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Chapter leaders and UUP Outreach Committee members discussed a plan to boost member participation in VOTE/COPE, the union’s nonpartisan political action fund.
“We’re in a crisis mode this year,” said Thomas Tucker of SUNY Buffalo, UUP Outreach Committee co-chair and statewide VOTE/COPE coordinator, in reference to the massive budget cuts imposed on the state university.
Tucker presented a plan to have UUP volunteers fan out across every SUNY campus on the same day, in a coordinated campaign to ask their fellow union members to each contribute at least $1 per pay period to VOTE/COPE.
“The VOTE/COPE fund is what unions use to make their voices heard in the political arena,” UUP President Phillip Smith said. “We cannot and will not use dues money for political purposes.”
As The Voice went to press, the exact date for the SUNY-wide VOTE/COPE fund drive had not been determined.
UUP’s annual contributions to VOTE/COPE have steadily risen, topping $200,000 in 2007.
Members who would like to contribute to the political action fund should contact their chapter office and request a VOTE/COPE contribution card.
— Donald Feldstein