Why Is Big Labor 'Out of Touch' With Workers? Union Officials Making $150,000+ Tripled

Why Is Big Labor 'Out of Touch' With Workers? Union Officials Making $150,000+ Tripled

Forced-Unionism Privileges, Not Fat Paychecks, Are the Root Cause (Source: May 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) Just between 2000 and 2008 (the last year with complete data), the number of union officials and union staff members "earning more than $100,000 a year" tripled. Over the same period, the number of officers and staff "earning more than $150,000 also tripled." The review of federal union disclosure forms to derive these data, which pointedly challenge the conventional wisdom about union finances today, was performed not by the National Right to Work Committee or by an anti-union pundit, but rather by New York City-based union activist Mark Brenner. Mr. Brenner published his findings in an article appearing in the March issue of Labor Notes, a publication that strongly supports forced unionism, but is independent of the union hierarchy. Data Indicate Unionized Workers' Job Losses Don't Deplete Union Treasuries The fact that the number of union officials and staff earning high salaries "has exploded in recent years," as Mr. Brenner has demonstrated, might surprise people who get their information on labor unions from major media. Many commentators on American labor unions have spun together a myth about declining union finances from what is truly bad news only for union-"represented" workers, who are typically forced to pay union dues or "agency" fees as a condition of employment.
New NLRB Made to Order For Big Labor

New NLRB Made to Order For Big Labor

'Recess' Appointee: Workers Shouldn't Be Allowed to Reject Unions (Source: April 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) On February 9, union lawyer Craig Becker, nominated by President Obama to fill one of three vacancies on the powerful National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), turned out to be too radical even for a number of normally pro-Big Labor U.S. senators. Because of several union-label senators' defections, union lobbyists and the White House fell eight Senate votes short that day of the 60 they needed to cut off Right to Work debate and bring the Becker nomination up for final consideration. This vote was a significant victory for National Right to Work Committee members and supporters, who had led the fight against Mr. Becker since his selection was first announced last spring, and their allies. However, top union bosses were furious that, because of well-mobilized Right to Work opposition, Big Labor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had failed to ram through the Becker nomination. Almost immediately, Richard Trumka, chief of the AFL-CIO union conglomerate, publicly demanded that the President circumvent the Senate and install Craig Becker on the NLRB temporarily through a "recess" appointment. Other union bigwigs like Andy Stern, czar of the massive Service Employees International Union (SEIU), were also cheerleading for Mr. Becker. For years, Mr. Becker has served as counsel for both the SEIU union and the AFL-CIO. Craig Becker: Union Monopoly Should Be Mandated, Even if Most Workers Don't Want It And on Saturday, March 27, President Obama did the bidding of the union hierarchy by recess appointing Mr. Becker, along with the other union lawyer he has nominated to the NLRB, New Yorker Mark Pearce.