Members for Democracy Archive

Reading this UFCW press release got me going. For everyone that ever retired from organized labor there seems to be this undieing praise for a job well done. What's so damn tricky is if we (myself included) all did such a great job, why are we in such a pile of shit? There is a disconnect there.

This is such an old tacky tactic i just wanna puke every time i see a local play the game:

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The Executive Board of UFCW Local 1977 elected Scott Penner as the Local's new President following Brian Williamson's retirement. Al McLean was elected Secretary-Treasurer to fill the vacancy left by Penner's election. Both will serve out the balance of the four-year term of office ending in 2008.

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I hate when a president runs and then steps down and hands the office off to his hand-picked guy: It just says so little about democracy. However even more intriguing was the quote regarding filling the balance of the four year term.

It sent me searching and i found the lastest edition of the UFCW Constitution. I knew we were limited to terms of three years in the USA so i wanted to see what the bible said about it. Here's chapter and verse:

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(B) The constitutional officers of the Local Union shall be elected as provided in Article 35(C); and unless otherwise provided in the Local Union's bylaws, the term of all offices shall be three years. In the event applicable law allows a term longer than three years, the Local Union may amend its bylaws to provide for such longer term. Bylaw amendments establishing terms of office shall be effective following the next election after their adoption.

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Interesting, because this is a version of the Constitution from a Canadian website with the Maple Leaf emblazoned across the top. Apparently Canadian law allows for four year terms and this local saw fit to adopt that; or just decided they would have longer terms on their own.

It also gave me pause to take a look at the revenue portion of the UFCW International. I received an email from an old friend who told me the International will increase the payroll tax on locals to 3%. This was a creation that someone in DC invented a couple of years back.

They arbitrarily sent out a missive stating there would be a new 1% tax on total payrolls from each local. In essence a large local with a million dollar payroll would have to pay an additional $10,000 to the International. Since its inception 4 years ago it has been increased and that same local will now pay an extra $30,000.

As long as we are having fun with numbers, i took the liberty of dredging up the percap section of the constitution. In honor of Brian's retirement and Scott's promotion, i thought this piece would make for good reading:

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3. From a monthly per capita tax payable by Local Unions on each active, affiliated, and nonactive member, based upon the membership on the last day of each month. For the period from July, 2003 through November, 2003, such per capita tax shall be in the amount of $9.54. For the period from December, 2003 through November, 2004, such per capita tax shall be in the amount of $10.54. For the period from December, 2004 through November, 2005, such per capita tax shall be in the amount of $11.04. For the period beginning December, 2005, such per capita tax shall be in the amount of $11.54;

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As you can see, the International effective next month, is able to increase the percap to $11.54 per month on each member. Using this medium sized local with 8500 members, here are the stats: $11.54 x 8500 x 12 months = $1,170,080. That's right gang, UFCW local 1997 will ship off to DC nearly 1.2 million dollars in percap. There's other fees and other percaps to additional orgs, but whats another hundred thousand among friends?

The good news was, the UFCW saw fit to insure their ability to fight the concessionary contracts they have been facing and said this:

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(B) From the monthly per capita tax on each member, $1.00 shall be allocated to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union strike and defense fund.

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That's a good thing; unfortunately they added this gem:

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If the assets of the strike and defense fund exceed $30 million, the International Executive
Committee shall have the authority to transfer any or all of the excess to another fund of the International Union.

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Even with all of the built in and voted on increases the boys weren't about to get caught with their pants down when it came to the officers and staff benefits plans, they said this:

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Additionally, the International Executive
Board shall also have the authority, following consultation with its professional advisers, to increase such per capita tax, beginning with
the month of January, 2004, by such amounts as it deems necessary to fund any increases after July1, 1998, in the costs of the plans provided for in Articles 27 and 28 of this Constitution;

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Anyway, thanks for the report Johnny, it did make me wanna take this trip down memory lane. Always fun to see what goes on away from the maddening crowd and behind the scenes. Sadly, we never seem to get the rest of the story, the boys are too busy patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

So good ol Brian is packing it in? Not really. He'll continue to sponge off the members for the rest of his natural life through his lucrative severance and pension entitlements. Don't these swine get something like 18 months of severance when they retire - I think they do thanks to Brian himself who facilitated this benefit improvement for Cliff's chosen boys a few years ago.

Brian's great contributions to organized labour will live forever on the Internet thanks to his induction into The Trough a few years back. (Feel free to mess with his picture on page 2 of the Trough piece.)

His remarkable feats of self-serving and pocket-lining will make him a tough act for his hand-picked replacement to follow, but I'm sure Scotty will do his best.

Oh sure it's still in place. Hey, the fat cats fought hard for those perks. They fought the members, the fought the media, they fought long and hard - like you've never seen them fight for anything before or since. You don't expect them to give up their hard-won gains now do you?

