We are workers who care enough
about our jobs and working conditions to stand together with our
co-workers when we negotiate for wages and benefits and all the other
conditions of our employment. We follow certain rules and laws when we
bargain and we follow even more rules and procedures when we conduct
the day-to-day business of running our office or holding our meetings
or any of the other activities that being united requires of us.
Some of us get involved in the
running of our Union – we serve as Shop Stewards and on Shop
Committees, attend meetings and training sessions, and even run for
elected office within the Union. And we go to work every day and put
extra time into our Union because we believe in what we are doing.
There is always room for willing
hands in one or another part of our Union’s work. We can help organize
new shops, we can help out on picnic day, we can support candidates
for public office by working phone banks, we can write to our elected
officials to let them know how we feel about issues affecting Labor
and working families.
As a member of a Union you
have become an important part of us – and we welcome you into a
long and proud tradition of Brotherhood and mutual support. Now it is
your Union too.
What Do My Dues Pay For?
Your Union Dues pay for the cost of negotiating and
serving you and the Collective Bargaining Agreement under which you
work. That includes the cost of negotiating your contract including
paying your negotiating committee for time lost from work in order to
negotiate, costs for record keeping and communications with you and
your employer, the cost of your Union office and staff and a portion
of your Business Representative’s salaries.Your dues pay for the cost
of Union Meetings and elections, printing of your Contracts, training
of your Business Representatives in Labor Law, Pension and Insurance
Law and administrative oversight practices, grievance handling and
arbitration costs in addition to providing member education in Health
& Safety training, High Performance Work Organization development and
other areas of improved workplace safety and efficiency.
What Don’t My Dues Pay For?
Your Union dues are used to support members who wish to support ‘Labor-friendly’ candidates are
invited to become Sponsoring members of the Machinists Non-Partisan
Political League which is a completely separate organization. You may
even be able to do that through your payroll deductions; many of our
shops now have that written into their contracts.
What is a ‘Union Contract’?
A Union Contract – more properly called a
Collective Bargaining Agreement – is a legal and binding contract
between a Certified Bargaining Representative (the Union) and an
employer. Your Union has been properly elected by the employees in your shop as their chosen
representative for the purpose of negotiating your contract and
representing you in any disputes with your employer.
Your contract covers the wages you are paid, the
work performed in your ‘bargaining unit’, your benefits including
health insurance, pension, holidays and vacations, the conditions and
hours of your work and how you are paid for overtime. Your contract
also provides a means for resolving disputes that may occur between
employees and the employer over any of the items covered in the
contract.
Air
Services Lodge 2913
