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Teamsters turnkeys leave door open for criticism in prison row
The Buffalo News reported today on….wow….how prison guards in Teamster-officiated areas just walked away from their posts, leaving prisoners unattended. Take a look: State inspectors in a recent report describe the Erie County penitentiary as a management-challenged prison where deputies abandon their posts, legitimate inmate grievances go nowhere, and would-be reforms move slowly. Commission of Correction [more...]

Posted Fri, 20 Nov 2009 .

New York Times to Unite Here: You are nasty, brutish, and short
In an article entitled “Some Organizers Protest Their Union’s Tactics,”Steven Greenhouse looks at a disgusting organizing practice known as “pink sheeting.” The title would be perfect but for the “Some” caveat that the paper feels is necessary to include. Don’t worry, New York Times, we get the fact its not EVERY labor organizer. Just more of [more...]

Posted Thu, 19 Nov 2009 .

 Read more at LaborPains.org

Union Profile

2005  |  2006
Basic Facts
[click on the text below for more detailed information]
Total Assets: $ 149,534,747 
Members: 1,304,061 
Employees: 494 
Employees earning over $75,000: 135 
ULPs Filed Since 2000: 2,031 
Decertification Petitions Filed: 300 
United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW)
National Headquarters
1775 K STREET NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20006


The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) represents approximately 1.3 million U.S. employees in industries ranging from meatpacking and food processing to manufacturing and retail grocers. In July 2005, it broke away from the AFL-CIO to join the new Change To Win labor coalition.

Striking Out For Its Members

In 2004, UFCW leaders led 60,000 members in a disastrous strike against southern California grocery chains. UFCW members collectively lost 4.58 million days of work, with terrible consequences for workers. The environmental publication High Country News described it as "a brutal strike that cost millions in lost wages, and resulted in broken marriages, lost homes and cars, and even suicides." Even then, the publication noted, when the strike was settled, "some workers have had their wages and benefits slashed."

Pro-Member Or Just Anti-Business?

"If we can't organize [nonunion supermarkets]," says Tom McNutt, president of Local 400 of the UFCW, "the best thing to do is to erode their business as much as possible." This is the slash-and-burn theory driving UFCW's political-style PR offensive against Wal-Mart. Because the union has failed to organize workers at the chain, its leaders want to harm the company's bottom line and its employees.

"Organizing is war," according to longtime UFCW leader Joe Crump, and that means harassing nonunion employers and "costing them enough time and energy and money to either eliminate them or get them to surrender to the union." He added that employers must be made to "pay for operating nonunion." In an article titled "The Pressure is On: Organizing Without the NLRB," Crump wrote:

After a three-year struggle, the battle with Family Foods is over. Do we represent the employees? No. The company went out of business ... Perhaps even more important is the message that had been sent to nonunion competitors: There is no "free lunch" in our jurisdiction.

Speaking about the same campaign, former UFCW president Doug Dority argued that his union "must either reduce these chains' market share ... or we must put them out of business. There is no other option."

UFCW's Well-Funded Officers

In 2004, a longtime leader of UFCW Local 1776 said, "I think salaries are a problem. They're too low for too many people, but too high for a few." That same year:

  • The International union headquarters paid former president Doug Dority more than $700,000 in salary and benefits.

  • The International paid $309,000 to retired executive vice president Sarah Amos and another $256,000 to retired International executive vice president Michael Leonard -- again, as salary.

  • 262 UFCW officials across the country made more than $100,000 in salary.

Historical Low Points

UFCW leaders have faced allegations of extorting businesses and misusing their members' dues for lavish lifestyles:

  • In late 2005, the former assistant to the president of UFCW International, Joseph DiFlumera, was sentenced for mail fraud, racketeering, and extorting more than $1.5 million from a grocery chain. DiFlumera told prosecutors that he would offer an "insurance policy" that allowed a company to "come under the umbrella" of protection from union organizing. DiFlumera "repeatedly advised these individuals that the monies paid to him were handed over to the president of Local 1445 and the UFCW. The defendant insisted that if these monies were not paid by the company the company would suffer extreme economic harm."

  • Former UFCW International secretary-treasurer Joseph Talarico pled guilty to his role in embezzling $2 million from Local 1. He was ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution. In related indictments for defrauding UFCW, his son was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to repay $81,000 in embezzled funds; his daughter was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to repay $26,000; and his brother pled guilty to embezzling $650,000 from the union. Together, the four family members made more than $1 million in salaries from the local in 1996.

