Membership Committee

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

Chairperson: Gary Nissen

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Posted: August 2008

*Union Dues Information*: Voted on and passed to increase our monthly union dues by increments to eventually align us with the required amount of 1.3% of the average 608 employee's wage in the year 2011. This amount is figured through the end of the current contract ending ing 2010-August 31.

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Union News E-Newsletter.

Workers Memorial Day

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Decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted in significant improvements in working conditions. But the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous. Each year more than 56,000 workers die from job injuries and illnesses and another 6 million are injured. The unions of the AFL-CIO remember these workers on April 28, Workers Memorial Day.

The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job. Trade unionists around the world now mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning.

Here are some materials and information to help you participate in Workers Memorial Day:

The 15th edition of Death on the Job or download complete report (PDF, 4.2 MB);
Workers Memorial Day flier/fact sheet in English and Spanish;
Workers Memorial Day poster;
Workers Memorial Day clip art—
- Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living and
- Good Jobs, Safe Jobs—Protect Workers Now;
Facts about worker safety and health;
State safety and health profiles;
Talking points for Workers Memorial Day;
Sample letter for editor, press advisory and op-ed;
Workers Memorial Day events form;
Workers Memorial Day order form;
Safety and Health update;
Workers Memorial Day proclamation;
Fact sheet on Workers Memorial Day;
Fact sheet on protecting the nation's coal miners; and
Safe Jobs: Keep on Fighting, a two-page flier from America@work.

Here are some other ways we honor workers who have been killed or injured on the job:

There might be a discrepancy in vacation pay going out to all. It should be an average of the last 12 months worth of your pay....What are the odds that it is your exact status rate of pay? Overtime should raise it, you'd think. Look at your pay stubs and check this out. If you have a discrepancy, give the information to your shop steward or come down to the hall. The more information we have the better we can come up with a better understanding.

Upcoming Dues Increases Can No Longer Be ABSORBED By the Local

There is an increase coming for Union Dues. Part of this increase, the mandatory bump from the International is unavoidable. It will begin February 16th, According to Membership Committee chairman and Financial Secretary Gary Nissen.

The last couple of years, dues to the International were absorbed by our Local as to not pass them on to you, the members. It just can't be done any more. If this practice were to continue this local would drop below the water line and that wouldn't be good.

At the January 18th Regular Union Meeting the dues structure was thoroughly laid out and what increases were to take affect. Remember we are still working, in stair-step increments, to be up to where we need to be by 2009 when we officially become part of the United Steelworkers.

Overall, our dues do not even come close to the dues that are paid out by some of our electricians and millwrights.

We must be paying the equivalent "per-capita" to the USW by 2009 and then we will enter into the Steelworkers world in 2011. This motion came forward as information because the increase is necessary to the operation of the local and its programs.

Another measure that was voted on and passed was to pull an "assessment" from the two FREE checks to augment the negotiation fund. International per-capita will not be pulled from these two payrolls because the two installments for these two months will have already been met.

In 2007 the months that will have this assessment attached will be March and August.

All questions and concerns should be sent to USW-608@cableone.net with "NEW DUES" in the subject line.

USW Amalgamated By-Laws

January 18th - Regular Union Meeting: Proposed, seconded, discussed and passed was a motion to adopt the USW Amalgamated By-Laws immediately instead of waiting until 2011. Basic thought process was that if we must conform to them sometime between 2009 and 2011, we might as well jump in with both feet and have a few years to propose "adjustments" or clarifications before the PACE/USW merger if finalized in 2011.