Labor's 1%

Labor's 1%

by Mark Zimmerman


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@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).