I have been a flight attendant for a regional carrier for about a year and half now. Shortly after I was hired the union ratified a new contract. It was very stressful as some flight attendants votes were not counted as they were informed after the vote that they were not current with their union dues. Dues are collected thru our pay checks and somehow their dues had never been collected. They were told they owed about $500 in back dues. The union and those Flight Attendants made some payment plans to bring them current. Some quit. I was not able to vote on the contract as I had not worked with the company long enough. I first thought the dues would start coming out after working their 3 months, and then I was told by another flight attendant it was six months. Well after six months I started sending emails telling them my union dues were not being taking out. Some of the emails I did not get responses to...some I was told they would take care of it...but in the long run nothing happen. During this period our union president also left her job and went into management for the company.

Again in response to one of my last emails the union has finally has a response. They have put a union card in my file to be filled out, claim my first one was lost. This card has my ss#, DOB, and other personnel information on it. They are now telling me I owe $207 for the year of 2007, and $23 for each month of 2008 that I have not paid. I received that notice verbally in January.

I know I contact them before October of 2007 but can only document it starting at that time, and thus feel I should only owe for the months of April, May, June, July, Aug, and September. While I feel Oct, Nov, Dec of 2007 I don't owe anything as I had been contact the union tell them of the problem, which they said they take care of and never informed me that I could be making payments to them nor were to send the pays to. They have now sent out statements saying that we have to pay the full amount or we will be fired for not belonging to the union. One of the other flight attendants in this same situation sent them a check for the full amount and they still sent her the nasty letter. She told them she gave the the full amount and they told her that they were having problems with their bank account?

Ok here are my questions
1) Do I owe them the full amount?
2) I live in a right to work state but the company is based in a non right to work state, do I have to belong to this union?
3) What obligations does the union have to provide financial information to its members