SEIU, Fighting for ‘Living’ Wages, Enjoys Some Nice Standards of Living
by CampaignsReport
As part of our ongoing research effort into the smear-campaign conducted against Sodexo, we recently came accross a – sizeable – bit of information that might be of interest to all party in this affair. It so happens that there is an online record of all financial activities at the SEIU. While it would be a laudable step towards transparency if it could be found anywhere else than on a federal website, it does have the merit of telling us a bit more about SEIU than its official communication – for which it spends hefty sums – will let you believe. Of course we’ve taken upon us to share that information with you and it is sure to be a recurring topic in the coming days.
In light of the information present in these documents, it appears quite amusing that among the many, more or less founded, accusations leveled against Sodexo, one stands first and foremost, the alleged “poverty wages” the company pays. Note that neither SEIU nor USAS ever said Sodexo was paying its workers under the legal minimum-wage, because that would be wrong. No, the rethorical trick here is to give the illusion that Sodexo workers are being paid sub-standards wages when, in fact, they receive wages equal or superior to the legal minimum.
Well then, it’s certainly not so bad of SEIU and puppet-organization USAS to try and promote higher wages for Sodexo Employees, is it? Of course it isn’t, and we’re pretty sure Sodexo workers wouldn’t mind a few more bucks at the end of the month – unless it costs them their jobs. Yet, where it gets funny is when one looks at the “living wages” being paid at SEIU’s headquarters.
It surely doesn’t hurt to get a taste of your own medicine once in a while and SEIU surely likes the medicine it’s been trying to administer Sodexo workers. One might say the union has perhaps been over-indulging a bit too much. Indeed, if we look at salaries paid at SEIU’s head, those surely are “living” wages. Before he resigned, Andy Stern made $128,000 – not that shocking you might say -but wait, he resigned on April so that’s just four months as president, and that’s not counting with his controversial expense account and side financial activities. Yet even secretary Anna Burger now makes more than him at $180,345 a year. Even Executive Board Member Stephen Lerner – yes that guy who wanted to blow-up Wall-Street – used to make $165,498 a year.
But that’s really nothing compared to what actual president Mary Kay Henry takes home every year. She might be more forthright towards her expense account but she balances that with a nice $253,000 salary. That’s over 30,666 hours of federal minimum wage she earns per year. Of course a year only has 8,760 hours, so to make the same salary with a minimum wage working ten hours per day, Mary Kay Henry would have to work eight and a half years, and that’s not counting week-ends and holidays. No wonder the SEIU is so prone on raising workers’ wages.
But that may not even be the most surprising. If we take a look at the union’s “officers”, there are roughly ninety of them. More than half of them don’t get a salary – other than the occasional reimbursed expenses – yet the grand total of those officers still incur a $3,625,469 yearly disbursement for the union. Of course that seems meager compared to the $54,9 millions incurred by employee salaries, but we’re talking of a handful of people versus hundreds of employees.
Needless to say, those “very-good-living” wages are paid entirely by the sympathetic 2,151,379 fee payers SEIU counts within its ranks. Each of those fee payers being generally workers getting paid close to minimum wage. Yet, they all patientely ship in, each month, a sizeable part of their salary, so that SEIU officials can maintain a decent standard of living while promoting higher wages for everybody.
[Note: We are currently in the process of generating a comprehensive compilation of SEIU's finances, meanwhile you can find all information used in this post on the website of the department of labor. Enter "000-137" (no quotation marks needed) in the "File Number" field, submit, then select "2010 Fiscal Report". This post will be edited as soon as we're able to provide direct links]
Find more at Campains Report!
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
31 Comments
Well, 253,000 a year is a decent salary. Though how much do the normal workers get paid again? Why anyone buys into these thug unions is a mystery.
Also, there's no way the lady in the picture is SEIU. She would need to be at least 3 to 4 times… wider.
Ah, yes: Pinkie-ring-wearing union mafiosi living like feudal lords of the manor on six-figure salaries, all supported by people making 12 or 14 bucks an hour. And these clowns have the temerity to call bankers greedy?
Let's start a campaign: Every time you think of typing the word "hypocrite," type "SEIU" instead. It's easy! Just look at this example: "Uuhhhbama, the King of All the Fools, is a real SEIU."
Doublethink, thy name is regressive.