What happened was sometime in 2000, Williamson commissioned great Canadian UFCW pooh-bah Cliff Evans to conduct a survey of salaries and perks of officials in other UFCW locals and make recommendations about what would be fair for the troughers at Local 1977.

The best that I can make of it was that the 1977 porkers had gotten wind of what some of the larger swine in other locals were pulling in and wanted equitable treatment. Fearful that the members might not see it their way, they commissioned the Cliff-god to say "they deserve it". (I'm sure he was rewarded handsomely for his hard work too.)

But Cliff-god's blessing wasn't good enough for the members. When the word got out, the members went ballistic. The story even made the local newspapers in Kitchener and Toronto for a while.

Rather than backing off in the face of the furor, the fat idiots actually defended their decisions. They even commissioned an "independent review" by a semi-fossilized arbitrator of the Cliff-gods survey (which predictably found that it was "fair and reasonable").

I think I still have copies of the independent review and maybe even the Cliff-god report floating around somewhere. I'll try to dig them up and maybe we can post them.

Staff and Officers Pension 101:
Since the earliest days of my involvement with the UFCW i was outspoken about salaries for staff and officers. As a member, steward and e-board member i expressed the importance of keeping them "in-line" with what members were making. Once a rep, secretary treasurer and finally president, i maintained that same posture.

There was a reason, and plain and simple was the very generous benefit package that went with the job. It was far better than anything our members had. The boys in Washington had created this marvelous retirement package and they knew by allowing locals to participate they could control them...insure the percapita would flow forever.

The thing was, the costs of the plan had no safeguards. There were those out there who knew, who understood benefits plans and yet just didn't care enough to stop it...hell they joined the crowd in the feeding frenzy. They insured they would get theirs, even if it meant the demise of the union.

This is one of the reasons i get so angry. Their blatant greed will cause the collapse of what once was a very good organization. They did it assuming members would never find out. Virtually all of us on the inside were supposed to keep our mouths shut and just take the money. The fact is, the members have a right to know...they did when i was president, and they still do know. Simply put, if you are ashamed of what you are doing and trying to hide it, you shouldn't be doing it.

So's here's the deal and brother Williams is the perfect candidate as a case study. The increases he and others got like this will help cause the UFCW to collpase from within. Sadly as regional directors led the charge to make sure the local leaders got theirs, they were pissing in the faces of members and their futures.

I will simplify the basics of our plan, because if we go in depth of how it worked it gets even worse. If staff and officers elected to participate, they paid in 5% of their salary. They did so for the first twenty years of their employment with the international or for a local. After that, the payments stopped, but the benefit accrual continued but at a reduced rate.

In the late 90's some of the boys realised the plan was in trouble. They had made some terrible investments and that coupled with large numbers of early retirements and massive increases by local union leaders forced them to change the plan.

The new structure had all participants paying 4% for their entire working career. That meant some of the boys (those with more than 20 years) would have to start paying again. Imagine the angst as guys like Dority making $300,000 plus was being told he would have to cough up better than $12,000 a year. Not to worry, they crafted an awesome gimic to soften the blow for the poor boys and granted a subsidy to help cover a portion of it for the next three years.

I hope you've stayed with me, because this is where it gets good: The benefit accrual under our retirement plan is as follows: First twenty years = 50% of salary. Next ten years 2% per year. Remaining years 1% per year. For those of you mathematically challenged, a 20 year staffer or officer would receive 50%; 25 years would get 60%; thirty years 70%; and a 35 year guy would get 75%.

Best of all, our retirement was a high four. The lucky buggar's retirement was based on his/her high four years of employment. Unlike members pensions, ours could be manipulated by juicing an officers pension the last years of employment, and boy did they. I have stats from all across the US where the boys dove in face first and fed like pigs.

Lets look at what the 1977 e-board did. The timing was perfect for brother Brian. He's continued working the required 4 years to get his high four. Without any increases since the article (any bets on that happening?), his high four will be at least $118,300. For simplicity, lets say he has averaged $120,000.

During that time period, he has had to pay in 4% each year. Roughly we are talking about him contributing just under $20,000 over that four year period to the international. Sounds like a lot, but here's the kicker. If he is just a 20 year guy, 50% of his salary will get him a pension valued at $60,000 a year. With each additional year of service the numbers get far worse.

Now take a look back at the impact of this increase. Had the e-board given him normal raises his high four arguably would have been around $80,000. His international pension after 20 years of service would have been $40,000 a year. Their generosity will haunt them forever.

As long as Brian is still alive and kicking (or a spouse) he will be collecting an inflated retirement, based on the boards (actually Cliff''s)recommendation. That $46,000 increase he got while working is worth a minimum of an additional $23,000 a year for the rest of his life after retiring. Worst of all, he paid peanuts to get it. Hell, 4% on the $46 thousand over 4 years is less than $4000 total.

