Complete Your CFU-UAW Membership Form
Over half of contract faculty have now signed new CFU-UAW membership forms to become dues-paying members!
Tomorrow, please join union members from NYU, higher ed, and across NYC to celebrate International Workers’ Day. At 3pm, we rally at The New School in solidarity with our colleagues there. We’ll march down 5th Ave. to Washington Square Park, where at 4pm we will be joined by labor siblings from across the city. Together, we’ll march to Foley Square to join the city-wide Workers Day festivities. RSVP here!
This May Day is special. It’s our first as full, dues-paying members of the labor movement.
What Does It Mean To Pay Dues?
We will each pay a small amount of money every month to support a strong labor movement — for ourselves, our fellow academic workers, and workers around the country.
UAW dues are currently set at 1.44% of our gross income, and there is a one-time $50 initiation fee. The second part of our new membership form is labeled “Authorization for Dues Check-off”; when you fill that out, it will mean that each month, 1.44% of your gross income will be deducted from your paycheck and forwarded to our union.
For the past nine years, CFU has been supported financially by dues-paying UAW members. They paid the salaries of staff organizers. They paid for our buttons, our t-shirts, our subscription to Mailchimp (through which we’re sending this email), and the signs we hold at rallies. They paid for the fees for our 2024 union election and for the lawyers we consulted before and during bargaining. Now, we can return the favor: a portion of our dues will pay for new organizing in higher ed, in manufacturing, and in cultural institutions.
About 32% of our dues are forwarded to the central office of the UAW (called the International Union) to fund new organizing and do other work on our behalf, like employ experts on health and safety at universities and defend research funding and non-citizen scholars. This money also goes to paying an International staff person assigned to Local 7902 who helps with contract enforcement; currently that person is Dan Echikson, who helped negotiate our contract. As dues-paying members, we elect delegates to the International’s conventions, which set the union’s priorities. We vote for national and regional officers: members are always the highest authority in the UAW.
In 1963, UAW dues money paid a large part of the costs of the March on Washington.
Another 30% of dues goes to the UAW’s strike fund. We ended up not needing strike pay or union-provided health insurance, but knowing we had access to resources gave CFU courage to strike and win our strong first contract. Having a large strike fund gives us and our siblings the confidence to stand up for ourselves and strike if necessary. Some of the interest earned on the strike fund is also directed toward new organizing, and when (as now) the strike fund is large, some of the money is returned to the Local.
The final 38% of our dues stays in Local 7902 and pays for local staff, lawyers, and the other costs of enforcing our contract. As members of Local 7902, along with adjuncts and graduate workers at NYU and The New School, we will democratically decide how to spend our dues money. For every 150 members, we will elect a member of the Local’s Joint Council, which governs and sets the Local’s budget.
You can see more about UAW dues here.
How Do I Pay Dues?
In our contract, the NYU administration agreed to a “dues checkoff,” which means that it will deduct our dues directly from our paychecks each month, just as it does with health insurance premiums. This requires each individual to give permission. The second section of the membership form is an “Authorization for Dues Check-off.” You should complete that part of the form.
Do I Have To Pay Dues?
Membership is voluntary. However, everyone in our bargaining unit benefits from our contract, and everyone has access to representation by our union should their rights be violated. To pay for that, every member of the bargaining unit is required as a condition of employment to pay either dues or an agency fee — sometimes called a “fair share fee” — of the same amount to pay for the costs of running our union. So while you don’t have to become a dues-paying member, you are required to pay either dues or an agency fee.
Both options will cost the same amount of money, but only dues paying members get to vote about how the money is spent. So, why not sign your membership form today?
Does Dues Money Pay for Politics?
Unions participate in the political process in lots of ways. At the local, state, and federal levels, the UAW fights for workers’ rights, fair immigration laws, research funding, and academic freedom. As dues-paying members, we set our union’s political priorities through the Community Action Program, or CAP.
UAW members contributed dues money to the fight against apartheid and made Nelson Mandela a lifetime member. Soon after his release from prison, Mandela visited Detroit to thank UAW members for their support.
By law, our dues money cannot be donated to candidates for federal office. At the end of the new membership form, you’ll see a section called “Voluntary Contributions to the UAW Voluntary Community Action Program (V-CAP).” There, you can choose to make a monthly donation to V-CAP to support pro-worker and pro-education candidates. Learn more about V-CAP here.
When Do We Start Paying Dues?
We expect to send our union cards to the administration in mid May. We will start paying dues in our June paychecks at the 1.44% rate. In that first month, we’ll also pay a one-time, $50 initiation fee.
Do I Have To Fill Out the New Membership Form Even If I Signed an Authorization Card?
Yes. Since 2019, we have used CFU authorization cards as membership cards. Now, we are becoming dues-paying members of our International and Local unions. Everyone needs to complete and sign the new form. If you have not signed a union card since we ratified our contract, you need to do so now.
In solidarity,
Anne DeWitt, Gallatin School of Individualized Study
On behalf of the CFU-UAW Organizing Committee