Union Executives Take Raises While Union Debt Skyrockets

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 12/8/2015 | Tom Gantert

[MichCapCon]

While the teachers they represent have seen very small pay increases or even pay freezes over the past three years, high level executives at the Michigan Education Association union received large raises.

The average increase in the salaries paid to the top four union officials was 18.6 percent over three years. At the same time, the MEA's liabilities increased by nearly $100 million, or 50 percent in one year.

[ridesthemiles]

MANY years ago, perhaps as much as 40, I was a grocery checker in the mandatory union. I was on my normal shift, when my store manager came & asked me if I would take off my ID badge & go to another chain store near my house & fill in.

The meat cutters union had called a wildcat strike—completely illegal. I said yes, but could I go past my house & take my Labrador with me, leave the windows open & park right next to the front window of the store where I would be working. Yes—so off I went.

When I got there, half the checkers had refused to cross an illegal picket line. Many were younger than me & scared. I went to work, and within 15 minutes, this union dude, with a $300 suit & $100 shoes & a $50 haircut came over to ‘take information’ from me.

He wanted to know who I was & where I was from.

I said Tinker Bell from the Land of Nod. He actually started to write that down. Then he caught himself. He got louder & more forceful when he kept repeating the question & I kept answering the same answer. When he gave up, he was furious. I did notice that he tried to go near my car, but the dog was nasty about his presence. He backed off.

The n when we had aquiet moment, as customers were getting queasy about the picket line also, I told the other cashiers that “that Union guy would continue to draw ALL of his salary—no matter the strikes.....legal or not.” “We would be losing pay & who knows what else and HE never lost a dime. I told them not to buckle into his demands. He had no right to get our ID-—only the store manager had the right to that information”.

This went on to about 10 PM, and I was asked to go back to my store & report back in. I had worked about 5 hours of overtime that day. When I got back to my store, my manager was laughing.

Seems my Tinker Bell story had already made the rounds in the whole San Fernando Valley & other cashiers were volunteering to go work until the wildcat strike ended.

That took another 2 days, but the meat cutters lost alot of money. No one every bothered me at my store about the whole incident.

Union officials getting a bigger & bigger piece of the pie is no surprise or mystery to me. They all suck.