Benefits and Duties of Membership

For further member benefits information view Members Only: Benefits In Depth

As a Union Member working for one of our Signatory Contractors within our jurisdiction, your Employer contributes to the following benefit plans on your behalf for every hour that you work:

Medical – a self-insured, self-administered Plan that has a comprehensive schedule of benefits including optical and dental. This plan includes more flexibility and personal service than you will find with most employer provided plans.
Pension - The IUOE Local 25 Pension Plan merged with the IUOE Central Pension Fund on February 1st, 2002. The Central Pension Fund not only provides a more secure and robust retirement benefit, it also creates continuity in the accrual of retirement benefits if transferring between IUOE Locals (as long as each Local is participating in the CPF).
Annuity - The Annuity Plan is funded by Employer contributions on behalf of the employee. Members may also opt to contribute to the 401K plan in conjunction with the annuity plan via payroll deductions at a percentage rate set by the employee. The Annuity Plan funds are now invested through Prudential and are member managed. These plans, along with the Central Pension Fund, create retirement investments that are almost unheard of for nonunion employees in the construction trades.
Vacation - You earn vacation benefits by working for companies which have a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Union. These companies are obliged to make contributions to the vacation Plan which is the basis for the employee accumulating vacation benefits. This employment is called covered employment. The vacation benefit is paid out based on the number of hours you have worked in covered employment for the fiscal year and your years of service in covered employment.
Joint Union / Employer Training Fund (JUETF) – the employer and Union contribute to this Fund for every hour that you work, giving you access to the JUETF Training Program which includes tuition reimbursement and training classes.

While the above mentioned Benefit Plans are highly valuable and encompass the rest of the compensation package you earn (along with the wages and allowances you see in your paycheck every week), when working for a Signatory Contractor, they are certainly not the only benefits of membership. As a Local 25 member, you also receive:

TRAINING. Union and Employer sponsored training through the Joint Union / Employer Training Fund. This includes tuition reimbursement for covered credentials along with access to training classes held by the JUETF and Union. A well trained and skilled workforce is what sets us and our Signatory Contractors apart from our nonunion counterparts.
A NEGOTIATION TEAM that negotiates on your behalf in many different areas including wages, benefits, training, safety issues, grievance procedures, hiring and termination procedures, etc. The benefit of this has nothing to do with whether you are capable of negotiating on your own for your own best interests or not. The benefit of this has everything to do with the power in numbers. Negotiating as a group, as a Brotherhood, holds much more risk to the Employer if they don’t want to negotiate fairly. You are also given the opportunity to not only vote on any negotiated contract but also to participate in the process of determining what the Union will take to the negotiating table each time. United We Stand, Divided We Fall.
REPRESENTATION. On each jobsite, there is at least one Local 25 Shop Steward (a fellow Local 25 Brother/Sister working on the project who can intervene with jobsite issues when needed). Your Shop Steward is your first line of defense if the Employer is not adhering to the Collective Bargaining Agreement or acting in any manner that needs to addressed. If you need further assistance, you and your Shop Steward are represented by our Business Agents, based throughout our jurisdiction. Your Business Agents spend most of their time on the road visiting jobsites but are based out of our various Union Halls. In addition to these levels of representation, the Union is governed by the President / Business Manager and the Executive Board. This representation also includes access to a grievance procedure if the Employer refuses to remedy the issue. We are proud of the amount of access our membership has to all levels of their representation.
BROTHERHOOD. As a Local 25 member, you are part of a Brotherhood. You are part of an organization that stands together to fight for the rights of the group instead of only fighting for themselves. We are a family. We look out for each on the jobsites, in negotiations and during Union campaigns and initiatives.
HIRING HALL. Access to the Hiring Hall and Out of Work List is a huge benefit to our members. The dredging industry is a transient business with many contractors bidding on work throughout our vast jurisdiction. As a Local 25 member, you have the flexibility to “go where the work is." This means not only being able to follow the work geographically, but also being able to work with many different Employers, depending on who has the work at the time. This flexibility to “follow the work” while keeping your accrued benefits and other rights makes it much easier to stay working.

DUTIES OF MEMBERSHIP:

The Union is only as strong as our members. YOU are the UNION. This means that there are duties that come along with the benefits of Union Membership. Union membership is a two-way street. Many of these duties are outlined in our Bylaws and in the IUOE Constitution. These duties go further than just paying your union dues. As a Local 25 member, you are expected to adhere to the conduct outlined in our Bylaws, including staying drug free. Before being initiated into Local 25, these duties and expectations will be discussed in greater detail. Our goal is to provide the most professional and skilled workforce available.