Dues Increase Goes to Officials’ Salaries and Perks

Dues Increase Goes to Officials’ Salaries and Perks:
The Big Dues Swindle
When the biggest dues increase in Teamster history was announced, officials said they would use that money to build Teamster power. But a careful analysis of union financial reports shows where a lot of the dues increase really went — to bigger salaries and more perks for some of these same officials.

Last year 270 Teamster officials made over $100,000. That was a 20 percent increase from the prior year. The dues increase went into effect in July of last year.

While our wages and benefits are under attack, certain Teamster officials are doing fine. Even better than fine — many of these fat cats are laughing all the way to the bank.

http://www.tdu.org/HoffaWatch/Dues_S...s_swindle.html

Does that surprise anyone at all?

Tdu,
What do you suppose the Teamster officials make???????Keep in mind, Shop Stewards in NY, with the dollar per man and the OT hit around 70,000.What would you pay the highest in the chain of command.Listed staring at lowest.
1.Shop Steward
2. Business Agent
3.Trustee
4 V.P.
5. President (at local level)
6.Teamster official

Just curious?????

The 2003 Edition of the $100,000 Club for
Teamster Officials

http://www.tdu.org/100KClub03.pdf

Very informative document brownshirt. I never understood personally paying the union dues. It always seemed to me that the people that needed the stewards were the ones that were causing the trouble. I understand that the stewards and union are needed to balance the company and negotiate etc, but they sure get their % of your pay.

As time went on, I saw that this was not always the case... but many times it is. Most drivers and part timers work extremely hard for their money. For the union to take a chunk out each week would be very discouraging if I did not frequently use the stewards.

<font color="ff0000">"Most drivers and part timers work extremely hard for their money. For the union to take a chunk out each week would be very discouraging if I did not frequently use the stewards."

</font><font color="0000ff">I'd hate paying for my car insurance if they hadn't been there for me when I had my near fatal car accident. I wonder if the people running the show for them are raking in $100,000.00/year???? </font>

A union free UPS = A better UPS

<font color="0000ff">OH NO here we go again. Someone call the cops because it's about to get ugly</font>.

A good way to see where the local dues dollar is going is to check your Local Union's LM2 reports on file with the DOL. One should find the years 2000-02 posted on the site. Download all the years available and check them against each other. If one performs this exercise, a trend may develop.

In my local for example, all the officers were paid raises each successive year (all 4 officers are members of the 100k club), while the net assets remained fairly stable. Over the past three years however, the local, which was a 2300 member organization in 2000, became a 2000 member organization by 2002. I'm not sure if this net loss of 300 members over the last three years is being reversed this year. It appears the extra dues revenue is being used to staunch the membership loss and to pay the officer salaries, which is a large part of the Local's overhead.

480 - I never thought of it as insurance. That's very interesting. I would still hate paying it, but if something happened and I needed them...

That a pretty good one Big-E. This is America and you have the right to voice your opinion. And guess what,so do I.Even thought that has got to be the most stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life, its your opinion. Maybe your right though, and maybe BinLaden will be president of the United States in the next election, we will never know.All I know is that if we didnt have the union, we would NOT have many people with over 15 years with the company. Why would UPS pay me close to 25.00 an hour when they could pay a new hire 9.00????Why would they pay my pension when they wouldnt have to. I could go on for hours but I wouldnt because I am sure you are part of the Managment team.Let Corporate greed take over at UPS, no way.

atanman1 ...without the union, your hourly pay scale and benefits would be slightly higher than that of the Wal-mart Greeter. Wake up!

Lets see, as a shop steward, I dont make a penny more that the person I represent. Our business agent makes $46,000 per year. The old business agent took a lot of fine trips and took some of the other members with him at the unions $$. That left the new business agent with a local that was nearly broke. So while I hate paying for something as much as the next person, I dont mind in this case. The outgoing agent should be jailed for what he did. The new guy and the local secretary have pinched pennys and we now show in the black again.

As a kicker, the outgoing administration tried to get Hoffa to fold our broke local into a larger one. So far Hoffa has declined to be pushed into that action.

d

NE Shop Steward get paid $1.00 per man per month.The average size center is 80 guys.That turns out to be 20 buck more a week.It aint much, but why is it that the stewards here get it dannyboy, and not by you? That should be some food for thought at your next local meeting.Btw, 3 of the 804 members are on the 100,000 list that some poster posted.

UPS to buy ABF?? What do you all hear?

How's the fedex unionizing going. I'm a member of the union, but haven't heard a thing about it. No one else know about the unionization of fedex in my area.

<font color="ff0000">"atanman1 ...without the union, your hourly pay scale and benefits would be slightly higher than that of the Wal-mart Greeter. Wake up!"

</font><font color="0000ff">Well that depends on whether or not she is full/time or not. If she is a part/timer then you are wrong.</font>

ROBONO- I'm not hourly. Yes the union does help with many things. I can see that better now. The only thing that frustrates me is the drivers who work very hard and have to help the ones that do the minimum amount required daily and then call in to have the guys who work their butts off go back out EVERY DAY.

I do not disagree with having union. It is a necessity in our company, like others have said, because of corporate greed. I just think a few people take MAR to an extreme and the "horses" of the company have to pull them along. That is frustrating to me... The union tends to protect the MAR drivers and (to me) works more for them than the drivers that run under every day.

To those of you who say if it weren't for the Union, UPS would not be paying the wages they do, I'm curious.

How do you explain the fact that UPS pays employees MORE than the contractual agreement?
Of course you realize I'm refering to the Bonus Plan.

Why would a company pay more than they are obligated to?

Your thoughts and views are welcome.

In Canada, only drivers are unionized while the rest of the regular employees are not. Salaries in some parts of the country vary with the average starting salary being $7.25/hour. That in my opinion is pathetic especially in today's economy. And on top of that, we get very little of new equipment to do the job effectively. I never heard of this bonus plan in Canada! According to your profile ups_vette, you were in management for 26 years. That's 26 years of incentives. From where I sit, it would seem you have it pretty good, and a hella-lot of people don't. UPS say's it takes pride in it's people. As far as I'm concened, there are a lot of UPS management takes pride in living off the sweat of others. What are thought's on this?

The rumor mill is that bonus will be cut by a % or completely in the next contract. Anyone else hear anything like that?

<font color="0000ff">The fact that UPS is paying bonuses doesn't mean that they are paying more than the contractual agreement unless you are a driver. If anything, although we did get $6.00 over 6 years, it just adds fuel to the claims that part-timers are still just the floor mats, or the mud flaps, of UPS. As a part-timer I can say that most of us would like to have seen a better "catch up raise" but instead we will have to continue to watch drivers rake in the fat cash and recieve bonuses as well. Now after finding out what union delegates are making monetarily I can't help but think, once again, that part-timers are the floor mats. We work hard and pay these outstanding dues and get less than what we deserve for it while union delegates are getting "perks"??? What a sick and twisted world we live in!! </font>

<font color="ff0000">The rumor mill is that bonus will be cut by a % or completely in the next contract. Anyone else hear anything like that? </font>
<font color="000000">Bonus is not a contractual item. The company can drop it anytime it pleases. </font>

the drivers can also drop it in their center by a simple majority vote