UAW bolsters strike fund, will increase until $850 million

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

United Auto Workers President Gary Jones announced in Detroit on Tuesday the union’s leadership has raised the weekly pay added to the strike fund from $200 to $250 per week. That number will increase to $275 per week in January 2020.

“No one goes to the bargaining table expecting to strike. But the UAW goes to the bargaining table prepared to strike if our members need to strike,” Jones said. “Raising the strike fund is an important symbol that we have their backs.”

The UAW Strike and Defense Fund included more than $721 million in 2018. Scheduled increases to the fund began in 2011 and will continue until the fund hits $850 million, after which the weekly payments will return to pre-2011 levels.

The increases were approved in 2018 by delegates during the UAW’s constitutional convention.

If the fund ever dips below $650 million, the increases will restart.