ILA heads toward bankruptcy while executive officers reward themselves

Four top executive officers of the ILA are supposed to resign August 1, 2009. John Bowers, President Emeritus; Bobby Gleason, Secretary-Treasurer; Gerald Owens, General Organizer; and Bunny Holland, General Vice-President were asked to step down as a result of their high salaries. All are past their retirement age.

In addition, the International will likely move its headquarters from New York, where it pays over $500,000 per year, to Washington DC and to a satellite office in New Jersey.

While the International union is headed toward bankruptcy it continues to pay a large number of officers over $250,000 per year. The union could not afford to keep the current structure. Unfortunately, many of these officers-who have taken millions in compensation over the years-may attempt to collect large retirement benefits directly from the union treasury.

President Richard Hughes took home $1.23 million in compensation in 2008 according to the union’s disclosure of its finances to the Department of Labor (called an LM2 report). Executive officers allegedly created a “Rabbi Trust” or “top hat” retirement plan directly out of the union’s treasury. Few current executive board officers even knew of the plan, let alone Hughes’ payout, until after it was done. There is no record of the plan on the LM2 reports.

With a dwindling membership, the top ILA leadership now must confront the large inefficient bureaucracy’s drain on the union’s finances. The ILA established the current 30-person paid executive board when the union represented over 100,000 members.

Our member’s jobs are threatened by new technology, safety has declined, and our families suffer under tiered wages. Instead of bargaining for the interests of the membership, many International officers are bargaining to make sure they get million dollar retirements.

The LWC believes the union must continue to reduce the size of its bureaucracy, hold officers accountable for the work of representing members and turn more resources toward organizing. LWC members are considering bringing charges against some of the officers for a breach of their fiduciary duty to the union and its membership.

Note: As the Spring Issue of Pier Pressure went to press, the Journal of Commerce reported that Gleason is attempting to back out of his deal to retire. It was unclear whether the others would do the same. President Hughes allegedly cut a deal with the Department of Labor to pay $770,000 back to the union.