Painters’ Corporate-Style Annual Reports Keep Union Growing

by James Parks, May 17, 2009

Over the past four years, Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) President James Williams has taken a page from the playbook of employers and the way they do business. Each year, his staff produces an annual report for the international union and for each of the 34 IUPAT district councils in the United States and Canada that looks like a corporate balance sheet.

Now, IUPAT leaders at all levels, from Williams on down, are thinking in terms of market share, annual reports and audits, and at the same time they are considering organizing and contract negotiations. 

While other unions use similar formats, few are as detailed as the IUPAT reports. The annual reports measure everything from loss or gain in total membership to the ratio of apprentices to regular members, average age of members and apprentices, ratio of elected staff versus appointed staff, net assets and liquid reserves. The international union staff evaluates the reports and then works with the councils to build an action plan to correct weaknesses and build on strengths. The data also includes trends in the industry where members work so that contract negotiators can have the information they need to better bargain for contracts.

The result, Williams says, is that the union has increased its membership and gotten a firm grasp of its own financial situation to help its members and its employers weather the economic crisis.

The bottom line is that we have to turn around and prepare ourselves for hard times like these. You have to have a plan. You can’t just walk in and say “let’s paint a building” without a plan.

Requiring a report of financial information for the international union and district bodies has been critical to the union’s strength, Williams says—the union now has enough cash reserve to operate for 20 months, a sizable cushion in this economic climate. 

As a result of the information in the annual reports, Williams says, the union can pinpoint steps councils need to take and which areas need extra resources for organizing and training.

District council leaders were skeptical when Williams first suggested the reports, says Tim Maitland, business manager and secretary-treasurer of IUPAT District Council 78 in Florida. 

You know how many of us are when it comes to changes. We didn’t know how we would look compared to our peers. We’re a small district compared to a New York. Despite his initial resistance, Maitland says the reports are great tools. And Williams says all the district councils are in better shape than five years ago.

It’s all in how you use the information in the reports, Maitland says. The reports help district leaders set priorities and allow the rank-and-file members to see for themselves what the trends are and what is needed.

 If you need more money for organizing, you can see the results [when the membership numbers go up]. The proof is in the pudding. If you see the average age of the members creeping up, then you know you need to push for recruiting more apprentices. The report paints a picture everyone can understand.

An unexpected benefit of the report process, Maitland says, is membership education. With so many young people coming into the union with little or no knowledge of the movement, it can take a long time for them to learn what a union does and develop leadership tools. But the annual reports helps “lower the learning curve,” he says.

We have to get people up to speed quickly. We can’t afford to waste a lot of time. Working people and President Obama have an agenda [for green jobs] and we have to be geared up and have plans in place to be able to jump.

Williams’ openness with the international’s business—the national office also produces an annual report—helps the districts do the same, Maitland says.

You should be completely open with your members, even if the news is bad. They appreciate it.

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