New Member Information

Welcome to the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers (NCFO)! You are now part of one of the most diverse labor organizations in the nation. You have brother and sister members of NCFO working in a wide variety of occupations and economic sectors.

The NCFO was once a separate international union with members in the U.S. and Canada. Since 1995 NCFO has been an active segment of the 1.7 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest union within labor's umbrella group, the Change to Win (CTW). The unions working together with the AFL-CIO to support America's working families have a combined membership of around 13 million.

As an SEIU/NCFO member you have the right to elect the officers of your chapter union, to run for office yourself and to participate fully in regular membership meetings. The rules and procedures by which your chapter union must function are spelled out in its constitution and bylaws, a copy which will be provided to you by request, as will the NCFO/SEIU Constitution.

Your active participation in your chapter union makes it stronger and helps it negotiate better collective bargaining agreements. The agreement or contract, lays out the wages and benefits to which you are entitled, protects you from unfair discipline or dismissal, usually has provisions governing promotion to better-paying positions and provides an overall framework for resolving disputes that arise during the period of the contract.

In some cases all the members of a chapter union are covered under a single contract. Other chapters negotiate contracts with a number of different employers. Most members working for railroads are covered by a national agreement. More importantly, all chapter union members support each other as they meet and deal with issues affecting all members of the chapter union.

Members within chapter unions have the right to vote on tentative agreements negotiated between the employer and the union bargaining committee. It's important for you to get a copy of your current collective bargaining agreement and become familiar with it.