AFTRA Cuts Dues of Richest Members : Television: Los Angeles chapter’s compromise holds the top annual union dues to $1,585, the same as in New York.

Bowing to internal complaints, the Los Angeles chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which represents actors and television news and radio personalities, has decided to sharply cut the annual dues paid by its richest members.

The decision marks a compromise in what has been an ongoing dispute between the union’s top wage earners and AFTRA management over the fact that Los Angeles members paid more in dues that their counterparts in all other parts of the country.

Since each local chapter sets its own dues, a Los Angeles news reporter such as KNBC Channel 4’s Steve Gendel, for example, was forced to pay more to the union than New York-based members such as Tom Brokaw or Dan Rather--even though the two anchormen earn at least 10 times as much as Gendel.

Earlier this year, a group of about 10 NBC news reporters in Los Angeles had withheld payment of their AFTRA dues to protest the situation, and the union had subsequently threatened to ask the network to strip them of their jobs. Steadily employed television news reporters, who make up only about 2% of the local union (the majority are actors) but pay roughly 16% of the dues, had also talked about forming a separate union.

The new rates will affect about 600 of the local’s 30,000 members. As of November, L.A. members of the union who earn more than $100,000 annually will have their dues reduced from $1,750 a year to $1,585, while dues for those who earn more than $150,000 a year will fall from $2,000 to $1,585--the figure now paid by those in the top wage bracket in New York.

Dues for those in this wage category, however, will still be more than similarly salaried AFTRA members based in Washington.

Last July, local union members voted to pass a dues increase in which fees for those earning less than $2,000 a year--the majority of AFTRA’s members--jumped from $65 to $85, while dues for the top wage earners doubled from $1,000 to $2,000.

“It’s definitely not as far down as we would like it to go,” Gendel said of the reduction. “There are still inequities that need to be addressed. We still pay more than people in Washington and elsewhere, though we are all getting basically the same benefits. But that the union was able to compromise and a small group of people was able to attain a rollback, I think is remarkable.”

The board of the local union decided to pass the reduction this week after the New York local put a $1,585 ceiling on dues for its members.