Afl-cios Creative Accounting Masked Finances, Official Says
Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said in a report that the labor federation obscured its financial difficulties heading into last years presidential election campaign, in which it backed Democrat Barack Obama. Net assets of the 11 million-member AFL-CIO declined to a negative $2.3 million as of June 30, 2008, from a $66 million surplus on July 1, 2000.
“A new leadership — leaders chosen by our members, leaders held accountable by our members — is needed,” wrote Buffenbarger, who is a member of the AFL-CIOs finance committee and the president of one of the nations largest unions.
Alison Omens, a spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO, declined to comment on the report.
The labor federation has been in talks about reuniting with Change to Win, a coalition of seven unions that left the federation in 2005 because of disagreements over finances and other issues. Buffenbargers report is intended to help strengthen the AFL-CIO, not prepare it for reunification, according to Rick Sloan, his spokesman.
“The report aims to increase the AFL-CIOs clout and solvency,” Sloan said yesterday. “We want to see the House of Labor renovated, not razed. The AFL-CIO needs a plan B.”
The departure of the seven unions to Change to Win in 2005 denied the AFL-CIO more than $13.9 million in annual revenue, the report said.
Labor College
The report says the AFL-CIO should wind down its involvement in the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland, where labor organizers are trained. And it criticizes the federation for relying on HSBC Holdings Plc royalty payments for issuing Union Plus credit cards.
“If we are not careful, insolvency may be right around the corner,” the report said.
Buffenbargers report also criticizes the AFL-CIO for functioning as a “staff-driven operation” bogged down in “PowerPoints and briefing papers.”
Buffenbarger urges the AFL-CIO to be more aggressive in targeting politicians who vote against union interests. It suggests that labors top priority, the so-called card-check bill, wont pass Congress this year.