Many members miss opportunities when their address and contact information on file is not current. To keep things up to date, this can be accomplished through the SMART mobile app, via the SMART Member Portal on the SMART website or the old-fashioned way — by just letting your TD Local secretary know.
It’s no secret that we and the carriers do not often see eye to eye and there is a false narrative that we share member/employee information with each other. The carriers have zero obligation to voluntarily share any change in your personal information with your union. Even in this age of easy communication, maintaining good labor relations isn’t the strong suit of many carriers, and that includes notifying the union when one of our members has moved or changed their contact information.
Truthfully, if you update information with the carrier, it might not even be in their best interest to share that info — they may prefer that the bad information stays in our system as it means one more member is left in the dark. It makes SMART-TD one member weaker as they wonder why the union is perceived as being silent and inactive, never trying to share information or contact them but collect their dues anyway.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The union sends out daily emails that share the latest union and transportation industry news via the SMART-TD Newswire. Communication is absolutely essential with our membership, whether it be through social media, our website, email or other ways of connecting. For instance, information about military veterans’ service is used so that your service may be honored with an annual gift. We are also in the process of targeting craft-specific information out to the membership, so it important to have that properly listed on your member profile as well.
To avoid missing out, please fulfill your SMART constitutional duty (Article 21B, Section 49) and make your union one member stronger through the app, website or contacting your local leadership to ensure that your address, phone number and email, as well as your craft, military service and emergency contact info are current. Together we are stronger!
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