A Tin Cup Half Full: Chrysler To Add 1,000 Part-Time Workers, UAW To Collect Full-Time Dues

According to the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler will be adding 1,000 part-time workers to its plant in Toledo, Ohio.

As part of the deal hammered out between Chrysler and the United Auto Workers, the part-timers won’t be getting full-time work or even full-time benefits. However, they will be paid $15.78 per hour—the same as entry-level full-time employees.

Additionally, it is expected that the part-timers will be required to pay union dues—the same amount as full-time workers.

Currently, UAW dues are two times the hourly pay per month, which means that part-timers will be paying $31.56 per month to the UAW—just as full-time workers do. For the UAW, with 1,000 new part-timers, that will mean an addition $31,560 per month, or $378,720 per year going into the local’s coffers.

However, UAW bosses are pushing to increase union dues by 25% in June.

This would take all members’ dues to 2.5 times the hourly wage—or $39.68 for the part-time and entry level workers. This will mean the UAW should expect to collect over $476,000 per year from the new part-timers.

Of the dues collected by the UAW, roughly 50% is sent directly to the United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit in what are known as “per capita taxes.”

In 2012, the UAW’s headquarters, according to reports on file with the Department of Labor, the United Auto Workers collected nearly $115 million in per capita taxes from members’ locals nationwide.

Despite what seems to be a hefty amount of money collected, in the face of its “devastating defeat” at Volkswagen in Chattanooga in February, the Associated Press noted that the UAW’s finances are down significantly.

As it struggles to reverse declines, the union has been forced to tighten its belt. It cut spending 15 percent from 2006-2012, but still had to sell more than $300 million worth of assets, mainly securities and other investments, to pay operating expenses. Last year alone, the UAW raised more than $47 million by selling assets to balance its budget. The union may even raise dues this year for the first time in 47 years. [Emphasis added.]

Now, though, as the UAW helps Chrysler keep its production costs low by hiring part-time workers (without full-time benefits), at least the UAW will be able to reap the dues of those workers.

That’s a good thing, right? [#Sarc]
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“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com.