As members of the venerable AFL-CIO converge on Los Angeles for their annual Big Labor pow wow, union bosses will attempt to fire up their beleaguered supporters with a long list of grievances against everyone from politicians in Washington to small businesses simply trying to make ends meet. But one thing Big Labor bosses won’t talk about is how much money their drawing in their bloated paychecks.
Union bosses, as you know, are always quick to blame worker woes on “1 percent” bogeymen – yet, they seem just as eager to be members of that same elite crowd even as they continually wage scorched earth class warfare on the country. The AFL-CIO convention will be heavy in diatribes against the wealthy. What’s strange, however, is the blatant hypocrisy of those singing that tune: Big Labor bosses who get paid large salaries from hard-earned member dues. Consequently, their full time jobs entail non-stop assaults against the American economy – all while they draw massive six-figure paychecks from the dues of unwilling members trying to make ends meet.
Take AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that Trumka did well for himself in 2012, to the tune of $302,000 in annual salary. And, it’s not surprising Trumka boasts regularly about his constant trips to the White House. The union boss has laughed all the way to the bank during Obama Administration, with his salary increasing by 15 percent since 2010. He made about $265,000 in 2010 – and he’s been drawing $200,000 plus salaries since he was named Secretary Treasurer in 2003.
“So, where’s all the money going?” asked Trumka during his convention speech. “Understand that all of the wage increases over all those years … went to the top 10 percent. Incomes of the rest of us – 90 percent of America – went down.”
What’s Trumka complaining about? His wages went up – so why is he lumping himself into the “90 percent?” Trumka is great at playing toy worker and putting on fantastic “common man” dog and pony shows, but he can’t escape the fact that his wages increased – courtesy of hard-working member dues.
No wonder Trumka is such a big Obama fan. His members have been trapped on the front line in economic trench warfare battling recession while he’s been living it up in the rear. To earn what Trumka made in 2012, the average minimum wage worker on $7.25/hour would need 20 years of non-stop work. But you won’t hear Trumka talking about that at this year’s AFL-CIO convention.
This entry was posted in Big Labor Bailout, Big Labor Bosses, NLRB, Politics, Unions and tagged AFL-CIO, afl-cio convention, Barack Obama, Big Labor, Department of Labor, labor movement, los angeles, President Obama, Richard Trumka, secretary treasurer, Union Bosses, Unions, wages, White House. Bookmark the permalink.