union salaries revisited

Tom Lehman uswa12 at Lorainccc.edu
Mon Mar 6 12:01:24 PST 2000


Doug--There's a considerable difference between a union like Mike Eisenscher's union that has maybe 20,000 members and a union like my USWA that has over 750,000 members. Even so, using Mike E's union criterion of only paying their international officers the top union represented industry wage. My guess is that George's salary, if limited to the highest wage in the industries represented by the USWA, would probably register less than .5 or 5/10 on the "Henwood Blotation" scale and in all probability would come in around .25 to .30.

I may have to write a convention resolution to give George a raise so we can keep up with the other unions on the "Henwood Blotation" scale. Our President deserves a raise!

Btw, if less than $43,000 dollars is the top wage in the industries represented by Mike E's union, do they write foodstamp eligibility into their contracts?
:o)

Tom

Doug Henwood wrote:


> [The other day I posted some material on union presidents' salaries,
> provided by Michael Eisenscher. Michael has expanded the list to
> include Sweeney, as well as the average earnings of the occupations
> typically represented by each union. I took those numbers and
> computed a "bloat factor" - total salary and compensation for the
> bosses divided by the average workers' salaries. Where multiple
> occupations were given, I used the highest earnings to compute the
> bloat factor, in order to appear reasonable and conservative. The
> first panel of the table includes salaries and is sorted by bloat
> factor; the second panel shows the occupations and earnings used to
> compute the bloat factor.]
>
> AFL-CIO Salaries and Benefits/Allowences for 1998
>
> compen- bloat
> union/president salary benefits sation factor
>
> LIUNA, Arthur A. Coia 335,674 86,120 421,794 15.5
> HERE, John Wilhelm 280,793 30,700 311,493 15.0
> BSOIW, Jake West 196,390 184,750 381,140 11.6
> UFCW, Douglas H. Dority 264,152 58,167 322,319 10.6
> AFSCME, Gerald McEntee 352,404 16,800 369,204 10.0
> AFT, Sandra Feldman 246,563 94,932 341,495 9.5
> UNITE, Jay Mazur 196,462 54,796 251,258 9.5
> NEA, Robert F. Chase 196,427 94,049 290,476 8.1
> UBC, Douglas J. McCarron 194,250 28,700 222,950 7.8
> IUOE, Frank Hanley 231,237 15,600 246,837 7.4
> SEIU, Andrew Stern 215,218 7,800 223,018 6.1
> AFL-CIO, John J. Sweeney 199,750 7,250 207,000 5.8
> IBEW, J.J. Barry 198,533 198,533 5.5
> IAM, R.T. Buffenbarger 142,801 57,871 200,672 5.2
> UWSA, George F. Becker 131,499 22,432 153,931 4.3
> CWA, Morton Bahr 152,762 9,556 162,318 3.9
> ALPA, Randolph Babbitt 314,995 34,000 348,995 3.8
> AFGE, Bobby L. Harnage 122,746 15,109 137,855 3.7
> UAW, Stephen P. Yokich 112,608 6,900 119,508 3.1
> UMW, Cecil Roberts 96,224 3,960 100,184 2.5
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> earnings & occupations used to compute bloat factor; where multiple
> earnings are listed, the highest was used
>
> AFSCME, Gerald McEntee 37,076 all public, including fedl.
>
> LIUNA, Arthur A. Coia 27,196 misc. construction trades
>
> ALPA, Randolph Babbitt 92,768 pilots & navigators
>
> HERE, John Wilhelm 20,800 hotel/motel
> 14,872 eating places
>
> UFCW, Douglas H. Dority 30,420 wholesale food
> 17,576 grocery stores
>
> AFT, Sandra Feldman 35,805 K-12 teachers
>
> IUOE, Frank Hanley 33,200 heavy equipment operators
>
> SEIU, Andrew Stern 36,608 registered nurses
> 33,072 all hospital workers
> 21,996 residential care
> 20,852 all social services
> 16,016 janitors
>
> AFL-CIO, John J. Sweeney 35,932 all union members
> 30,004 all workers
>
> IBEW, J.J. Barry 36,296 electricians
>
> UNITE, Jay Mazur 26,364 misc. textile mills
> 25,428 finished textiles
> 21,840 apparel
>
> NEA, Robert F. Chase 35,805 K-12 teachers
>
> BSOIW, Jake West 32,916 structural metal workers
>
> UBC, Douglas J. McCarron 28,496 carpenters
>
> CWA, Morton Bahr 41,392 telecom workers
>
> IAM, R.T. Buffenbarger 38,749 air transport
> 27,976 auto mechanics
> 47,802 aircraft mechanics
>
> UWSA, George F. Becker 36,083 iron & steel blast furnace & forges
>
> AFGE, Bobby L. Harnage 37,076 all public workers
>
> UAW, Stephen P. Yokich 38,636 motor vehicles & equipt.
>
> UMW, Cecil Roberts 40,196 coal mining
>
> * worker incomes were computed by multiplying average weekly earnings X 52;
> where several occupations were combined (i.e., teachers), weighted
> averages were computed; in most cases, occupations and in all cases
> industry figures include management and supervisors, and unless
> specified (Sweeney), include both represented and unrepresented
> employees.
>
> Source of worker earnings: Union Membership and Earnings Data Book,
> Bureau of National Affairs, 1999.



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