Life Is Good For Union Leaders And Their Families

Discussion in 'Politics' started by pspr, May 13, 2012.

  1. pspr

    pspr

    First-class travel. Six-figure salaries for half the 132 officers and staffers. Plenty of plum jobs for family members.

    Life is good at the top of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.

    The union, with its headquarters in Kansas City, Kan., represents about 59,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada who make and repair boilers, fit pipes and work on ships and power plants. The recession has hit their trade hard, reducing union membership.

    At the same time, the president’s salary has surged 67 percent in the past six years, not counting a recent raise. Add in travel and some other expenses, and Newton B. Jones received more than $600,000 last year, putting him at the absolute top of the presidents of the dozen biggest unions in the country.

    Many relatives of union officers also ride the payroll.

    Totaling the pay to just the families of Jones and two other executives, the union and its affiliates gave them more than $2 million in annual salary, according to the most recent financial reports filed by the organizations.

    “This is one of the more egregious examples of money flowing like crazy that I’ve ever seen,” said Nathan Mehrens, a former U.S. Labor Department lawyer and now general counsel for Americans for Limited Government, a conservative watchdog group.

    In an interview, two union spokesmen defended the spending and hiring practices before requesting other questions in writing. Although they did not respond to every question, Michael Stapp, the union’s general counsel, provided a written response that included praise for the Boilermakers.

    “The Boilermaker family of organizations, together valued at over $10 billion, has proudly represented the interests of hundreds of thousands of working men and women for over 130 years,” Stapp wrote.

    “The history of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers clearly demonstrates that they operate in strict accordance with all applicable laws and governing documents. They operate in much the same manner as most other labor organizations.”


    Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/13/148607/hefty-salaries-perks-for-union.html#storylink=cpy
     
  2. Lucrum

    Lucrum

    And the ignorant sheeple chanted: "yes we can...yes we can..."
     
  3. These are the kind of people obama wants to force you to pay tribute to to be allowed to hold a job. That's one reason his union paymasters are so livid over the democrat convention being in NC, a right to work state.

    Right to work should be a constitutional guarantee. Forced unionization is hard to distinguish from being forced to pay protection money to the mafia.
     
  4. pspr

    pspr

    The term "union thug" didn't just come from a fiction novel. Big unions are a legalized version of the mafia.