Union bosses have been engaging in class warfare for so long now that it’s become standard for the media to echo the meme without challenge. An example of such mainstream Marxism is in today’s Bloomberg piece entitled ‘Runaway CEO Pay’ Could Support 102,000 U.S. Jobs, AFL-CIO Says. Bloomberg’s piece relies heavily on the AFL-CIO’s Executive Pay Watch, which was set up years ago to conduct a haves vs. have nots class warfare campaign to eventually have CEO pay limited by law or regulation. This was something union bosses accomplished to some degree with last year’s “Wall Street Reform.”
However disdainfully un-American it is to argue whether someone makes too much money in what was once the nation known as the land of opportunity, sometimes you have to roll with the pigs in the pigsty to show how stupid their arguments are. So here goes:
Here is the AFL-CIO’s statement:
In 2010, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index company CEOs received, on average, $11.4 million in total compensation. Based on 299 companies’ most recent pay data for 2010, their combined total CEO pay of $3.4 billion could support 102,325 median workers’ jobs.
Using a simple calculator, it is easy to determine that the “workers’ jobs” would pay $33,227 per year (about $16 per hour), not counting union dues, of course.
Given the AFL-CIO’s penchant for pushing an eat the rich ideology, it seemed worthwhile to use the unions’ own logic to run our own set of numbers to determine how many workers’ median jobs one years’ worth of union dues could support.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, there were 14.7 million union Americans belonging to unions. While that only represents 11.9 percent of all wage and salary earners, there is a substantial amount of dues money flowing to unions.
If we were to use a conservative figure of $50 per month for union dues, in 2010, unions collected $735,000,000 per month in union dues from America’s unionized workers. Multiply $735,000,000 by 12 months and you get a whopping $8,820,000,000 that was collected in union dues in 2010.
Divide $8,820,000,000 by $33,227 and you’ll find that if unions did not take union dues from workers in 2010, 265,447 workers’ jobs could have been supported.
Since union dues only go to support the salaries and benefits of union bosses, their staffs, and their golf courses, airplanes, and other costs, perhaps the argument really needs to be reversed. Rather than creating or saving jobs, given that unions do not produce a product and can actually be attributed with being masters of manipulation, buying politicians, killing companies, pushing policies that stifle growth, as well as creating huge pension and health care deficits, perhaps it’s really time to rein in union dues.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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Well Played 5^5 nt
Deskpilot (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 2:32PM EDT (link)If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can still read it in English, You’re Welcome
Deskpilot, AM(H)1 (AW), USN (Ret)
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And as we've seen every time companies or governments stop
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 2:39PM EDT (link)collecting the dues and employees have to actually write a check, the number of dues-paying members drops off dramatically.
Wasn't that part of Gov Walker's plan.
gekster (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 2:45PM EDT (link)That the state would not collect union dues for the unions anymore.
Wasn’t that part of the real gripe in the Wisconson protests..
They say Republicans are for the rich, Democrats are for the poor.
If they need more voters,
then they have to make more of who they are for.
We are there in the various Tea Party groups, leaderless, but not rudderless.
We steer always toward the Constitutional principles this nation was founded upon.
Erick Brockway
I’ve gone from
“Hope and Change” to
“Hopeless and Changeless”
Yep.
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 3:09PM EDT (link)Daniels stopped collecting dues in IN and the payments to the unions had a HUGE drop. I did a quick search but couldn’t find the numbers quickly and I’m frankly too lazy today to actually work on it.
Do unions have to disclose salaries?
Crowe (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 4:41PM EDT (link)I wonder what the actual payday for Mr. Trumka, et al. might be. And I don’t just mean the figure on their bi-weekly check or direct deposit stub: what is their total compensation? Do unions have to disclose this information? If so, do we have union bosses’ payment packages added up? $8.8 billion is a pretty sum to divvy up.
“We sleep soundly in our beds only because
rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harmDear Leader Obama gives us leave to do so.”Google is your friend Crowe...
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 4:49PM EDT (link)Trumka makes just shy of $285K. And frankly, I don’t think that’s excessive.
$285K is not excessive for a job as a progressive thug organizer?
Melody Warbington (rwm52) (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 6:21PM EDT (link)Does he have a cushy expense account as well? What about all the freebies from being wined and dined? How many hours a year does he work for that $285K?
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. (John 4:25)
I'm sure his business expenses are covered.
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 8:10PM EDT (link)And $285K to run an organization the size of the Teamsters is not at all out of line. It’s OK to not like what he – and his organization – does, but strictly in terms of organizational responsibility I don’t think his pay is at all out of line.
and Andy Stern of the SEIU makes $305K.
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 9:57PM EDT (link)Again, not out of line given the size of the organization.
It is on line...
LaborUnionReport (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 8:48PM EDT (link)http://www.unionreports.gov gives you the ability to look up any union and union local.
It’s a little difficult to navigate and it helps to know what you’re looking for in advance.
MBecker is right. Trumka is at around $285k.
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine December 23, 1776
In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.-Ayn Rand
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According to Obama, $285K is "rich" . . .
boonerdan (Diary) Tuesday, April 19th at 6:51PM EDT (link)Wait a minute. According to Obama himself, at least a recording of someone pretending to be him, $250,000 per year or more makes you rich and you need to start sacrificing more to help the “little guy”. SO, per Comradae Obama, Trumka is RICH and must be punished!
BTW, please note that Obama save $12,000 by enjoying the BUSH TAX CUTS! How are those “failed policies of the past” working out now?
UNIONS and BANKERS
sirjason (Diary) Wednesday, April 20th at 10:30AM EDT (link)WTF! When are these morons going to realise that “We the People…”already know the reasons for all this secrecy before the lies begin spewing from their collectively, corrupt mouths with permanently, attached forked tongues!
I believe all of these crises from the economic situation to the latest tragedy in the Gulf, are planned for BHO, Jr’s., socialist agenda to get the unconstitutional pork for the Banker Barons, Wall Street, et al AIG, et al, Unions, et al and all the rest coming down the pike shoved through the corrupt congress and senate…without reading the bills! Where is the ‘tar and feathers’?
The $787 billion stimulus money could have retired every American in the country with $2,623,333.00 in their banking and savings account! No company would need to be ‘Bailed Out’ or nationalized! Those companies that were failing should have been allowed to or forced into bankruptcy!
If these wealthy ‘Robber Barons’ failed they can use their own stolen money to start over and not by stealing the money from the American citizens for generations to come! Where did they get the money to start the companies that got ‘Bailed Out’…from the NOT SO Federal Reserve, of course!
Where does the NOT SO Federal Reserve get their money…they just simply print the ‘fiat money’ at no cost…loan the money to the bankers at say 1% interest, banks loan the money to business people at 3% interest and to citizens at 4% to whatever the highest interest rate possible! Credit cards, anyone? Ponzi by progressives, anyone?
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Jason Leverette, Patriot
Whatever evolves was first, created-
Semper Fidelis
It's more than that.
johnstoirvin (Diary) Wednesday, April 20th at 1:21PM EDT (link)I believe the $50 figure for union dues in the computation is way, way low. In the mid-’70′s, I had to join the Teamsters union in order to take the auto parts job I wanted. With a wage of $7.50/hr, union dues were $96/ month, 7.4% of my gross. Selfish and greedy unions, ignorant and arrogant political leadership and gas prices are leading us down the road to oblivion.