Union Dues FAQ

Updated June 21, 2023

Am I a member of SWC? To be eligible for full membership in SWC, a student must fulfill one of the following conditions:

1) Be currently employed in a bargaining unit position; or

2) Have been employed in a bargaining unit position in the past; or

3) Be enrolled in an academic program that requires the student to work in a bargaining unit position in the future, or else be able to demonstrate concrete plans for working in the future as a part of that program. 

If you are eligible, sign a membership card in order to join. Don’t forget to authorize dues deductions! 

Once you have signed your membership card, you are a member in good standing as long as you have paid your initiation fee and pay all required dues while employed in a bargaining unit position.

How do I know if I’m working in a bargaining unit position?

You are in a bargaining unit position when you provide instructional and/or research services. This includes graduate and undergraduate Teaching Assistants (e.g., Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Preceptors, Course Assistants, Readers, and Graders), all Graduate Research Assistants (including those compensated through external fellowships or training grants), and all Departmental Research Assistants. If you hold one of these positions, you are working in a bargaining unit position. 

Many members of our unit do not hold such a position for their entire tenure at Columbia. For example, you might be a new PhD student whose program doesn’t require teaching or research services during your first year; or on a dissertation fellowship; or you’re on a 9-month appointment and not working during the summer months; or you’ve been employed as an hourly Course Assistant in the past, but you’re not working this semester. In all of these situations, you are a member not in a bargaining unit position. 

Still unsure if you are working in a bargaining unit position?

Feel free to reach out to Ye-Eun Jeong <yeeunjeongswc@gmail.com>

What are dues?

Dues are a monthly payment that you make to the union. When you signed your union card, you authorized dues deductions from your paycheck; that dues money goes to the union, and we use it for expenses such as arbitration costs (to enforce our contract), new organizing (to make our union stronger), union merch (to show solidarity!), and all other operating costs. Keeping the union going is expensive, and your dues money is what makes it happen!

How much are dues?

When you are employed in a bargaining unit position, your dues are 1.44% of your total gross compensation–this is the rate set by UAW.  If you are not currently employed in a bargaining unit position, you may elect to pay voluntary “solidarity dues.” These are $5/month (if you are a PhD student within your guaranteed years of funding) or $2.50/month (for everyone else). We encourage you to pay these semesterly, rather than monthly, to ease our administrative burden.

The semesterly rates are:

Fall Semester: $20/$10

Spring Semester: $25/$12.50

Summer: $15/$7.50

All members must also pay a one-time $10 initiation fee. If you are currently employed in a bargaining unit position, Columbia will deduct this automatically; if you are not, you must pay it directly to us to be a member in good standing.

How do I pay dues?

While employed in a bargaining unit position, Columbia should deduct dues from your paycheck if you authorized it when you signed your card–you don’t have to do anything! If you’re not sure if Columbia is deducting dues from you, look at your paycheck:

Go to my.columbia.edu→Faculty and Staff→People at Columbia (PAC)→Payroll and Compensation→Paychecks. Select your most recent paycheck, if currently employed in a bargaining unit position, or the last paycheck from when you were on appointment. If they deducted dues, it will appear towards the bottom of the paycheck, under "After Tax Deductions."

If Columbia is not deducting dues from your paycheck, you may wish to make payments directly to us. This might be because…

…you want to pay voluntary “solidarity dues.” Thank you for helping keep the union strong!

…you are a new member not yet working in a bargaining unit position, and you want to pay the initiation fee now. Many members are in programs which don’t require them to work in a bargaining unit position until their second or third year; or maybe you’ve been on a dissertation fellowship since dues deductions began (Spring 2023) and so haven’t yet had any dues deductions. Columbia will deduct the initiation fee once you begin work in a bargaining unit position; but if you would like to be a member in good standing before then, you should pay the initiation fee now.

…Columbia is improperly neglecting to deduct dues from your paycheck. There are a number of workers employed in bargaining unit positions who Columbia is not deducting dues from. This includes workers on zero-salary appointments and workers receiving external training grants. For those workers, you will need to continue paying dues–at 1.44% of your total gross compensation/month–directly to us, until we can get Columbia to fix this issue. If you think this applies to you and you haven’t been in contact with a union organizer or steward about it yet, please let us know–getting the complete picture of who this is happening to will help us fight it! Email financialsecretary@studentworkersofcolumbia.com.

How do I make a payment directly to SWC?

If any of the above cases applies to you, you should send the dues/ initiation fee directly to us. We accept dues payments via check mailed to the UAW Region 9A NYC office, or via checks sent digitally through the bill pay feature of your bank account.

If you have a checkbook:

Checks should be made out to SWC-UAW Local 2710 and mailed to:

ATTN: Local 2710 Financial Admin

350 West 31st Street, Suite 701

New York, NY 10001

**Important: in the memo line, write your UNI and the month(s) that you’re paying for. For example, “abc1234; June-August 2023 dues.”

If you don’t have a checkbook:

Not to worry⏤most major banks will mail a check for you. This is usually a part of the “bill pay” feature. Your bank is set up to send money electronically to major vendors like utility companies or internet providers⏤but you can also use this feature to have physical checks sent to a “vendor” of your choice.

Sign in to your bank account and look for the “bill pay” feature. When you click on it, it might offer you a list of common “payees,” “vendors,” or “billers” to choose from, but there should also be an option to add an entity not listed. Choose to add a new payee/vendor/biller. Fill in the information as follows:

Payee/Vendor/Biller: SWC-UAW Local 2710

Address:

ATTN: Local 2710 Financial Admin

350 West 31st Street, Suite 701

New York, NY 10001

Phone: 212-529-2580

Account number: Your UNI

(This is asking for the account number the payee uses to track your payments, not a bank account number. Here, we’re using the UNI as a unique ID for members.)

Once you’ve added SWC as a payee, you can save the information⏤you only need to enter this one time. Then you’ll be able to make a payment, which will prompt your bank to send a check to us.

Enter the amount you’d like to pay. You will probably be given the opportunity to fill in a memo line⏤if so, write your UNI and the month(s) that you’re paying for. For example, “abc1234; December 2022–May 2023 Dues.”

If neither of these options works for you, or if you have any questions about this, please reach out to financialsecretary@studentworkersofcolumbia.com to make alternate arrangements.

Once you have made your payment, you can expect to receive a confirmation email from us! This may take several weeks⏤it can take some time for your payment to arrive at the office, and we have to make a special trip to pick up checks, so you may not hear from us immediately⏤but that’s normal.