strike / severance fund question...

BrownFamily1971

New Member
My father is in local 703 and he is allowed to take money twice a year from his strike/severance fund. He was told he can do this because it is technically HIS money. I'm from 705 and I can't find anywhere that this applies to us. My father said it wasn't really stated somewhere that he had to call. I did call and they seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. My father literally was able to take thousands of dollars out of the account over the 28 years he's worked. Can anyone shed some light on this? Are we allowed to do this as well? How come one union can use this money but another cannot? Thanks for any information you can provide.
 

hondo

promoted to mediocrity
My father is in local 703 and he is allowed to take money twice a year from his strike/severance fund. He was told he can do this because it is technically HIS money. I'm from 705 and I can't find anywhere that this applies to us. My father said it wasn't really stated somewhere that he had to call. I did call and they seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. My father literally was able to take thousands of dollars out of the account over the 28 years he's worked. Can anyone shed some light on this? Are we allowed to do this as well? How come one union can use this money but another cannot? Thanks for any information you can provide.
It sounds like L703 has their fund setup as a savings account for its members.

The 705 fund, as established in its bylaws, is only to provide for strikes/organizing; and the non-staff organizers only get paid out of the interest earned by the fund. It is funded by a monthly assessment on top of dues. For whatever reasons (that I don't care to speculate on at this time); all dues, initiation fees, assessments, etc show only as "UNIONDUE" on your paystub. This was proposed, debated, voted in, and subsequently amended at the general membership meetings.

The 705 strike fund could be amended, however, the assessment would have to be raised significantly. It's currently so low that accounting/administrative costs would eat up the funds.

FYI, 705 won at least 2 strikes last year. One of which lasted 28 weeks and included winning precedent setting legal decisions.
 

Wally

BrownCafe Innovator & King of Puns
I like that idea and have advocating that for decades. Negotiating a contract with someone with a pile of reserve cash sure does put something in your favor. "Our members have weeks of reserve income, are we sure you want to force a strike"?
 
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