The more membership heres of thees things i am more hopeful that i am that SEIU will be it's own downfall…
Now, now.
I can make a case for the nice wages of the top floor over at the SEIU (and it's subsidaries):
In order to get folks who have the tools set and skills that their leaders have, the SEIU must compensate them at a level that will attract them to not only come, but to stay. Certainly, in the average field office, where the skill set is not as intricate and it is easier to find willing and qualified people to work, salaries are more 'working class'…….
….ummm, ooops…..that sounds a lot like how corporate America works…ummm….but this is the SEIU….how could that be???
Those few at the top reap the benefits of the many, sound similar to organization running our country.
Because they have all the morals of the Lucchese, Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Colombo families, that's how. When you start out as a leg breaker, the transition to the corner office of a major national union is a piece of cake for made men like these goons.
Like every single Progressive issue, their actions are a contradiction to what they profess.
'We hate the MARKET'!
But they engage in market based compensation. LOL.
Who the hell is dumb enought to hitch their wagon to this train? OOOOPS, I shouldn't have asked!
Around my area, if you see guys riding Harley Davidsons or big Ford dually trucks with aftermarket chrome, you can be pretty sure they're in a union job. In my area, it takes at least two incomes just to be able to afford a small home. If you want a NICE home, and expensive toys, you need to be in the union.
It sounds similar to EVERY organization.
The reality is, there is NOTHING corrupt about it, as long as the organization is compensating its workers a legal wage.
The market dictates the salaries. Not fair, and socially unjust, I'm sure…..but, it seems to have gotten us pretty damned far.
Hmm how come Marxists don't actually read Marx. Marx clearly states that JUST LIKE an employer cannot make a profit NEITHER CAN THE WORKER. So no worker can make more than they require to live on. That is the definition of poverty. All a worker is is a business employing the labor of one person. There is no proletariat or bourgeoisie.
A living wage is NOT poverty. A living wage is PROFIT, a clear violation of Marxism.
Since these idiots take their wages from the backs of hardworking unioners, I have to laugh my ass off.
Fat Cat Unionistas! Yep I know I am a dirty no good tea bagging racist.
If we could recover from the damage it would be good to let the Democrats and their communist comrades in the unions to have the world the way they, "claim they want it", and after it proves to be a repeat of what they did to Detroit all across the country we could bulldoze them into the heap of history, if only we could recover from it. It no doubt is going to happen, we just won't recover. Until then keep the powder dry and keep your stick on the ice.
Better pay and less work, I can dig it.
If some can negotiate their pay and a organizations willing to pay as far as I am concerned that is between them.
But how much does the market actually dictate the wages made by the govt and Union Heads?
I a all for free marks and for people being compensated appropriately for their hard work.
Market influence on the govt wage and Union head wage is dependent on whether their is someone else out htere looking to hire them (meaning experience and skill set).
My problems with government wages aren't so much that 'executives' make what they make….its that the 'floor sweepers' make more and get better benefits than their private counterparts.
And as far as union heads salaries….if the dummies that pay union dues are willing to let their executives pay each other big salaries…why should I care? If they don't have the balls to do something about, they get no sympathy from me. I hope the Union heads take as much money as they can from the unions. Maybe eventually some shop steward somewhere will wake up to it.
This is nearly $40,300 per officer. Let’s make a couple of dozen cockroaches scatter, shall we?
Twelve executives received a total of $2,432,944 in salary and expense reimbursements, and all but one of them is well into six figures:
• Mitchell Ackerman, executive vice president: $297,133
• Anna Burger, international secretary-treasurer: $180,345
• George Francisco Jr., F O International president: $187,976
• Mary Kay Henry, international president: $253,660
• Dennis Rivera, vice president: $123,532
• Gerald Hudson, executive vice president: $224,732
• Eliseo Medina, international secretary-treasurer: $250,373
• David Regan, executive vice president: $298,647
• Andrew Stern, international president: $180,770
• Thomas Woodruff, executive vice president: $216,168
• Leslie Frane, vice president: $53,442
• Thomas DeBruin, vice president: $166,166
It looks like a list of vice presidents at your average bank, right down to the obligatory Affirmative Action hire or two, doesn’t it?
