The March 2020 decision by our Joint Coordinating Board (JCB) not to call for a vote to disaffiliate from AAUP at that time and to instead cap the combined dues that we pay to AAUP national and Ohio Conference AAUP at 28% of KSUFA’s dues revenue (the percentage we were contributing prior to the 2018 Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME rendering the collection of fair share fees unconstitutional) was already a compromise. (For more on this, see Vol. 1: A deep dive into the history and circumstances leading to our disaffiliation discussions.)
Since AAUP forced us to reconsider disaffiliating entirely on September 13, 2024, we have explored various compromises with respect to our affiliation dues – including affiliating at a lower dues rate as an advocacy chapter of AAUP rather than as a collective bargaining chapter. In several meetings that occurred in October 2024, AAUP leadership made clear that they would not allow KSUFA to disaffiliate as a collecting bargaining chapter and reaffiliate as an advocacy chapter. In a December 3, 2024 email to AAUP informing them of the change in our union’s name, we extended an invitation to have one of their leaders attend one of the Townhall meetings we plan to have in January or February. We noted that one of the questions we would like them to address is whether AAUP would be willing to consider an alternative dues structure that would reflect the fact that we are an autonomous union that is self-reliant with respect to all collective bargaining activities. In a statement we received on February 5, 2025, they made clear that the answer to that question is 'no'.
