The MEC at the old job worked a deal with another MEC to get our resumes to the top of the stack as the old company shut down. That was worth a couple months dues. Plus support for grievances. And a pretty good chuck of change out of the old companiy's liquidation. Note that all of these things came from work by the local MEC. As BoilerUp said, it's the local folks that get stuff done. If you just expect stuff to rain on you from Herdon, you don't understand the game. I stayed away from the politics and just did stuff on the safety side. But unfortunately we need the political folks too.