UAW Local Unions are on the Front Line with You

The largest share of your dues dollar remains in your local union where it plays a vital role in protecting your rights.

The UAW has 1,064 local unions around the country ranging in size from less than a hundred members to locals with over 15,000 members.

Our locals are centers of creative energy and enthusiastic participation.

The first job of local unions is to help negotiate and enforce our contracts.

But UAW locals do much more.

Many locals have committees committed to organizing new groups of workers. The most active members help in boycott efforts or on picket lines of other unions.

Local union meetings are like old-fashioned town hall meetings where every member has a right to stand on the floor and be heard. It's real participatory democracy that seems to be lost in too much of America.

Today many locals are using computers, video programs, informative newspapers, and top-of-the-line educational programs to keep members informed.

Some UAW members see their role as passive recipients of union "services." But in truth the UAW is a membership organization that works best when members participate, innovate and see the union as the vehicle that enables us to become activists who can shape our own destiny.

 

"It's about a standard of living. It's being able to live your life with a degree of dignity."
John Sarakaitis
UAW Local 1765
Dana