Dues are used for bargaining contracts, defending your worker rights, solving issues in the workplace, and organizing social gatherings. Your local also uses its share of dues money, which equates to about 53%, to cover the cost of representing employees in disputes and negotiating contracts, legal fees to defend our contracts, union publications, meetings, training programs, and maintaining the local office. The Guild sector is part of a larger umbrella union, the Communications Workers of America (or CWA), which has more than half a million members working in every segment of the economy. Eleven percent of your money goes to the CWA’s Member Relief Fund. This fund includes money from every member and is used to provide support for people who need financial help because they have been forced to go on strike or who have been locked out by their employers. Another 36 percent of your dues go to the Newspaper Guild international union, the “umbrella” that includes all the Guild locals in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that make up the 30,000-member Newspaper Guild.