Union Dues FAQ

Updated August 20, 2024

For most people, membership and dues are pretty straightforward–you sign a card, you’re a member, and dues are deducted from your paycheck. For some members, however, it can get a little more complicated. Some people may need (or want) to make a payment directly to SWC. Or maybe you just want to really understand the ins and outs of membership and dues! Read on for an in-depth FAQ. We cover:

  • Membership: Who is a member of SWC? What is a “bargaining unit position”? What does it mean to be a member “in good standing”?

  • Dues: How much are dues? How do I pay dues? Where does my dues money go? How can I tell if dues are being deducted from my paycheck? Why are my dues not being deducted from my paycheck?

  • Making payments: I need (or want) to make a payment directly to SWC! How do I do that?

If you have a question which is not answered here, reach out to a steward or other organizer in your department, or contact financialsecretary@studentworkersofcolumbia.com


Membership

Q: Who is a member of SWC?

To be eligible for full membership in SWC, a student must fulfill one of the following conditions:

1) Be currently employed in a bargaining unit position; or

2) Have been employed in a bargaining unit position in the past; or

3) Be enrolled in an academic program that requires the student to work in a bargaining unit position in the future, or else be able to demonstrate concrete plans for working in the future as a part of that program. 

If you are eligible, sign a membership card in order to join SWC. Don’t forget to authorize dues deductions! 

Q: What is a bargaining unit position?

You are in a bargaining unit position when you provide instructional and/or research services. This includes graduate and undergraduate Teaching Assistants (e.g., Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Preceptors, Course Assistants, Readers, and Graders), all Graduate Research Assistants (including those compensated through external fellowships or training grants), and all Departmental Research Assistants. If you hold one of these positions, you are working in a bargaining unit position. 

Many members of our unit do not hold such a position for their entire tenure at Columbia. For example, you might be a new PhD student whose program doesn’t require teaching or research services during your first year; or on a dissertation fellowship; or you’re on a 9-month appointment and not working during the summer months; or you’ve been employed as an hourly Course Assistant in the past, but you’re not working this semester. In all of these situations, you are a member not in a bargaining unit position. 

Q: What does it mean to be a member “in good standing”?

A member in good standing is someone who has signed a union card, authorized dues deductions, and meets one of the following conditions:

  1. Is currently employed in a bargaining unit position. In many PhD programs, especially in the Natural and Medical Sciences, students start the program “on appointment,” that is working in a bargaining unit position. When you have signed a union card and are “on appointment,” Columbia should automatically deduct dues from your paycheck, along with the initiation fee when relevant. (For a number of members, Columbia doesn’t deduct dues; nevertheless, we consider you a member in good standing even if Columbia is improperly neglecting to deduct dues from your paycheck–but we do encourage you to make dues payments directly to us if that is the case. Jump to the “Dues” section for more information on this.)

  2. Is a first year PhD student in a program where students are not “on appointment” until Year 2. PhD programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences are generally “off appointment” their first year; their programs require them to begin working during their second year. We consider these workers to be in good standing once they sign a card and authorize dues deductions, since their program requires them to begin working (and therefore having dues deducted) within a year. We encourage these workers to pay voluntary solidarity dues directly to us their first year–read on for instructions. 

  3. Was employed in a bargaining unit position in the past and paid the initiation fee and relevant dues at the time. That’s right, you’re still a member in good standing during your fellowship years! If/when you work again in the future, you will have dues deducted from your paycheck again. In the meantime, we encourage you to pay solidarity dues directly to us–jump to the “Dues” section for more info about solidarity dues, and to “Making Payments” to learn how to pay dues directly to the union!

  4. If you do not fall into one of the first three categories, you must pay the $10 initiation fee directly to the union. We also encourage these workers to pay voluntary solidarity dues directly to us–jump to the “Dues” section for more info about solidarity dues, and to “Making Payments” to learn how to pay dues directly to the union!

