Frequently Asked Questions

The United Auto Workers (UAW) and International Association of Machinists (IAM) are both labor unions. Labor unions are made up of workers who appoint representatives to bargain with employers on behalf of the entire workforce. When these representatives negotiate, they may give up certain privileges or benefits that employees currently enjoy. 

Without a union, employees typically negotiate these things directly with their employer or supervisor. Union members pay union dues, which are a portion of every member’s paycheck that goes towards funding the cost of negotiations, salaries for the union’s staff members, and whatever other expenses the union deems to be necessary.

At the UAW, dues are equal to 2.5 hours of a member’s hourly pay rate per month. An employee making $25 per hour, for example, would need to pay $750 to the UAW in dues each year. At IAM, dues are set by the local union. At IAM District Lodge 751, which represents Boeing employees, dues are set at $93.95 per month, or $1,127.40 a year.

The UAW most recently raised its dues in 2022. IAM’s national organization automatically raises its tax on local unions every year, which is often reflected in dues increases.

Both the UAW and IAM spend hundreds of millions of dues dollars each year. According to the most recent numbers filed with the department of labor, the UAW spent $86 million in gross salaries to its officers and staff in 2023. Over 500 staff members and officers make six-figure salaries at the UAW. The UAW’s total spending has more than doubled over the past decade, going from $214 million in 2013 to over $470 million last year. Meanwhile, UAW membership is at its lowest since the great recession.

IAM also spends a significant amount of its money compensating its officers. The international president of IAM was paid almost $490,000 by the union in 2023. One of the union’s general vice presidents was paid $421,000 in 2023. Another was paid over $357,000.

IAM’s overall spending has almost doubled since 2001, going from $124 million to $214 million last year. Meanwhile the union has lost almost 180,000 members – a quarter of its membership.

If a union can’t come to an agreement with the employer, the union can choose to go on strike. On a strike, union members will refuse to work and instead spend their working hours picketing outside the plant until the employer and union come to an agreement. 

Employees are not paid during a strike, but the union sometimes gives members a weekly check called strike pay. Strike pay varies by union but typically averages $500 per week, which is $12.50 per hour. 

There is usually a 1-2 week delay between the start of the strike and the first strike payment.

Since 1970, dozens of UAW represented plants and facilities have closed with production being driven overseas due to increased labor costs. Since the UAW signed its new contracts with Detroit’s Big Three automakers, over 20,000 of the employees at those plants have been laid off.

Numerous airline production facilities represented by IAM have closed over the past 20 years. IAM represents machinists at Boeing, which has seen major outsourcing under IAM’s representation. Today, an estimated 70% of the components in Boeing airplanes are made outside the United States. Boeing has closed numerous facilities in the United States over the past 20 years, such as its Wichita, Kansas assembly plant, its El Paso, Texas factory, and its Long Beach, California assembly plant.

Both the UAW and IAM have been embroiled in corruption scandals in recent years. 

In 2017, the federal government launched a corruption investigation at the UAW. The investigation found that UAW officials were embezzling members’ dues to pay for lavish parties, vacations, and gifts. More than a dozen officials, including two former union presidents, were found guilty. 

After the scandal, the UAW was forced to have a court-appointed monitor oversee the union’s activities for six years. This June, the monitor released a report saying that the UAW’s current leadership was under investigation for retaliation and misconduct. The report also noted that the UAW’s current leadership had been “slow-rolling” documents requested by the monitor for his investigation. 

20 IAM officials have been convicted of embezzlement or other financial crimes between 2013-2022, involving $1.7 million. In 2017, one of IAM’s national vice presidents authorized an audit into an IAM lodge which stole over $100,000 from members. That vice president claims he was demoted and eventually forced out of IAM’s leadership after authorizing the audit. He later sued the union for retaliation.

Once a workplace is unionized, it is usually very difficult to remove the union. There is a process called decertification which can be used to remove union representation, but it requires getting 30% of your coworkers to sign cards calling for the union’s removal and then having a majority vote to remove it. Additionally, you cannot attempt to decertify a union until after one year of union representation. You also cannot attempt to decertify a union for the first three years of a collective bargaining agreement. 

Unions typically have the resources to fight back against decertification attempts, and the time restrictions give employees a small window to even attempt to do so. 

However, a few facilities have successfully removed the UAW and IAM from their workplaces.

In 2024, a Nissan facility successfully removed the UAW after 70 percent of workers voted to remove the union.

“UAW union officials haven’t bargained effectively or communicated well with me and my coworkers, and they have refused to inform us of bargaining developments…my coworkers and I are left with no choice but to throw out the UAW”.

Michael Oliver, Nissan employee

In 2024, almost 80 percent of employees at a Penske facility voted to remove IAM from their workplace.

“This lopsided vote is a testament to the fact that after having seen the IAM up close and personal in our workplace, my colleagues and I are confident that we are better off without union officials so-called ‘representation,”

Kyle Fulkerson, Penske employee

While some employees do like union representation, there are others who feel as though they give the union a significant part of their paycheck and get nothing in return other than conflict with their employer.