It was bold and militant actions like the 1934 Teamsters strike in Minneapolis and the Flint sit-down strike in 1937 that paved the way to organize millions of workers into unions in the U.S.”

Burger continued, “At best, bureaucratic shuffling like this AFSCME merger might make some marginal improvements in the union structure, but it isn't the key to increase union power. Unions have to mobilize their rank-and-file members to stand up and fight back against attacks from the bosses and politicians. Then more people will want to join unions.”

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