Monday, April 10, 2006

Are you a Union Worker? Wonder where your Dues go?

NY Post has a great article on unions and thier boses. The federal Labor Department has new laws that requires union leaders with yearly receipts of over $250,000 (about 4,500 in all) to file detailed financial reports, itemizing any outlay of $5,000 or more. This means that union members can get a close look at how thier money is being spent as the article explains:

Like the fact that Iron Workers Local 40 in New York City gave its retiring president a $52,000 Cadillac (largely dues money). Or that the Electrical Workers Local 363 spent $10,000 in "golf outing" expenses at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello.

Other expenses are merely absurd, such as the New York District Council of the Carpenters union's spending over $131,000 on T-shirts at F.A.B.Ulous Specialties, Inc., or one Musicians AFL-CIO local's investing $670,000 in a bingo parlor.

Elsewhere, one finds that the AFL-CIO spent nearly $250,000 for its 50-member executive council meeting in 2004 at the luxurious Drake Hotel in Chicago.

No comments: