Every year TDU reports on our union's highest paid officials to let you decide who's earning the money, who's not, and what should be done about it. Click here to download the entire 2-page list of the $150,000 Club.
Teamsters can all agree that we should pay union officers and staff fairly, and expect them to work hard for the members in return.
Each year we list the salaries of Teamster officers and staff earning over $150,000, to provide information to members. Click here to see last year's report.
Members and leaders can make the judgement on who’s fighting for the members, and who’s enriching themselves.
Some of the officers listed in the $150,000 report are hard-working, qualified leaders. Others may need to be replaced by fresh leaders from the ranks. It’s up to the members to decide.
Click here to download the entire 2-page list of the $150,000 Club.
Bad Apples
This year’s Salary Listing—based on 2018 salaries, the most recent available—includes some Hoffa administration officials who have forced concessions on members. Did Denis Taylor earn a $35,000 raise (to $284,101) when he imposed the UPS national contract after a majority voted to reject it?
Two of the very highest on the list will not be there next year: John Coli of Chicago has pled guilty to taking employer payoffs; and his associate Becky Strzechowski resigned after Coli was indicted. She bagged $427,717 in salaries, allowances and expenses.
One official near the top of the list last year was Rome Aloise. This year, his name does not appear, because he is serving a two-year suspension for employer payoffs, and 122 pages of corruption charges. Aloise is planning to come back, with all his salaries, and even wants to be Teamster president.
The majority of the officials in the report who received multiple salaries from the IBT were called on to donate to the Hoffa-Hall campaign in 2016. Multiple salaries should not be handed out as political favors or patronage.
Ken Hall Finds a Sweet Loophole In the IBT Constitution
Ken Hall cashed in on a loophole to take home over $400,000 in Teamster salaries, allowances, and pensions.
The IBT Constitution limits the salary of the General Secretary Treasurer (GST) to $200,000 plus a cost of living adjustment for each year in the position. Ken Hall made $218,461 in 2018 under this rule.
But Hall wasn’t satisfied. So he got his attorneys to say that he could “retire” and collect a $5,000 a month pension from the Local 175 pension plan, while continuing to serve as the local’s principal officer.
Hall used the same dodge to “retire” from the Joint Council 94 severance plan, and take home a lump sum payment of some $140,000.
Pension benefits are not reported on union financial reports, so Hall kept these retirement payments of over $200,000 secret, until a whistleblower revealed what Hall was doing.
Meanwhile, Hall has informed UPS Teamsters in Local 175 that since the pension plan is in the “red zone”, they will not get any pension increase.
Hall also gets a $60,000 housing allowance from the IBT, as does James Hoffa.
The Power of Information
This non-partisan report, which has been published annually for some 37 years, has made our union stronger.
In the 1980s, several powerful officials made over $500,000, which would be $1.3 million in today’s dollars. TDU began publishing the $100,000 Club report to arm members with information to hold their officials accountable. It worked.
When members got the right to vote for the first time in 1991, top officials making bloated salaries dropped out the race, because members were armed with information.
Today, most Teamster officials’ salaries are far more reasonable. Teamster salaries now are in the mid-range of what other major unions pay. This list also includes some professional union staff, including attorneys.
Exposing past greed and excess has helped clean out corruption and freed up more union funds for organizing and building union power.
One specific victory members have won is a reasonable limit on the salaries, specified in the Teamster Constitution (Article V, Section 1).
The General President starts with a base salary of $225,000, and gets a cost-of-living raise for each year in office. Hoffa made $321,449 last year, plus a housing allowance of $60,000. No IBT Vice President or International Rep can make more than the president, even by collecting multiple Teamster salaries.
TDU stands for keeping these reasonable limits in place, and putting our union funds to good use with hard-working organizers and programs that build Teamster power.
Average CEO Pay Up $14.5 Million
Union-busters who try to use union salaries to attack unions should look in the mirror. While the salaries for Teamster officers have come down over the years, CEO pay has skyrocketed.
In the past 10 years, CEO pay at S&P 500 companies increased more than $500,000 a year to an average of $14.5 million in 2018. Meanwhile, the average worker saw a wage increase of $785 a year, earning on average just $39,888 in 2018.
Where Do We Get This Information?
The Teamster Rank and File Education and Legal Defense Foundation (TRF) reviewed hundreds of LM-2 financial reports and IRS 990 tax forms for 2018, filed by locals, joint councils, conferences, and the IBT.
The information is factual and nonpartisan, and includes every officer we have salary data for.
The leaders of Locals 700 and 1932 have refused to provide copies of their 2018 Form 990 tax returns. Data for those locals are from 2017.
If there are any omissions or errors, they will be corrected.
Click here to find out how to access the LM-2 of your local union, or contact the TDU office at 313-842-2600. The 2019 LM-2 reports will be available after March 31, 2020.