The Defence Fund is the fund that protects our members if job action occurs. The Defence Fund provides financial assistance to members of MoveUP who are affected by a labour dispute, whether it is one our members are directly involved in or one that another union is involved in that affects our members. It is also used to fund the cost of arbitrations undertaken on behalf of members, as well as deal with issues at the Labour Relations Board.

The General Fund is what funds MoveUP’s day-to-day operations. Essentially, all the work MoveUP does to support members on a day-to-day basis is funded by the General Fund – whether it is your union representative, dealing with legal issues and grievances, member education, dealing with collective agreement management, communications, administrative support, office costs, union government, and so on.

Our Constitution specifies that the money in the Defence Fund can only be used as it relates to supporting members affected by a labour dispute, or for arbitrations or when dealing with the Labour Relations Board. As a result, it cannot be used in any other manner. Our Defence Fund is one of the largest Defence Funds, per capita, of any Canadian union that we are aware of. Because of its specific usage, it has much less demand compared to the General Fund.

Most of the time, supporting our members does not involve dealing with a labour dispute, a grievance, or being at the Labour Relations Board.

Labour disputes can result in significant campaigns, which is where having the Defence Fund is important. However, there may be times when major campaigns are required and don’t fall under the scope of dealing with a labour dispute.

A good example of this came about at the start of the global pandemic when our union needed to step up to support members who were suddenly facing loss of work in industries that were hardest hit by the pandemic. We needed to run campaigns to get governments and businesses to avoid massive layoffs as much as possible. However, because those campaigns did not fall under the scope of labour dispute (or a grievance or related to the Labour Relations Board), it put a tremendous strain on our General Fund.

At the same time, because of a downturn in the markets for a few months, we were constitutionally-obligated to transfer a greater share of our members’ dues into the Defence Fund rather than into our General Fund. This further hindered our ability to provide services to our members as we had to put a higher amount of money into our Defence Fund and, although we were watching it grow, we were unable to access it to make use of it for our members.

No. This provision only comes into effect if the Defence Fund balance falls below $12 million for three consecutive months.

Based on how our Defence Fund has performed over the last number of years, we do not expect this provision to come into play any time soon. The market effect as a result of the start of the global pandemic resulted in our Defence Fund temporarily dipping below $15 million. That required us to allocate more money into the Defence Fund at the expense of our General Fund, but it did not come near to going below $12 million which is what this threshold would have been. Since then, our Defence Fund has rebounded back healthily.

The global pandemic has reinforced for our union how important it is not only to be reactive but proactive as well when it comes to supporting and protecting our members.

It is not only enough for us to plan for the status quo, but also to be ready for the next global pandemic or next natural disaster or next market collapse – all things that could have the potential of affecting our members and their work.

This change, albeit one that may not even be triggered, gives our union the flexibility to provide what we need to for our members without interruption even in times of crisis.

Think of it like insurance for our Defence Fund except our members won’t need to pay for it unless it becomes absolutely necessary! This special dues assessment may never have to be used at all if our Defence Fund maintains its strength through normal funding procedures.