Your dues at work

Your union dues are the wisest investment you can make. Only through representation by a strong and democratic union and collective action can better working conditions, higher pay and dignity on the job be achieved. That’s the dividend for the two hours’ pay you invest in the UAW each month.

Locals come first

For every dues dollar, more than 50 cents goes to your local union to protect your rights every day. In accordance with the UAW Constitution, that includes the 38 cents that stays with the local and a 12.35 cents rebate from the strike fund, so long as that fund remains above $550 million.

Your local union is there when you need it to:

• Defend you in grievances.
• Support you in arbitration.
• Monitor workplace safety.
• Protect your rights as a UAW-represented worker.
• Negotiate and enforce your contract.
• Help organize competing nonunion workplaces to strengthen worker power everywhere.
• Provide services for retired members.
• Sponsor recreation and education programs.
• Inform you through local publications.

International Union support

The UAW is committed to maintaining the highest quality of service for members in these crucial times. As set forth in the Constitution, the 44.65 cents of every dues dollar that goes to the International Union Operating Fund includes 32 cents, plus a 12.65 cents rebate from the strike assistance fund. These financial resources provide you with the skill, experience and commitment you expect and deserve. Whether it’s bargaining with management on equal terms, defending your rights in court, organizing nonunion workplaces or fighting to save jobs, your union stands ready to come through for you.

Here are just a few of the services you can count on:

• Negotiating new contracts with decent wages, benefits and job security.
• Legal help from a full-time staff of experienced UAW lawyers ready to challenge unfair labor practices, protect us when we’re on strike, guard our pension rights, defend us in court, and support us in bargaining and organizing.
• Health and safety protection with a staff of UAW experts ready to respond to complaints when the employer and OSHA aren’t doing their jobs and to help establish safety programs.
• Organizing new members to help win the union rights that protect all of us.
• Research and Social Security departments that unlock the employers’ financial secrets and protect our health care, pensions and savings plans.
• Legislative advocates who defend Social Security and our other economic rights, and promote laws to defend workers.

Strike Assistance Fund

UAW members generally don’t have to strike to win contracts. But when we do, the International Union Strike Assistance Fund pays eligible workers $200 a week in strike benefits and picks up the cost of medical insurance.

The UAW Strike Assistance Fund had a balance of more than $860 million as of December 2007.

From every dues dollar, the lesser of 5 cents or the actual cost of providing strike assistance benefits to striking and locked out workers goes into the Strike Assistance Fund. If the cost of strike assistance benefits is less than 5 percent of dues income, the difference is rebated to local unions and the International Union.

However, if the strike fund drops below $500 million, contributions to the fund will increase to 30 percent of dues income, and the rebates to local unions and the International Union will be discontinued until the strike fund, once again, exceeds $550 million.

Just as important is the great weight that a half-billion-dollar-plus strike fund carries with employers. It gives us added clout at the bargaining table by letting the employer know we have the resources to win a strike, if one is necessary.