FPE's answer to future dilemmas: Knowledge then strategy

By examining taxation trends and recruitment and retention tools, two FPE/AFT task forces are undertaking an important endeavor: Developing strategies that will aid union locals in their negotiations with management as well as with state lawmakers.

The task forces--the Recruitment and Retention Task Force and the Revenue and Taxation Task Force--were formed to complement the "AFT Compensation Survey 2000."

"Salaries, recruitment, retention, revenue and tax policy are interrelated components of government operations that affect the livelihoods of all public employees," says Steve Porter, FPE/AFT department director. "Understanding public policy trends makes our leaders more effective in state legislative debates and at the bargaining table in negotiations over salary and benefit issues."

Recruitment and Retention

According to a widely cited report by Samuel M. Ehrenhalt, a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, 42 percent of the 15.7 million people working for state and local governments in 1999 were 45 to 64 years old. The number of workers aged 25 to 44, on the other hand, is expected to drop by 3 million between 1998 and 2008. In effect: Aging baby boomers, slowing birth rates and declining unemployment all point to a future labor shortage in the United States. Demographers predict the public sector will be hardest hit.

While the numbers alone indicate an impending labor shortage, the statistics do not speak to the public sector's growing inability to compete with the private sector for workers.

"The Recruitment and Retention Task Force will explore issues related to the ability of state and local governments to keep and attract top-quality professionals," says Porter. "The task force also will consider the full range of benefit programs that are being used to attract employees."

Porter notes that the ultimate goal of the task force is to "help identify strategies and programs that can be put to work at the local level, in legislatures and at the bargaining table to improve the working lives of our members."

The first meeting of this task force is scheduled for Jan. 18, 2001.

Revenue and Taxation

This task force will develop a report on the revenue stream and taxation policies in the 20 states in which FPE/AFT represents state and local employees. With this information, the union will have a greater capacity to project tax revenues and determine the ability and potential of public employers to deal with suggested improvements in the delivery of government services.

"State revenue affects every division of the AFT," says Jewell Gould, director of AFT's research department. "The group will meet with experts in state and federal funding, as well as hear speakers on topics important to the interests of members and the federation."

Two of those experts are Marcia Howard of Federal Funds Information Services to States and Don Boyd of the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Specifically, Howard will explain trends in federal funding for the programs that affect FPE members and the clients they serve. Boyd, on the other hand, will discuss the issues affecting state resources from personal income, sales, and corporate income taxes.

The first meeting of this task force is scheduled for Dec. 12, 2000.