Here’s where the report starts getting… interesting: Like all but one of the executives, seven directors are in the Six-Digit Club. Not a few of them make even better money than many of the executive vice presidents. An eighth makes about $75,000. They are:
• Kirk Adams: $199,847
• Bill Lloyd: $182,092
• Eileen Kurlin: $167,309
• Stephen Lerner: $165,498
• Deborah Schneider: $156,763
• Norman Yen: $137,386
• Toni Lewis: $110,486
• Laphonza Butler, $74,604
That’s another $1,193,988 in salary and “expenses” – almost $150,000 per director. What do you want to bet that showing up at the office isn’t a requirement for holding these “good jobs at good pay?”
On to the next rung down the SEIU caste system: Twenty more directors together collected $50,890, averaging a bit more than $2,500 apiece. These people apparently had the temerity to file honest expense reports. The rest of the union goons undoubtedly call them “suckers.”
That leaves 50 officers who together collected zip, nada, nothing for their service to the union cause. I call them “the Untouchables.” They’re walking, talking, breathing proof of the old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
When will the regular (non-union) taxpayers get the respect WE deserve? Our POS government takes our money, not to run the country, but to further their agenda, while supporting unions which strong arm companies and put them out of business. You want worker protection? We do have minimum wage laws. Better yet, this is America, get and education, or work hard and succeed! I know many high school graduates that started out at minimum wage and now make a good living, have nice cars, houses and families. All you have to do is GET OFF YOUR AZZ!
Obama Worshipers Full of Blissful Ignorance 4-28-10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV_JipDEdTw&fe...
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." George Washington
In case anyone missed this:
SEIU goes full Commie at SEIU-sponsored May Day rally event in Los Angeles. http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2011/05/06/seiu-dr....
Obama on video: "SEIUs Agenda is My Agenda!".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1NJaCtIkM
Substitute the word SEIU everytime you want to type a banned word. Building on Baroke Owebama's plan.
I know someone who worked part time at a large grocery chain store in Chicago area who made $8.75 per hour for part time work with a minimum of 14 hours per week. Her initiation fee to get in the union was $125 (13.5 hours of work) and dues of $29 (3.3 hours of work ) per month. these amounts are a TON of money and hours for someone who makes $8.75 per hour. Its all about the dues, huge salaries paid to relatives and special treatment under the law to protect Unions and keep the dues gravy train coming in. Business has 1 set of reporting rules and union another, like none.
The purpose of the Union is to provide salaries to employees of the Union.
it should be voluntary to join a union, you must be required to go to HR office to ask for a joining form and each month you pay your dues via a check to the union office. no direct deposit no automatic removal from salary or wages, you have to do it yourself.
In return you are given a pie chart each month with how a dollar is spent eg 36 cents on union salaries, 24 cents on union expenses and 40 cents directly or indirectly to the democrat party
Well, these guys are providing a great service to the rank and file union member. If they can institute this nationally via our gov't they will benevolently be enabled to provide these services to the masses. Their compensation would be justly earned as they will have provided utopia at no extra cost, except for our freedom, but that's the price we owe them for being so wonderful.
/sarc
…wearing Spandex.
What's with this "living wage?" It makes no sense at all. There are jobs for teenagers, students, retirees, housewives wanting pocket money, serious career people and dumb asses that don't know much of anything. Take a job accordingly.
Here is a question I want to know. Exactly how much in Union dues do the members of SEIU pay each year? Is there a Union for working in a Union? Are they exempt?
nice job…
We all know how these UNION SCUMBAGS like stern and lerner work. Do as I say, not as I do! It's the IGNORANT SHEEP that give these SCUMBAGS their power. One more reason why they like to keep their sheep IGNORANT!
Baroke Owebama great work! As with other methods of Union management lets see how many of the SEIU execs pull salaries, wages, benefits and other forms of income from affiliated organizations. It would not suprise me if Andy Stern gets several checks per month for his activities from his "local" and other unions, foundations and others. Even more informative would be a listing of their lobbying expenses, after all when Andy is visiting his pal in the White House I am sure that he is also in town spreading the Union's wealth around for sympathetic votes and/or nice regulations to punish the firms his unions is sucking dry. Does Andy get a private jet for his visits? Does Andy get the cheap rooms at Motel6 or is the Mayflower? Taxi or Limo? How close is the Burger King to the Mayflower anyway?
You must be logged in to post a comment.