[Peace-discuss] Fw: Labor's 1%
David Johnson
dlj725 at hughes.net
Fri Feb 10 20:28:33 CST 2012
I have said from almost the begining of the Occupy Movement that the
principles and demands of the Occupy Movement needs to happen WITHIN
organized labor as well the society as a whole.
Until we have a Labor Movement in this country that is controlled by rank
and file members as opposed to the majority of the Unions being controlled
by over paid and unaccountable oppurtunistic corporate colaborationist
bureaucrats, then NOTHING will change for the better in this country.
David Johnson
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 7:05 PM
Subject: Fwd: Labor's 1%
>
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> From: "Portside Labor" <labor-moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG>
> To: PORTSIDELABOR at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
> Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 7:55:05 PM
> Subject: Labor's 1%
>
> Labor's 1%
>
> by Mark Zimmerman
>
> Published by Portside
> February 3, 2012
>
> The staggering level of wealth and income inequality has
> finally become a focal point of political discussion and
> action in the United States. While the major problem is
> clearly the enormous increase in the concentration of wealth
> among the extremely wealthy, perhaps best described as the
> "top tenth of the one percent," those in the lower tiers of
> the one percent have benefited as well.
>
> Several months ago, David Cay Johnston, a columnist for
> Reuters, published an article on the diversity of the "one-
> percent." Using income data from 2009 tax returns, Johnston
> concluded that "Economically, those just entering the top 1
> percent have nothing in common with those in the top tenth
> of the top 1 percent....while all those in the top 1 percent
> are certainly well off, the vast majority still go to work
> every day. Almost half of the top 1 percent, or 1.4 million
> taxpayers, make $344,000 to $500,000." [1]
>
> Unfortunately, a significant percentage of the leadership of
> organized labor fits comfortably within that bottom half of
> the top one-percent. Many union members, including this
> author, would consider those salaries problematic.
>
> There are those who take the position that the subject of
> union leaders' salaries should not be a matter for public
> discussion, that it will only give fodder to labor's
> enemies. This is a legitimate concern. The right-wing,
> anti-labor "Union Facts" website, for example, has for years
> made an issue of the differences between the salaries of
> union leaders and the members they represent.
>
> But it may also be true that the levels of inequality
> between union rank-and-file and elected officers, as well as
> large differentials in salaries from union to union and
> sector to sector, is detrimental to labor. There are
> several reasons that this may be so: First, salaries that
> can easily translate to a lavish lifestyle breed distrust
> and disgust among dues-paying members. Second, when non-
> union workers become aware of exorbitant salaries paid to
> union officials - as when they happen upon the Union Facts
> website - it provides yet another reason they may want to
> stay away from union organizing efforts.
>
> But, perhaps most importantly, we have to ask ourselves what
> the impact of outsized salaries has on the psyches of their
> recipients. Can a union president earning, say, between
> $300,000 and $600,000, year after year, remain immune to the
> trappings of wealth, power, and a luxurious lifestyle? Will
> an officer accustomed to a $400,000 salary maintain a
> burning desire to increase taxes on the wealthy or to rally
> his members to fight inequality?
>
> Between $600,000 and $50,000
>
> The highest paid labor leader in the United States may be
> Terence O'Sullivan, President of the Laborers International
> Union (LIUNA/AFL-CIO). In 2010, the last year for which
> figures are publicly available, O'Sullivan was paid nearly
> $600,000. O'Sullivan's earnings for the previous three
> years were comparable. [2]
>
> Until last year, Richard Hughes served as the President of
> the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA/AFL-CIO).
> Hughes was elected to that position in 2007, becoming only
> the eighth president in the ILA's 117 years of existence. In
> 2010, Hughes' last year as president, the ILA paid him
> $464,000. Harold Daggett succeeded Hughes as President in
> 2011. In 2010, the ILA paid Daggett $399,000 in his
> capacity as Vice President.
>
> In 2010, AFSCME paid its president, Gerald McEntee, over
> $400,000; Vincent Giblin of the Operating Engineers (AFL-
> CIO) received $426,000; and Randy Weingarten of the American
> Federation of Teachers (AFT/AFL-CIO) got $389,000. The
> median salary for union members in the United States is less
> than $48,000. [3]
>
> There are 57 union leaders on the AFL-CIO's Executive
> Council, representing nine million union members. Seventeen
> of the executive council's members - thirty-percent - were
> paid in excess of $300,000 in 2010. Most were presidents of
> craft unions (ten from the building trades) and two were
> from the public sector.
>
> On the other hand, the seventeen lowest paid members of the
> Executive Council had incomes ranging from $47,000 to
> $161,000. Very few were from craft unions, but six were
> from industrial unions.
>
> Inequality and diversity
>
> That the AFL-CIO leadership is male dominated and
> overwhelmingly white is not new. The federation has
> attempted to address that issue by creating additional
> positions on its Executive Council. But those efforts have
> gone only so far.
