General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What "Right to Work" really means [View all]The standard dues deduction is just about one and half percent of your yearly salary. So, dues collections go up as salaries increase.
A normal salary of $30,000 a year is $450 in dues. $40,000 is $600.
We have a lot of tipped employees, so the calculations vary. Our part-time workers' dues are as low as $200 in some cases. Our part-time workers may only work 7 months due to the seasonal nature of a racetrack. In our latest contract, we achieved time and a half for part-time workers on holidays, plus a raise of $1 an hour. That more than compensated for their entire yearly dues.
So, on average, a $500 figure is about what we do.
We also raise money for our political action committee through sales from union authorized vending machines at the facility. This is part of our agreement with the employer. We also use this money for hardship donations to our members (if someone is out sick for more than a month, we send $100 with a get well card), flowers for a deceased immediate family member and donations to various charities. The membership is about 150 and the vending machines bring in about $1,000 a month. We are just ending our year end reports this month and we made about $2,000 in political donations, not a dollar of which was from our dues account and every cent of it was approved in a membership meeting.