Forum Post: Ask your union leader how much he/she makes... I bet its more than you think.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 20, 2011, 11:04 a.m. EST by rush2547
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"The Center for Public Integrity found compensation for leaders of the 10 largest unions ranged from $173,000 at the United Auto Workers to $618,000 at the Laborers’ International Union of North America and almost $480,000 for the president of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. The latter is the target of GOP governors in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Kansas."
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/03/03/2097/scores-union-leaders-earn-six-figure-salaries
The very individuals that cry corporate greed "on behalf of their members" make more in pensions than your yearly salary.
No one thinks it's weird when CEOs demand market rates for the job of running a huge, complicated organization.
You give union leaders more credit than they deserve. And even if you are right, so what? The conservatives have their thugs in the Koch Brothers and corporate-backed Tea Party. If it requires the work of Union leaders to help the middle class, then they are MY kind of thugs. Don't throw away common street sence for idealist romanticism.
If you want to fix the problem, march on washington, elect a completely new congressional class and send a message. Demand that congressmen be limited to two 6 year terms in each house. Demand a cap on campaign funding, and make it illegal for politicians to receive private donations.
Not that I support the notion that we still need Unions -- I think that you're not going to turn any heads with those numbers.
$618k to head a MASSIVE Union? I would have thought this number was far higher.
For comparison sake - to even be part of the 1% (not even the "evil" 1%) you need a yearly salary of $518k.
I dislike unions, but it's not that salary that bothers me. It's the inefficiency that results.
I was surprised too that some weren't higher and took some time to look into it a while back. These figures come from Form LM-2 that the unions submit to the Dept. of Labor.
What's not clear to me is how comprehensive the numbers reported are with respect to total compensation. They do include salary and pension payments. Beyond that, since most appear not to be independently audited, I don't put a lot of faith in them necessarily reflecting the "true" package.
For example, the AFT President's salary is reported at $428,284 on the LM-2. Separate audited financial reports for 2009 shows expenses for the Office of the President at $5.5 million. Office of the Secretary-Treasurer at about $6.9 million. Office of the Exec. VP at $1.1 million. These are separate and independent of all of the other normal offices that you'd find in such a group (admin, HR, accounting, legal, etc.) and do not include program-related expenses. Seems like a lot of expenses for the executive offices. For all I know they could be paying for mortgages, clothing allowances, kid's education expenses, etc., all as expenses as has been shown was done at various non-profits (and for-profit as well). Don't know that's the case, but I don't know that it's not.
Similarly, the salaries only reflect the pay for that specific position. These groups seem to love setting up lots of various legally independent but related entities - foundations, trusts, non-profits, etc., and you tend to see that they serve as the heads or board members in what I'd assume are paid positions at these groups as well.
That makes a lot more sense -- and is also how corporations hide the true wealth they spend on their execs.
What I don't get is this notion that Unions would never pull one over on the people....
Union leaders have hijacked the OWS for their benefit. That is the reason they never will let this movement to go to Washington dc. They are shielding the the government.
There is no question that Union Leaders are in bed with politicians also. What may benefit the worker in theory has become perverted by the political process.
In Washington DC, it was in newspapers that metro employees like bus drivers, train operaters were making 6 figure salary plus they had pension and other bonuses. These are union jobs. I respect all these workers but want to convey facts.
OK, who's got a good union job to facilitate this question?.... Crickets... Call China.