>
> Despite the fact that women make up about 43% of union
> members, only 19% of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council are
> women. But among that top earning 30% - the $300,000+ club
> - there is only one woman. In 2010, the average compensation
> for the male members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council was
> $252,000 while the average for the female members was
> $194,000 - a 23% difference.
>
> Of the nine black union officials who were on the AFL-CIO
> Executive Council, only one had earnings above $300,000.
> None of the four Hispanic members on the council had
> anything close to that level. The average compensation for
> the ten black and Hispanic members who received salaries
> from their unions was $146,000 - nearly $100,000 less than
> the council average. [4]
>
> Should we be concerned about these levels of inequality?
>
> It is easy enough to find justifications for paying elected
> union leaders salaries that put them in the top one-percent:
> These are demanding, high-stress jobs requiring many skills,
> lots of travel, taxing schedules, etc. Salaries of union
> officers leading organizations with hundreds of thousands of
> members pale in comparison to corporate executives and
> leaders of large not-for-profit organizations.
>
> But, one has to wonder whether union leadership so far
> removed economically from the rank-and-file, can
> meaningfully represent the millions of members who live
> paycheck to paycheck and have little or no expectation of
> being able to retire securely. According to a recent study
> that was reported on the website Inequality.org, "The life
> experiences of the wealthy....leaves the rich less
> compassionate and altruistic than people of more modest
> means." [5]
>
> Union presidents have a way of staying in office for an
> extended period. Gerald McEntee of AFSCME is retiring after
> 30 years as President of AFSCME. Terence O'Sullivan is now
> in his thirteenth year as President of the Laborers. With
> salaries between $400,000 and $600,000 a year, one can only
> imagine the lifestyle they lead - and wonder how that
> impacts on the decisions they must make on behalf of their
> membership.
>
> There are good reasons for concluding that having union
> leaders in the top one-percent of income earners does harm
> to organized labor. We can start by asking the following
> questions: Should an elected union official be paid more
> than the president of the United States or a member of
> Congress? [6] Can a certain salary level be a corrupting
> influence - how many people can resist the trappings of an
> upper-class lifestyle when they receive an upper-class
> income year after year? Are the benefits of large salaries
> worth the costs - how much does the perception of corruption
> or elitism harm labor's image both within its ranks and
> among the population at large? Finally, do the enormous
> salary differentials between building and construction
> trades presidents and those in other labor sectors
> negatively impact on the functioning of the AFL-CIO?
>
> The Occupy Wall Street movement has not only highlighted the
> issue of income inequality. It has also put forth a
> challenge to organized labor in the form of the implicit
> question the OWS movement raises: Where has organized labor
> been? In light of that question, the uncomfortable facts
> discussed above may provide at least part of the answer.
>
> [Mark Zimmerman has been involved with organized labor for
> over thirty years. He can be contacted at
> iamzimmerman at gmail.com ]
>
> Footnotes:
>
> 1.
> http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-
> johnston/2011/10/25/beyond-the-1-percent/
>
> 2. 2007-10 LM2's. See below for a full list of AFL-CIO
> Executive Council and CTW Leadership Council salaries.
>
> 3. Bureau of Labor Statistics -
> http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
>
> 4. AFL-CIO Executive Council members average union-paid
> salary was $239,000 in 2010.
>
> 5. Understanding Our National Empathy Deficit,
> http://inequality.org/empathy-and-wealth/
>
> 6.$400,000 and $174,000 respectively.
>
> =====
>
> AFL-CIO Executive Council 2010
> Union Members Income
>
> (President unless otherwise noted 2010 [7]
>
> Terence O'Sullivan 480,000 $571,000
> Laborers (LIUNA)
>
> Richard Hughes 44,000 $464,000
> East Coast Longshoremen (ILA)
>
> Vincent Giblin 390,000 $426,000
> Operating Engineers (IUOE)
>
> Gerald McEntee 1,465,000 $400,000
> AFSCME
>
> Randy Weingarten 860,000 $389,000
> American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
>
> Mark Ayers NA $380,000
> Building & Construction Trades (BCTD)
>
> Newton Jones 61,000 $379,000
> Boilermakers (BBF)
>
> Patrick Finley 40,000 $361,000