Members in good standing are able to attend and participate in Workplace Council, General Body, and Committee and Working Group meetings; can join our organizing listserv and WhatsApp groups; and can participate in union decision making, including polls and elections. 

Dues 

Q: How much are dues? 

When you are employed in a bargaining unit position, your dues are 1.44% of your total gross compensation.  If you are not currently employed in a bargaining unit position, we encourage people to pay voluntary “solidarity dues.” These are $5/month (if you are a PhD student within your guaranteed years of funding) or $2.50/month (for everyone else). If you choose to pay solidarity dues, we encourage you to pay semesterly, rather than monthly, to ease our administrative burden. 

The semesterly rates are:

Fall Semester: $20/$10

Spring Semester: $25/$12.50

Summer: $15/$7.50

All members must also pay a one-time $10 initiation fee. If you are currently working in a bargaining unit position, or if you are enrolled in a program where you will be “on appointment” within the next year, Columbia will deduct this initiation fee from your paycheck, so you don’t need to worry about it. 

If you are not currently employed in a bargaining unit position and don’t know when you will be in the future, and you have not yet paid the initiation fee (e.g., if you are an advanced PhD student who has just joined the union), we ask that you pay it directly to us to be considered a member in good standing.

Q: Where does my dues money go? 

Dues are split between the International Union–that is, the larger UAW organization–and the Local Union–that’s us. 

38% of your dues stays with the Local. We use this money to fund things like basic operational expenses, like our Zoom and MailChimp subscriptions; to buy merch and fund social activities, like the orientation Happy Hour; and to pay for arbitrators when grievances reach the arbitration stage, which is one of the tools we use to enforce our contract. Eventually we may use dues to rent office space or to hire staff. All decisions about how to spend our dues money are made by members at Workplace Council or General Body Meetings. 

29.5% of your dues goes to the International. Like the Local, the International Union has operating costs. This money also helps to fund new organizing efforts: before we had a contract and started collecting dues, the International used its funds to support all of our day-to-day costs. Now that we have a contract, a portion of our dues goes to support new Locals. 

30% of your dues goes to the International Strike and Defense Fund. UAW workers on strike receive $500/week from the strike fund. Strike payments make it possible for workers to stay on strike for as long as it takes to win a just contract–when we struck for 10 weeks in 2021, payments received from UAW allowed us to stay out on the picket line. The money we pay into the Strike Fund will do the same for other UAW workers, and we will be able to draw on it if we go on strike again in the future.

2.5% of your dues goes to the UAW Community Action Program (CAP). This is the political/legistlative arm of the UAW. It is a non-partisan program which works to educate UAW members on political issues affecting workers, to register members to vote, and to elect politicians who are friendly to labor. 

Some members also pay V-CAP (Voluntary CAP) dues. Like the name implies, these are voluntary payments which you may opt into. Federal law prohibits the use of union dues for campaign contributions, so the UAW funds its PAC (Political Action Committee) with V-CAP contributions. If you would like to contribute to V-CAP, sign to authorize V-CAP deductions on your union card and indicate how much you would like to contribute–$2.50 or $5.00 per paycheck are common amounts.

You must be eligible to vote in U.S. elections to contribute to V-CAP. 


Q: How can I tell if dues are being deducted from my paycheck? 

To see your paycheck, go to my.columbia.edu→Faculty and Staff→People at Columbia (PAC)→Payroll and Compensation→Paychecks. Select your most recent paycheck, if currently employed in a bargaining unit position, or the last paycheck from when you were on appointment. If they deducted dues, it will appear towards the bottom of the paycheck, under "After Tax Deductions." 

It can take up to two payroll cycles for dues deductions to begin after you sign your union card. 

Note that PhD students who are off appointment are paid via SSOL (the student system) rather than through payroll. 


Q: Why are my dues not being deducted from my paycheck?

