Union leaders don't share their members pain

I'm proud to a union man
I make those meetings when I can, yeah
I pay my dues ahead of time
When the benefits come
I'm last in line, yeah.

Neil Young, Union Man, 1980

The problems facing the automobile industry are of course magnified in the Detroit area, where the "Big Three" are headquartered. When union members lose their jobs, that usually means fewer union members.

But when membership contracts, what about the unions themselves and specifically, their leadership?

The Detroit News takes a look, and what they found shouldn't surprise you.

During the toughest economic times for organized labor in decades, union leaders are more likely to keep their jobs and get raises than the members they serve. A Detroit News analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data revealed a growing pay divide between labor bosses and the rank and file who pay their salaries with their dues.

Michigan's biggest unions represented 60,000 fewer workers in 2006 compared with 2002. While membership plummeted 14 percent, jobs at union halls remained safe, dropping less than 1 percent.

Workers who kept their jobs saw the disparity between their paychecks and those of their union bosses grow. The pay gap between the state's 50 top-paid labor leaders and union workers has grown by $18,000 since 2002 -- an economic chasm expanding by almost $10 a day. Records supplied to the Labor Department by the unions themselves show that the state's 50 top-paid union officials now earn an average of $186,000. More than 1,000 labor officers and staffers in Michigan made more than $100,000 in 2006, more than twice as much as the average union worker.

The pay disparity is taking a financial toll on many union halls across the state. Fewer workers generate less in dues, the lifeblood of a union. With dues down and union officer pay up, a greater percentage of union budgets is going to pay labor leaders. That leaves less cash for worker protection, negotiating and organizing.

I'm hoping that a reporter asks the two Democratic candidates who've done their best to pander to organized labor, John Edwards and Barack Obama, about this story.

Today's Detroit News article is the first of a series.

Related post:

5,000 apply for Detroit area Wal-Mart jobs

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