> Plasterers and Cement Masons (OPCM)
>
> Capt. John Prater 44,000 $328,000
> Airline Pilots Association, (ALPA
>
> William Lucy [8] 214,000 $322,000
> Postal Workers (APWU)
>
> Edwin Hill 685,000 $322,000
> Electrical Workers (IBEW)
>
> James Williams 117,000 $314,000
> Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)
>
> James Boland 84,000 $308,000
> Bricklayers (BAC)
>
> William Hite 341,000 $306,000
> Plumbers and Pipefitters (PPF)
>
> Michael J. Sullivan 136,000 $304,000
> Sheet Metal Workers (SMW)
>
> Harold Schaitberger 296,000 $303,000
> Firefighters (IAFF)
>
> Matthew Loeb 112,000 $300,000
> Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE)
>
> Malcolm Futhey Jr. 53,000 $299,000
> United Transportation Union (UTU)
>
> Robert Scardelletti 45,000 $298,000
> Transportation Communications (TCU)
>
> John Wilhelm 230,000 $285,000
> UNITE-HERE
>
> Richard Trumka 8,455,000 $277,000
> President, AFL-CIO
>
> Walter Wise [9] 122,000 $269,000
> Gen'l Secretary, Ironworkers (BSIOW)
>
> Michael Goodwin 99,000 $260,000
> Office & Professional Employees (OPEIU)
>
> James Little 118,000 $256,000
> Transport Workers Union (TWU)
>
> Thomas Buffenbarger 594,000 $250,000
> Machinists (IAM)
>
> Arlene Holt Baker 8,455,000 $246,000
> Executive VP, AFL-CIO
>
> Frank Hurt 85,000 $228,000
> Bakery, Confectionary (BCTGMI)
>
> Nancy Wohlforth 99,000 $203,000
> Secretary-Treas., OPEIU
>
> D. Michael Landford 50,000 $199,000
> Utility Workers (UWUA)
>
> Liz Shuler 8,455,000 $188,000
> Sec'y.-Treas., AFL-CIO
>
> Larry Cohen 504,000 $185,000
> Communication Workers (CWA)
>
> Frederic Rolando 286,000 $182,000
> Letter Carriers (NALC)
>
> Loretta Johnson 860,000 $182,000
> Executive VP, AFT
>
> Gregory Junemann 67,000 $180,000
> Professional, Technical Employees (IFPTE)
>
> John Gage 279,000 $170,000
> Government Employees (AFGE)
>
> Cecil Roberts 76,000 $161,000
> Mineworkers (UMW)
>
> Leo Gerard 581,000 $161,000
> Steelworkers (USW)
>
> Lee Saunders 1,465,000 $158,000
> Secretary-Treasurer, AFSCME
>
> Roseann DeMoro 131,000 $154,000
> Exec. Dir., National Nurses United (NNU)
>
> Lawrence Hanley 192,000 $146,000
> VP, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)
>
> Bob King 377,000 $146,000
> United Auto Workers, (UAW)
>
> Clifford Guffey 214,000 $144,000
> Postal Workers, APWU
>
> General Holiefield 377,000 $133,000
> Vice President, UAW
>
> Fred Redmond 581,000 $130,000
> VP, USW
>
> Bruce Smith 28,000 $127,000
> Glass Molders (GMP)
>
> Rogelio Flores 279,000 $125,000
> Vice President, AFGE
>
> Robert McEllrath 37,000 $116,000
> West Coast Longshoremen (ILWU)
>
> Diann Woodard 20,000 $100,000
> School Administrators
>
> Michael Sacco 32,000 $100,000
> Seafarers (SIU)
>
> Veda Shook 60,000 $88,000
> Flight Attendants (CWA)
>
> James Andrews [10] NA $85,000
> North Carolina AFL-CIO
>
> Baldemar Velasquez NA $47,000
> Farm Laborers (FLOC)
>
> Robbie Sparks [11] NA $1,050
> Business Manager, IBEW 2127
>
> Roberta Reardon* 65,000 0
> Radio & Television Artists (AFTRA)
>
> Clyde Rivers** 190,000 0
> California School Employees Association
>
> Maria Elena Darazo^ NA 0
> President, Los Angeles, AFL-CIO
>
> Ken Howard* 128,000 0
> President, Screen Actors (SAG)
>
> ======
>
> Change to Win Leadership Council
>
> Affiliation Members Income
>
> James P. Hoffa 1,327,000 $357,000
> Teamsters
>
> Joseph Hansen 1,290,000 $321,000
> UFCW
>
> Mary Kay Henry 1,917,000 $214,000
> Service Employees (SEIU)
>
> Tom Woodruff 1,917,000 $206,000
> Executive VP, SEIU
>
> Eliseo Medina 1,917,000 $205,000
> Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU
>
> Geralyn Lutty 1,290,000 $176,000
> International VP, UFCW
>
> Arturo Rodriguez 5,200 $81,000
> United Farm Workers (UFWA)
>
> Sources:
>
> [7] As reported on each union's 2010 LM-2 report unless
> otherwise noted. Includes salary and other compensation as
> listed on each union's LM2 report, Schedules 11 or 12,
> excluding disbursements for official business. Benefits
> such as health insurance are not included.
>
> [8] Lucy was AFSCME's Secretary-Treasurer until he retired
> in 2010. This salary figure is what he received in his last
> full year at AFSCME (2009). He continues to receive this
> salary as a pension benefit. His AFSCME earnings for 2010
> were over $800,000, presumably a severance package.
>
> [9] The President of the Ironworkers Union, Joseph Hunt, was
> paid $355,000 in 2010.
>
> [10] Salary for fiscal year ended 6/30/09 - source IRS Form
> 990.
>
> [11] It is unclear what this reported compensation
> represents.
>
> * Not compensated by their unions.
>
> ** Clyde Rivers is retired from CSEA. His current
> relationship with CSEA is not known.
>
> ^ Most recent IRS 990 (2009).
>
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