  • In 1993, Newsday reported that UFCW founder William Wynn traveled in a $5 million union-owned jet plane and sold his house to the union for $620,000 (nearly twice the appraised price) -- and continued to live there for at least three years. The paper reported that in addition to Wynn's salary of $263,000 ($346,000 adjusted for inflation), he was reimbursed for $80,000 in expenses the previous year. It further noted that a reformer seeking to unseat Wynn "said that Wynn's salary and perks are a disgrace when put in the context of the incomes of the workers he represents" and had research that showed "Wynn's salary rose 122 percent from 1980 to 1992, while the average meat packing worker's wages went up 3 percent over that period."



Membership
Total Membership:   1,304,061




Financial Information
Total Assets:  $ 149,534,747
Total Receipts:  $ 215,614,352



Source: Department of Labor, Office of Labor Management Standards LM filings

Financial Disbursements
 Search Financial
 Disbursement Records


 

 

  search this union search all 
Representational Activities ( 26.9%) $ 47,869,112 more detailed information
Political Activities & Lobbying ( 2.6%) $ 4,677,649 more detailed information
Contributions, Gifts & Grants ( 1.6%) $ 2,835,741 more detailed information
General Overhead ( 11.5%) $ 20,450,824 more detailed information
Union Administration ( 4.3%) $ 7,659,410 more detailed information
Strike Benefits ( 0.8%) $ 1,444,642  
Total Compensation ( 15.1%) $ 26,968,627 
Per Capita Tax ( 5.7%) $ 10,080,400  
Source: Department of Labor, Office of Labor Management Standards LM filings


Locals & Other Affiliated Organizations
Top 10 Locals (by Members)
Local Members
UFCW Regional Council 8 (Buena Park, CA) 190,908
UFCW District Council (Little Falls, NJ) 115,407
UFCW Council (Grapevine, TX) 84,743
UFCW Regional Council 6 (Itasca, IL) 58,657
UFCW Local 881 (Rosemont, IL) 32,258
UFCW Local 1262 (Clifton, NJ) 31,800
UFCW Local 400 (Landover, MD) 28,966
UFCW Council (Indianapolis, IN) 28,494
UFCW Local 1546 (Chicago, IL) 26,763
UFCW Local 770 (Los Angeles, CA) 24,535
[show all locals & affiliates]
Source: Department of Labor, Office of Labor Management Standards LM filings

Leadership
Top 10 International UFCW Leaders & Staff (by Salary)
Name Title   Total Compensation
Joseph Hansen   International President     $ 345,426
Emps Under $10,000   Employees     $ 307,447
Michael Fraser   Retired Spec Asst     $ 302,454
Anthony Perrone   Intl Secretary-treas     $ 276,656
Alvin Vincent Jr.   Intl Vice President     $ 267,685
William Mcdonough   Executive Vice President     $ 264,659
Patrick O'neill   Executive Vice President     $ 254,954
Warren Barclay   Intl Vice President     $ 246,812
Mark Lauritsen   Intl Vice President     $ 244,799
Chad Young   Regional Director     $ 240,018
[show all officers & salaries]

Source: Department of Labor, Office of Labor Management Standards LM filings
UnionFacts.com is committed to 100% accuracy. Please contact us with factual corrections & comments.

Political Money
527 Money
In most cases, unions use 527 organizations to make unlimited "soft money" donations to campaigns or candidates they support. Unlike PACs, 527 organizations do not coordinate with specific candidates, and as a result, are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission.

Total Affiliated 527 Receipts:  $ 1,107,577
Total Affiliated 527 Disbursements:  $ 1,088,220


[show all funds]
Source: Internal Revenue Service 527 electronic form 8872 filings

Lobbying Money
Unions often employ lobbyists to influence legislation in their favor. The amount below represents total lobbying expenditures reported to the Senate. It does not represent the total amount spent lobbying federal, state, and local officials.

Total Senate Lobbying Expenditures: $ 3,320,000
(from 1998 to 2005)
[show all lobbying expenditures]

Source: Senate Lobbying Disclosure Records

Unfair Labor Practices

The National Labor Relations Board investigates instances of union violations of the National Labor Relations Act and other labor laws. Unfair Labor Practices include instances of bad faith bargaining, excessive dues, violence, threats and many other violations.


Unionization Elections
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) oversees union representation elections, or "R Cases." To call an election, 30 percent of affected employees are required to sign a petition for an election. Elections can be used to both certify and decertify union representation. Increasingly, unions are avoiding the NLRB election process, instead opting for "Card Check" unionization.

Decertification Elections
Union members unhappy with their current union can opt to decertify it as their exclusive bargaining representative. These are known as "RD" cases.

Decertification Petitions Filed: 300
[see decertifications]

Source: National Labor Relations Board's Case Activity Tracking (CATS) database

Elections Records
Despite the commonly held belief that most workers would like to join a union, union representation elections—also known as "RC Cases"—often fail.

Certification Elections since 2000