And this is why the CWA Defense Fund is only $200 on Day 15. Now go run and get your chit sheet from your Picket Captain. You have a beef with the Company and off-shoring? Well, YOUR Union pays you less than MINIMAL wage to tow the line 35 hrs a week. $200 / 70 hours = $2.86 per hour!
According to the Biennial Report of the Defense Fund Oversight Committee, in April 2013 delegates to the CWA Convention approved the diversion of $12,622,500 from the defense funds to a new “Growth Fund,” to “support and enhance the union’s movement building, organizing, leadership development, research, industry analysis and efforts to achieve economic justice, including the hiring of staff needed to provide resources for launching new and sustaining existing efforts.”
This money was one-half of the earnings from the Robert Lilja Members’ Relief Fund (RLMRF), which had a balance as of March 31, 2014 of $459,417,000. “Total investment earnings during the 2012 calendar year were $25,245,000. According to the rules, one-half of these earnings, or $12,622,500 was moved to the Growth Fund.”