The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-23

tai to 9,00O.OOO. Employment 11% creases and the recognition of unions by more employers indicates membership may have increased sharply during the first six months this year.
 Presunbly all members now are playing dues. The new members are paying initiation fees. In some cases, ncnmembers are contributing to union coffers by paying substan- tial part of their wages for tempo rary work permits" especially on the governments defense construc. tion projects.
 1 Refusal by union officials to dis cusS their finances and the lack of laws compelling them to issue flnan- cial statements makes 8 complete and exact picture of the take" i'm possible "steel" continues.
 ] No other large enterprise in the United States is permitted to cover up its financial operations as is trade unionism.
 CIO last year made no financial report upon the advice of counsel" this to avoid embarrassment in present and potential litigation.
 The AFL reported 1940 income as $1 ,938, ,483, including 8 $629, ,499 carry over from 1899. This, however, is only drop in the bucket" as the parent union recieves only a small portion of the locals revenue. Expenditures for hiring organizers, paying office and hall rents, pulp fishing union newspapers and other literature and for officials, salaries run into impressive figures. To ob- tain these funds, the benefits of membership" are marketed for a price. Idealistic though the unions slogan may be, their charges are based solidly on practical eco monies.
 Legitimate union income mainly is derived from three sources; Peri- co.cal dues; initiation fees; and spe- cial assessments. Income received from "Shakesdowns" of employers or other forms of graft generally is not officially recognized.
 CIO dues and initiation fees or- dnarily are considerably lower than those of the AFL, for two reasons: Craft union members in the AFL contain a larger percentage of skill ed workers who receive higher wage and are able to pay higher dues and fees; AFL craft unions often have mutual insurance plans which ne- cessitate higher charges.
 Thus while CIO dues in the newer unions may be as low as $1 monthly, and initiation fees only few dol- lars, the AFL charges fees ranging to above 5000, so high that it is almost impossible for the average man to break in, no matter how well qualified this magazine says. The truckers in Seattle for example, charge $500: the motion picture operators in Cleveland, $l,000; the glaziers in Chicago, $1,5O0.
 Competition between the CIO and AFL sometimes determines the amounts charged members. When the CIO was launching its Construc- tion Workers Organizing Commit tee, 1t advertised that it levied no initiation fees and charged only $1.50 8 month dues. This, of course, was in marked contrast to the ex- cessively high fees and dues charged by the entrenched AFL building trades unions.
 Dues and fees often are deter mined by the local unions, although an upper limit sometimes is estab- lished by the parent union. Of the funds collected by the local, a por- tion is remitted to the national.
 With charges varying from local to local and from industry to indus try, the average cost to the worker for union membership is impossible to obtain. Some experts who have made extensive investigations eSti- mate the overall average at $5 6 month. This would mean the yearly income of the unions is more than $500, 900 J000-nearly twice the steel industry's profit in i040.
 Known established dues and iai- tiation fees of the large unions would indicate the estimate of s5 monthly is larger than actually col- lected, despite whopping initiation fees and special assessments in some cases.
 An estimate of @ per month average Is conservative, and with Q total trade union membership swollen to nearly 10000 GOO through government policies and the exigen- cies of war. the yearly revenue is at least c quarter billion dollars.
 The Steel Workers Organizing Committee and the United Automo- bile Workers and other large and new unions of the CKO generally have dues amounting only 10 el 6 month and moderate initiation fees. Nor have these unions levied large special assessments tO date. On the ether hand. tho older unions were assoased t0 finance the examination l