Both sides arguing the right-to-work issue say they’re looking out for working families.
The bill’s supporters say passing a law that keeps workplaces from requiring union membership will entice more employers to create more jobs for Hoosier families.
Opponents say the movement is an attempt to weaken unions, which fight for workers’ rights, including fair wages, benefits and working conditions.
Here’s what nobody is talking about: How much union dues actually cost.
Although the amount varies, about two hours’ wages each month – that’s one-eightieth or 1.25 percent of a union member’s gross pay – is fairly standard for factory workers, according to a local union leader.
Local General Electric and BAE workers are members of IUE-CWA Local 901. Their slightly higher dues of 2.25 hours a month work out to from $7.53 a week to $14.80 a week, said Brent Eastom, the local’s president.
At the low end of the range, it’s equal to a couple of medium Starbucks lattes a week. At the higher end, it’s about what you’d pay for a large, multitopping pizza.
“I’ve given it for 30 years and never thought it was anything but a good deal,” said Mark Gevaart, president of United Auto Workers Local 2209, which represents hourly workers at General Motors’ truck assembly plant in Roanoke. They pay two hours’ wages a month in dues.
Gevaart based his assessment on his belief that he’d be much less successful than the union if he went alone to the human resources office and tried to negotiate his salary and benefits. But not everyone feels the same way.
Connie Gray, a parts inspector working at Coupled Products in Columbia City, crossed the picket line to continue working when UAW Local 2049 went on strike in June. Even before that, the 61-year-old was banned from union meetings for trying to get the labor group tossed from the workplace.
Gray didn’t want to pay dues of two hours’ wages a month to a group that she believes protected workers who goofed off on the job. With her, it’s the principle.
Instead, the line worker asked to be a “Beck” objector, a provision that allows workers to reduce union dues to only the costs of collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment.
Eastom said none of the local GE and BAE workers has claimed a “Beck” exemption. If they did, he said, he thinks the total savings might be only about $1 a year.
The local union leader thinks dues are “absolutely” worth it.
“Am I biased? Absolutely, I’m biased,” he said. “But we are the balance to the company saying: ‘Take it or leave it.’ ”
Management sees labor as just another cost – and would like to cut that cost by reducing wages and health insurance coverage, said Eastom, who represents about 700 workers. The union, he said, helps provide checks and balances.
Union dues vary by the type of work, said Tom Lewandowski, president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Unions also represent teachers, police officers and construction workers.
Lewandowski said dues range from 1 percent to 3.5 percent of wages. Those percentages represent dues globally, he said. Building trades members – including bricklayers, electricians and plumbers – pay dues at the higher end of the scale because their union leaders administer pension funds, benefit plans and training programs.
The workers, who are needed for limited stints at various construction sites, are assigned to jobs by the union. Higher dues help cover the cost of providing some administrative duties typically performed by employers, Lewandowski said.
Indiana has 631 union locals that represent 461,461 members, according to Unions.org. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the U.S. had 14.7 million union members in 2010. That amounted to 12 percent of workers.
Union membership has been declining in the U.S. The bureau reported that 17.7 million workers – or 20 percent – were union members in 1983.
Using data from its Current Population Survey, a monthly sample of 60,000 households, the bureau’s report on 2010 union members found that full-time workers earned considerably more if they were union members.
In 2010, median usual weekly wages were $917 for union workers and $717 for those not represented by unions, the study showed. Variables that could affect the totals include occupation, firm size and geographic region, the bureau said.
Dennis Leazier, president of United Steelworkers Local 903, represents hourly workers at Dana Holding Corp.
He said union dues of 1.45 percent of wages protect the 375 working and 1,050 retiree members “from a lot of things.”
The money allows the union to fight back when the company tries to cut benefits, Leazier said. For example, Toledo-based Dana tried to eliminate retiree health insurance coverage in 2007 when the company was going through bankruptcy reorganization.
The United Steel Workers and UAW negotiated an agreement with Dana that required the company to pay the unions more than $780 million to establish in 2008 an independent trust to pay retiree health benefits.
