I stopped contributing to the union's voluntary COPE program because of their lack of transparency on where the COPE funds go to and to the highly questionable causes our union leadership contributes to. Lately, Chapter Leaders have been instructed to push COPE to the members for the "vote no"campaign to the State's Constitutional Convention, also known as ConCon and if I thought for a moment that all the COPE funding would go to that noble cause, I would contribute to it.
Unfortunately, the union leadership does not consult their members about how and for what causes COPE money is used. In fact, the union leadership refuses to breakdown the amount of funding the union contributes to various organizations, without any input by the members.
For example, remember the Quail and booze party the UFT had in Albany, using COPE money? Or their contribution to Al Sharpton's anti-police protest? How about the various fringe organizations that the union leadership supports with financial assistance? That comes from our COPE money, whether the members support the organization or not.Until the union leadership provides a detailed breakdown of the financial contributions that is funded by our COPE money, I will not provide one red cent to COPE and nor should the rest of the membership.
To discontinue your COPE contributions read my post on how to do just that.