The Association for Union Democracy is experiencing the end of era; we (and our neighbors) have lost our lease at 104 Montgomery Street in Brooklyn, New York and, thus, will have to move out and find another headquarters to operate our office. We have been in this building for over twenty years and are sad to leave it. Like any inhabited space, office or otherwise, the AUD staff has had struggles with it (readers may recall a recounting of flooding in the office a couple of years ago) but even so, the place had become something of a home for us and leaving home is always difficult, both cognitively and physically. But, as the poster said, “keep calm and carry on”, we are already going through the process of looking for that new space, while providing union members with the same help AUD has supplied since our founding. Juggling those tasks will be extremely taxing for our already work-strapped staff and AUD needs your help. In particular with facilitating a smooth transition to a new space all while fielding inquiries from union members seeking to exercise their democratic rights, maintaining our library of union democracy literature (some of which is on sale at our online store) and operating the now half-century old Union Democracy Review. When making your charitable donations this holiday season please give to AUD and help us with this change. You can be sure your donation is going to a worthy cause as, even with this enormous change, we are neither crying into our beer nor simply maintaining the status quo. Indeed, in spite of our travails, AUD is also embarking on new projects including expanding our recruitment of attorneys willing to take on LMRDA (Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, also known as Landrum-Griffin) and other union democracy cases. AUD accepts no donations from corporate sponsors, has few foundation grants; thus, virtually depends on the good will of our supporters to fund the staff, office, phones, and library we call upon to help us give the best counsel we can. AUD continues to be flexible and responsive to the current concerns of labor’s rank-and-file membership while fighting the good fight on the LMRDA front. For all of these reasons, we ask that you please make a tax-deductible contribution to AUD. Whether in Brooklyn, New York City or beyond, we will continue to operate on behalf of greater transparency, union member-centered responsiveness, and, above all, democracy in the labor movement. We greatly appreciate your help, thank you!
