Strike and Hardship Fund Donation
The GCIWW Strike and Hardship fund is a pool of donated money used to support workers in organizing and direct action with our organizing committee.
Established by motions in our monthly branch meetings and subsequently codified in our bylaws, the strike and hardship fund is administered by an elected, closed committee consisting of the branch secretary-treasurer team, the chairs of the organizing committee, and the branch stake officers, along with up to 5 directly elected members. The committee administers the fund by fielding requests from members and determining if they meet the following criteria:
- A member of the branch and of the IWW in good standing is the beneficiary of the request.
- The request is related to hardship directly because of actions in an organizing capacity: lost wages from direct action, retaliation for organizing activities, or some other reasonable related request.
- The fund has enough money in it to fulfill the request
- The beneficiary has not already received the limit of $500 in a calendar year.
We try to grant as many requests as possible from our members, following those criteria. The committee also established a special covid-19 hardship request amount of $50, which requires no reasoning attached, only good standing. This has remained in effect due to continuing economic hardship suffered by our members.
- A member of the branch and of the IWW in good standing is the beneficiary of the request.
- The request is related to hardship directly because of actions in an organizing capacity: lost wages from direct action, retaliation for organizing activities, or some other reasonable related request.
- The fund has enough money in it to fulfill the request
- The beneficiary has not already received the limit of $500 in a calendar year.
We try to grant as many requests as possible from our members, following those criteria. The committee also established a special covid-19 hardship request amount of $50, which requires no reasoning attached, only good standing. This has remained in effect due to continuing economic hardship suffered by our members.