If you are currently working in a bargaining unit position, signed a union card, and authorized dues deductions, dues should be taken out of your paycheck! This should begin within six weeks of signing your union card. 

For some workers, however, this is not the case. There are a couple categories of workers who we know Columbia is improperly neglecting to deduct dues from. There are: 

  1. Workers on external training fellowships. These so-called “zero-salary” workers, primarily but not exclusively working in Natural and Medical Science departments, are currently paid through the student SSOL system, rather than payroll, and for that reason Columbia has not been deducting dues from their pay. We have reached an agreement with the University to rectify this beginning in Spring 2025. Beginning in the Spring term, these workers will be paid through the payroll system, meaning that Columbia will begin deducting dues from those who have signed a union card and authorized dues deductions. If this applies to you, you should anticipate that dues deductions will begin in the Spring! In the meantime, we encourage you to pay your dues for the Fall semester directly to SWC. Dues are 1.44% of your total gross compensation for the semester; read on for instructions on how to make a payment directly to the union!

  2. Workers who are paid hourly. Although the NLRB has formally recognized that hourly workers are included in our bargaining unit, Columbia is still refusing to deduct dues from workers who are paid hourly. We are still in the process of fighting them on this, and we don’t yet know when it will be resolved. We encourage you to pay your dues directly to SWC while we work to resolve this issue. 

Please reach out to financialsecretary@studentworkersofcolumbia.com for assistance in calculating how much you owe, and read on for instructions on how to make a payment directly to the union!

If you notice that dues are not being deducted from your paycheck and you don’t fall into either of these categories (and if it’s been more than six weeks since you signed your union card), please let us know! Email financialsecretary@studentworkersofcolumbia.com. 

Making Payments

Q: I need to make a payment directly to SWC–how do I do that?

If you are not on appointment but choose to pay solidarity dues; or if Columbia is neglecting to deduct your dues from your paycheck and you would like to pay your dues directly to us; or if you don’t know when you’ll next be on appointment and need to pay your $10 initiation fee to SWC in order to be in good standing–then you’ll want to make a payment directly to the union! 

We accept dues payments via check mailed to the UAW Region 9A NYC office, or via checks sent digitally through the bill pay feature of your bank account. 

If you have a checkbook:

Checks should be made out to SWC-UAW Local 2710 and mailed to:

ATTN: Local 2710 Financial Admin

350 West 31st Street, Suite 701

New York, NY 10001

**Important: in the memo line, write your UNI and the month(s) that you’re paying for. For example, “abc1234; June-August 2023 dues.”


If you don’t have a checkbook:

Not to worry⏤most major banks will mail a check for you. This is usually a part of the “bill pay” feature. Your bank is set up to send money electronically to major vendors like utility companies or internet providers⏤but you can also use this feature to have physical checks sent to a “vendor” of your choice.

Sign in to your bank account and look for the “bill pay” feature. When you click on it, it might offer you a list of common “payees,” “vendors,” or “billers” to choose from, but there should also be an option to add an entity not listed. Choose to add a new payee/vendor/biller. Fill in the information as follows:

Payee/Vendor/Biller: SWC-UAW Local 2710

Address:

ATTN: Local 2710 Financial Admin

350 West 31st Street, Suite 701

New York, NY 10001

Phone: 212-529-2580

Account number: Your UNI

(This is asking for the account number the payee uses to track your payments, not a bank account number. Here, we’re using the UNI as a unique ID for members.)

Once you’ve added SWC as a payee, you can save the information⏤you only need to enter this one time. Then you’ll be able to make a payment, which will prompt your bank to send a check to us.

Enter the amount you’d like to pay. You will probably be given the opportunity to fill in a memo line⏤if so, write your UNI and the month(s) that you’re paying for. For example, “abc1234; December 2022–May 2023 Dues.”

If neither of these options works for you, or if you have any questions about this, please reach out to financialsecretary@studentworkersofcolumbia.com to make alternate arrangements.