AFL-CIO’s New Secretary-Treasurer Earns
$238,976, But Refuses to Discuss Her Job

After two months in office, Liz Shuler has not said a single word about her new job as AFL-CIO-Secretary-Treasurer, nor has she given any indication that she intends to tell us about the AFL-CIO’s financial problems, even though we are paying her a salary of $238,975 a year for each of four years to represent us.

Shuler was hand-picked for the AFL-CIO’s No. 2 job by a group of powerful international union presidents, including Edwin Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who was her boss, mentor and chief promoter. The top leadership fixed it so she wouldn't face any competition and would be guaranteed the position by remaining silent until the day of the sham election.

Shuler had spent most of her labor career within the IBEW, with her major activity in the Portland, Oregon area, where she was born and went to school. One of her chief accomplishments for the union was the 1997 defeat of a bill, promoted by the Enron Corporation, to deregulate Oregon’s electricity market.

At 39, Shuler is the AFL-CIO’s youngest and first woman to become secretary-treasurer, the No, 2 position in the labor federation’s hierarchy. She has publicly stated that she intends to spend much of her time reaching out to workers under 35. (That, by itself, would seem like a full-time job. Would her role as AFL-CIO secretary treasurer be a part-time position?)

While silent on the AFL-CIO’s financial difficulties, she has made several speeches on other subjects. To a Minnesota labor audience, she made a strong pitch for the need to organizing young workers. At the New Jersey AFL-CIO convention, she said: “Our values and our morals are timeless: social justice, the dignity of work, equality for all, good jobs for those who need them.” At the IBEW convention, she said: “We must focus on creating jobs.”

There is no evidence in Shuler’s background that she has the experience and skills for handling large financial transactions, including pension fund investments, the federation’s credit card operations, per capita record-keeping and the various tax reports and other documents that are part of the AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer’s responsibilities. But that did not appear to be a handicap for the group that hand-picked her for the job

Unanswered Questions about the AFL-CIO’s Financial Plight

The AFL-CIO as been sliding into insolvency, but the news has been kept from the union membership. A “White Paper,” prepared by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers disclosed that the AFL-CIO’s net assets had dropped from $66 million on July 1, 2000 to a negative of $2.3 million by June 30, 2008. Also, the Federation’s liabilities, as of June 30, 2008, exceeded $90.7 million, and that was before its massive outlays in the 2008 general election campaign.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, then secretary-treasurer, increased his basic salary of $165,000 by an extra $74,000 between 2005 and 2008, without ever explaining why he deserved it. In fact, throughout his 14 years in that office, he kept union members in the dark about how their dues money was being spent.

Has Shuler signaled in the past two months that she will also adhere to a policy of silence about how she is running her department, in the belief that she is not obligated to keep union members informed about her financial activities. Like Trumka, she may feel that there is nothing the rank-and-file can do to compel her to discuss the AFL-CIO’s financial problems and its serious consequences.

Shuler faces her first test of credibility. Will she tell us about the state of the AFL:-CIO’s finances and how she intends to run the department? We’ll soon find out--if and how she responds.

Transparency is an essential feature of democratic unions. If union members are kept informed about what their leaders are saying and doing, they are more likely to respond to calls for volunteers during organizing campaigns and turn out in support of political and legislative issues. If members know what’s going on, they have an opportunity to approve or criticize union policies before they are adopted.

If there is no transparency then it is difficult to hold leaders accountable for their actions. Leaders can conceal costly mistakes or self-serving expenditures or illegal activities or any scandal by simply “keeping it within the club.”

Right now, the AFL-CIO is undergoing the test of transparency. Union members have to speak up and show they want it. It ‘s how they can have a voice in the future of their unions.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (15) will be posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009.