NFLPA Failed to Collect All Its Dues, Report Says

The National Football League Players Assn., which owes $1.4 million to a variety of banks and creditors, received dues from only about a fourth of its members in 1987, the year of the 24-day strike, according to financial statements filed with the Department of Labor.

Union officials said Tuesday that a majority of the nearly 1,600 players have now paid their dues.

According to the union’s financial statement for the period from March 1, 1987, to Feb. 29, 1988, filed Jan. 23, the organization received $877,441 in dues, compared to $3.7 million for the 1986-87 period.

Dues for the earlier period were $2,400 per player compared to $2,000 for 1987-88. Despite the decrease, only 438 players paid.

But Gene Upshaw, the union’s executive director, said Tuesday that the period covered was one in which there was no automatic dues checkoff--by which the teams automatically pay dues to the union from the players’ paychecks. As a result, players had to make direct payments to the union. “We didn’t even start collecting dues until December,” said Upshaw, whose salary of $164,847 during the period represents a 4% increase over the previous year. “The period in the report ends March 1 and we kept on collecting dues. We have a majority of players paying now.”

Upshaw is the union’s highest-paid employee, receiving a total of $182,156 in salary and expenses. His assistant, Doug Allen, received $89,136, of which $67,350 was salary, and Frank Woschitz, the public relations director, received $57,760 in salary and $22,096 in expenses.

The financial statement was made a month after two reports that Labor Department officials had passed information from their NFLPA audit to the Department of Justice for possible action. Neither agency has commented on the allegations, and Upshaw and Allen said 2 weeks ago that what was reported as a $100,000 loan to Upshaw in the reports was no more than deferred payment.

There was no mention of that payment in the financial statement.

Dick Berthelsen, the union’s general counsel, is not listed in the statement but his salary is part of professional expenses, which total $494,139.

The financial report, due May 29, was filed 8 months late, not atypical for the NFLPA, which in the past has filed its reports even later. The report shows that the union, which dismissed 17 of its 36 employees during the period, had a net loss of $310,000, which Upshaw said is largely on paper because it was forced to list future severance pay.