Hopeful said:
Officer
2002 salary
2003 salary
% increase
Sonny Hall
$200,988
$210,961
4.9%
Mike Bakalo
$136,370
$144,958
6.3%
Jim Little
$141,125
$148,125
4.9%
John Orlando
$134,320
$140,982
4.9%
George Roberts
$134,320
$140,982
4.9%
Gary Yingst
$129,830
$140,982
8.6%
John Conley
$8,489
$116,644
1274.1%
Garry Drummond
$117,383
$135,782
15.7%
Joe Gordon
$55,177
$116,644
111.4%
Bob Gless
*******************no data*********************
Hell Hopeful he sent it out so lets post the whole thing!
SONNY HALL & TWU INC.
I personally believe Union officers deserve a good salary. It's ridiculous to expect them resigned to a life of destitute. Union office is undoubtedly 1 of the most difficult jobs in America & people leading a Labor Organization should be duly compensated. This being said, Union leaders must never redirect their energies away from serving their workgroups.
The revenue for operating a Union comes from the pay of workers. Pay that in our case scarcely provides a decent living and sometimes less than that. You'll recall during the 1995 contract the TWU actually negotiated minimum wage salaries for the fleet svc workgroup at AA. However, the salaries of the TWU leadership soared to the levels of society's elite.
GREED IS BAD
The high salaries of TWU officers parallel the recent Wall St sandals. Everything our Intl Pres, Sonny Hall, preaches about corporate excesses applies to him & his minions. Workers wonder how Union leaders can understand their plight while making so much money. This leads to an overall mistrust of the Union.
Lavish salaries become a powerful incentive for the TWU leadership to serve itself rather than us. The devastating 2003 concessions cut our salaries at AA by double digits. Yet, during this same period the wages of the leadership skyrocketed. The chart below documents the FY2002 & FY2003 salaries of the TWU Intl President & all the ATD officers & reps.
Officer
2002 salary
2003 salary
% increase
Sonny Hall
$200,988
$210,961
4.9%
Mike Bakalo
$136,370
$144,958
6.3%
Jim Little
$141,125
$148,125
4.9%
John Orlando
$134,320
$140,982
4.9%
George Roberts
$134,320
$140,982
4.9%
Gary Yingst
$129,830
$140,982
8.6%
John Conley
$8,489
$116,644
1274.1%
Garry Drummond
$117,383
$135,782
15.7%
Joe Gordon
$55,177
$116,644
111.4%
Bob Gless
*******************no data*********************
Not 1 of the individuals above were elected to their current positions by the membership. They are part of an exclusive club which shower themselves with Union funds & then decide who's allowed in. In the case of Gordon & Gless, they were unelectable by their own Local memberships. Yet, both these outcasts were appointed to positions in this club, more commonly known as the Intl Union.
DEMOCRACY DENIED
The TWU hierarchy needs obedient people in its infrastructure for the pretext of democracy. Isn't it peculiar how the IEC always votes unanimously? The US Congress & the Supreme Court never vote unanimously, but the IEC does. It's easy to explain when you realize there are large sums of money up for grab to buy loyalty. In their quest to profit from Union office, they abandon basic Unionism. There's virtually no difference between the TWU leadership & the AMR compensation committee. Both horde money at the expense of governance. For the purpose of protecting 6-digit salaries, the TWU Constitution was crafted for the leadership, by the leadership, & to the leadership.
The corruptive influence of money has trickled down to the Locals. Local officers often align themselves with the Intl Union in hopes of securing cozy jobs. Last year, nearly the entire AA Presidents Council submitted to tactics eerily reminiscent of McCarthyism. Witch hunts were launched by the Intl Union to remove & intimidate independent-thinking Local officers. The opportunists of the council signed off on the witch hunts. We, in NY, lost 2 excellent officers as a consequence.
THE INJUSTICE
The salaries of the officers listed above DOESN'T include a category called "other disbursements." In 2003, the TWU paid out $146,227 in "other disbursements." These payments aren't defined, but I assume are some sort of personal compensation in addition to their regular salaries. John Kerrigan, for instance, received a handsome $13,129 in "other disbursements." Not bad for an officer who reports to work a couple of days a week. The TWU also dishes out "disbursements for official business." I wonder what "official business" Intl rep Gary Maslanka bought with $26,335 of our dues??? Regrettable, we don't have the right to know.
The TWU expends a lot of muscle fighting the Dept of Labor's attempts to increase disclosure of Union finances. This scrutiny is unwelcome by the TWU because it might jeopardize their perks. Sonny Hall & Jim Little don't want you to know the extent of their benefits package. Especially after they were the patron saints of give-backs.
The injustice of hefty salaries isn't just the picture of officers showering themselves with dues from struggling workers, but the kind of Union leadership created by big money. The profiteers managing the TWU promoted & submitted to the worst concessions imaginable. However, not 1 of them had an intention of participating in Don Carty's twisted version of "shared sacrifice."
The TWU relented on every company proposal for concessions except for 1. What did Union negotiators vigorously fight to keep intact??? Would you believe "company paid Union business," which amounts to $3.1 million annually!!! Clearly, with these payments to Union officers the hierarchy had their interest ahead of ours. AA was all too accommodating since the $3.1 million was a form of extortion to pass the concessions. This explains the TWU's urgency to ratify.
THE BUSINESS OF UNIONISM
What we have is a Union with a corporate mentality. Concessions & stagnant wages posed a challenge to grow the TWU's bottom line. Those of us accustomed to the neglect of representation can only marvel at the decisiveness & skill employed to tackled the monetary shortfalls. Dues revenues climbed 7.4% to over $17 million in FY2003, while the total intake of cash surged 16.1% to $79 million. Our officers then divvied out money to each other as though TWU Inc just made the Fortune 500.
As I stated earlier, I don't resent a well paid leadership if they represent the membership properly. 'IF' being the operative word. Big money has infiltrated our Union, & representation isn't on the agenda. Sonny Hall & his minions presided over our devastating pay-cuts. The TWU's largest workgroup, the MTA in NYC, also hasn't seen real increases in income. By contrast, the TWU leadership are amongst the nation's elite wage earners, & they grant themselves raises that outpace inflation. The officers of the TWU aren't inherently evil, but they are inherently human. Big money will corrupt the well-intentioned.
All the statistics used here originate from mandatory financial disclosures to the Dept of Labor. These disclosures, known as LM-2's, are filed annually by the TWU & can be found in the DoL's web-site:
http://union-reports.dol.gov/olmsWeb/docs/formspg.html
G Santos
Member-in-Good Standing
Air Transport Local 562
