UAW President Gary Jones announced that the union’s leadership has raised the weekly strike fund pay from $200 to $250 per week effective March 2019. That number will increase to $275 per week in January 2020.
“No one goes to the bargaining table expecting to strike. But the UAW goes to the bargaining table prepared to strike if our members need to strike,” said Jones. “Raising the strike fund is an important symbol that we have their backs.”
The UAW Strike and Defense fund totaled out at more than $721 million in 2018. Delegates voted at the UAW’s Constitutional Convention to keep a 2011 dues increase that funds the Strike and Defense fund until it reaches $850 million — at which point the fund will trigger dues to go back down to pre-2011 levels. If the Strike and Defense Fund ever dips below $650 million, the dues increase will kick back in.
“We are solid heading into the next four years of bargaining,” said Jones. “And this extra security for UAW families carries us to the bargaining table united in our goals.”
