Productive partnership holds dues line, keeps AMO prosperous
All deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members are encouraged to make timely dues payments beginning May 1 to maintain "good standing" and help our union remain prosperous.
All applicants for AMO membership are encouraged as well to keep current with their initiation fee and dues payments.
This reminder follows a modest initiative that essentially made April 2020 a dues-free month. The intent here was to put some extra cash in the pockets of AMO members to meet emergency needs at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic - for personal use, or to help a suddenly unemployed relative or friend make a mortgage, rent, car or utility bill payment. If this unprecedented effort under unprecedented circumstances helped but one AMO family, it was well worth it.
AMO members and applicants who had paid dues from January 1 through April 30, through the second quarter (April-June) or through December 2020 will have a one-month credit applied to their financial obligations to AMO in 2021. This dues credit will be applied to the most recent unpaid quarter for each member, in 2019 or 2020, depending upon the member's payment status.
Some AMO members misinterpreted this attempt at breathing room as a waiver of the dues requirement for one complete quarter or more. But, because this kind of relief measure had never been applied before, we had to be both helpful and responsible.
AMO has lived within its means since January 2015, and this administration has focused routinely on cost containment - beginning with payroll reductions amounting to immediate savings of about $500,000 a year through attrition and pay cuts for AMO officials. This figure does not reflect the proportionate accompanying savings in employee benefits in the first quarter of 2015.
As a result, all but six months since the second quarter of 2015 have ended with accumulating operating budget surpluses - the total surplus in 2019 alone was in excess of $1 million.
AMO is now in its sixth consecutive year without a membership dues increase or an increase in applicant initiation fees, and AMO membership dues rates remain the lowest among the three U.S. merchant marine officers' unions.
Our union has a healthy cash reserve, and we have defied past practice by letting the AMO investment accounts grow, instead of tapping these accounts routinely to meet payroll or to pay the monthly bills.
While we now have to monitor the potentially harmful economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our union - the potential for widespread layup of vessels from weak demand for their cargoes and the consequent loss of jobs and of employer contributions to AMO Plans - we may approach the point where we can reduce our membership dues rates.
Sound management of AMO assets is the result of what I refer to as a productive partnership between the seagoing AMO membership and the careful spending policies of this administration. Many deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members are paying dues directly to the union by check, by credit card or online. Many are paying dues through authorized deductions from AMO Vacation Plan benefits.
But we still have a number of AMO members behind in dues payments - including many deficient for a year or longer. This is a matter of both principle and fairness. We cannot have AMO members in "good standing" working alongside individuals seriously delinquent in their financial obligations. We will contact individuals in significant debt, and we will apply appropriate penalties when necessary.
Membership dues and applicant initiation fees are AMO's principal source of operating revenue. We have done extremely well together in keeping AMO in the black, but we can do even better - for each other and for everyone in AMO.
Thank you.
Paul Doell
May 1, 2020