Local 237 Rejects $25 'Initiation Fee' For New Members
By DAVID SIMS
Members of Teamsters Local 237 July 22 rejected the proposal of a $25 initiation fee for new members by the count of 100-81.

GREGORY FLOYD: Members won't tap 'unborn.'

Had it been approved, the fee would be the first of its kind for Local 237, although such charges are imposed by other unions including the United Federation of Teachers.

Floyd: 'Majority Rules'

The vote, which took place at The New School University's Tishman Auditorium, was attended by fewer than 200 of Local 237's 24,000 members. President Gregory Floyd, who has been trying to implement new policies to bolster the union's budget, had hoped to gain approval of the fee by exempting current members and agency shop-fee payers. The fees would have taken effect on Oct. 1.

Mr. Floyd acknowledged the defeat of the motion gracefully, saying "We have a democratic union, and in this union the majority rules." He did not rule out resurrecting the proposal. "If the membership wants to revisit the idea, we can," he said.

Another Local 237 member at the meeting had seemed optimistic about the fees idea, calling the charge "relatively low, and not unreasonable," while admitting that the low turnout at the auditorium signaled a broad disinterest in the idea among the membership at large.

Eunice Rodriguez, a dissident within Local 237, said that Mr. Floyd had not properly gotten the word out about the initiative, with the letter about the vote not reaching all members. Ms. Rodriguez alleged that a majority of the 81 votes in support of the fee were from Mr. Floyd's office, rather than being field members. "The members' sentiment [on the fee] was 'absolutely not', and the majority of the people who got to the podium were all against this fee," she said.

Mr. Floyd has initiated other cost-saving ideas at the union, most notably the hiring of Diane Stein from Mount Sinai Medical Center as the new head of health and safety. Ms. Stein's salary will be paid by a grant, rendering her services to the union effectively free and giving Local 237 its first qualified health and safety expert on staff. Mr. Floyd called this hiring part of a "new innovative approach" that was "looking at other ways of doing business and reducing costs," without affecting the union's quality of service.