The Local Officers, Executive Board, Negotiating Committee, and Chairs of Committees form the General Strike Committee. This Committee is in full charge of the strike and is responsible to the Local membership. Its members should be available to meet at any time.

The General Strike Committee instructs each Committee in its duties when each is first set up. It hears reports from ad gives direction to all Committees regularly. The jobs of the General Strike Committee are as follows:

1. Meet regularly.
2. Set up all Committees and assign their members.
3. Keep in close touch with negotiations and see that all developments are reported to the membership.
4. Maintain contact with the UE National Office.
5. Approve the use of the phone tree when needed.
6. Approve all strike publicity, both to members and the general public.
7. See that Strike Bulletins are issued regularly containing information about negotiations, instructions to the strikers, and other pertinent news.
8. Schedule regular strike meetings of the membership.
9. Keep control of all strike finances; keep careful accounting of all funds raised by the Fundraising Committee.
10. Keep adequate records of decisions made and acted upon by all Committees during the strike.
11. Take all other measures necessary for properly conducting a winning strike.

In addition, the General Strike Committee should be directly responsible for two areas throughout the strike. First, it should budget available strike funds and continually revise this budget as needed. Second, it should directly handle all legal problems that might arise.

As soon as it is clear that a strike may be pending, the UE National Office should be notified. This will send a yellow light to the National Office, telling it to get ready to assist you. Likewise, the National Office should be notified when and if the strike is called — giving it the green light to begin helping with legal, financial, and manpower support.

A National Strike Defense Fund was set up by an amendment to the UE Constitution in 1970. Under it, the National Office makes weekly lump sum payments to Locals beginning in the third week of the strike; based on the number of UE members on strike. The amount is set by the Union's General Executive Board and is periodically adjusted.

But the National Office has to be notified first. And during the strike, a strike expense report has to be submitted by the Local each week so that it can continue receiving money from the National Office.

Article 18 of the UE Constitution requires Locals to set up their own Strike Defense Funds. Although the National Fund is helpful, the major source of money is the Local's own Fund. Other money can be gotten through the efforts of a Fundraising Committee. Working with that Committee and the National Office, an estimate of funds available should be made and then revised, if necessary, during the strike.

The major strike expenditures are as follows:

1. Food assistance to strikers, either through food distributions or credits toward food purchases.
2. Utilities and rent/mortgage assistance to strikers.
3. Transportation assistance.
4. Operation of a Strike Kitchen, if any.
5. Printing expenses for materials distributed to members.
6. Radio or newspaper advertising, if any.
7. Strike headquarters expenses, if it is located other than in the Local's offices.
8. Legal expenses.
9. Other expenses.

Some of these items will be very difficult to estimate at first, but that should be done well before the strike begins. As the strike continues, the estimates will become more realistic and can be revised.

Each expenditure should be estimated on the basis of a weekly average. Dividing the estimated total expenditure for a week into the available funds will tell how long the money can be expected to last.

Spreadsheet programs, such as Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets, can be very useful in making and changing budget estimates.

Budgeting and the Local's financial situation in general should be kept strictly confidential within the General Strike Committee for the duration of the strike. After the strike is over, a full accounting should be made to the membership.

All legal problems arising from the strike must be handled directly by the General Strike Committee working with the UE National Office. Legal problems are generally of two types.

Companies commonly get court injunctions to stop some strike activity, usually mass picketing. Fighting an injunction means going to court (See Appendix A, “Court Injunctions” [1]). After discussion with the National Office, the Committee will have to determine what it wants to do, given the circumstances.

The second legal problem — bailing out those arrested during the strike — is more complicated and is explained in Appendix B, “Bail in Strike Situations.” (Note: Appendix B is not online yet) Here, the Committee has to weigh several factors: the hardship to the strikers involved, the cost of the bail, the means to raise it, and the publicity that it generates.