What that means is the members are subsidizing every one of us who retires under the plan. They always have. Our 4 or 5 percent never covered the nut. The problem is, with these huge increases, the numbers are magnified two and three fold. The fucking greed will cause the UFCW to implode and guys who have been touted as our saviors (Wynn, Dority, Evans and others) have not only stood by and watched, but actively worked to insure it happen.

This gets even worse if we use actual numbers. Remote, if you can get me Brians total years of service we can factor it out fully. Then throw in his local pension, his 150% severence and the new car and you can see why these guys fight so hard to stay in office.

There have been changes in the plan the last two years, but as you can imagine, they aren't nearly enough and they aren't reducing anything the boys in power have. The fact is there is a slew of UFCW retirees drawing well over $100,000 a year. In fact, it would be interesting to see just how many are over the $150,000 mark.

Google says...

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UFCW [Local 1977] 2002 Salary Disclosure for Ontario

Name | Position | Total Salary + Taxable Benefits

Brian Howden | Administrator | $105,009.86

Al McLean | Executive Assistant | $110,152.77

Scott Penner | Secretary-Treasurer | $113,250.01

Brian Williamson | President | $138,240.89

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Brian Williamson's involvement in the retail food environment since the mid 1970s, has allowed him to gain a powerful insight, firsthand, into the needs of our members. Brian has been President of the Local since 1978, and in 1982, Brian became Full Time President of Local 1977.

Ensuring compliance with Local Union Bylaws and the International Constitution is his responsibility, in addition to over-seeing all facets of Local 1977 activity. All committees, staff and representative activities are under his guidance, with the direction of the Executive Board.

On provincial, national and international levels, Brian also holds the following positions:

* Vice President, UFCW Canadian Council
* Chairperson to the National Strike Fund Committee
* Dental Plan Trustee
* Trustee to the Training Trust Fund
* Member of the Advisory Council to the International Union
* Trustee on the Commercial Workers Benefit Trust Fund

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Zehrs workers 'out of order' on union pay hikes
Thursday January 11, 2001
Brian Caldwell
RECORD STAFF

Workers at Zehrs Markets have been ruled "out of order" for challenging the exorbitant pay hikes and other perks given to their union leaders.

More than 1,400 rank-and-file members signed a petition in November demanding executives of Local 1977 of the United Food and Commercial Workers give back 65 per cent raises and generous retirement benefits.

But in a recent ruling by Douglas Dority, president of the Washington-based international union, the accompanying motion was found to be invalid under the union's constitution.

That confirmed a ruling made by Brian Williamson, president of the Cambridge-based union local, when the petition was presented at a general meeting attended by about 100 angry members.

Organizers of the grassroots protest said they aren't sure what their next step will be, but they vowed to keep the pressure on local union leaders until they give the raises back.

"Big deal, it's out of order,'' said Peggy Brum, an employee at the Glenridge Plaza store in Waterloo who presented the petition. "Do all those signatures mean nothing? Is there no message there?''

Williamson and other executives of Local 1977 couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. Neither could Dority or Michael Fraser, the union's Canadian director.

Many workers in the 7,500-member union local have been furious since it was publicly revealed last fall that its three top leaders were given huge raises by an elected executive board.

Williamson had his annual salary boosted to $118,300 from $72,000, while secretary-treasurer Scott Penner went to $109,200 from $66,000.

Al McLean, a former union representative who previously made $55,000 to $60,000 a year, was also promoted to the new position of executive vice-president, a job that pays $101,400.

In addition, senior executives are now entitled to lump-sum payments equal to 150 per cent of their annual salaries, plus vehicles, when they retire after 20 years.

Details of the compensation package were made public in The Record soon after Zehrs workers at 46 stores in central and southern Ontario went on strike for four days to get a contract giving them five per cent raises, plus several one-time bonuses, spread over six years.

Connie Whetstone, a clerk at the Waterloo Town Square store who launched the petition, said it has been a frustrating fight because rank-and-file members, most of them part-time, don't understand the intricacies of union rules.

But she said the initial anger over the whopping raises hasn't subsided and a core group of dissidents is determined to keep pressing the issue.

"We'll be a thorn in their side, if nothing else,'' said Whetstone. "It's important to hold them accountable.''

The local group is getting advice from Members for Democracy, a food and commercial workers union reform organization based in British Columbia, and may consult a lawyer to explore other options now that their motion to rescind the raises has been ruled out of order at the union's highest level.

"We won't let these guys get away with this,'' said Brum. "(Williamson) can look forward to seeing me at the next meeting -- and it won't be just me. There's still a lot of angry people out there.''

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Sorry gang, i'm not about to just let this thread slip into oblivion; least not without sticking it in their face a couple of times and challenging one or more of them to step up and "splain" how this is right.

How about it illuminati, ya wanna take a whack at defending guys like Brian and the hog pile of others who took massive increases, all at the cost to UFCW members struggling to get by?

Every time i think about this crap i get livid. The boys in DC and around the country are pissy for what i am saying, while the reality is they should be ready to kill those who have insured the thing collapse from their greed.