And The Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): AFA Salaries for 2008-2009

PDF file # 1: Link here.
PDF file # 2: Official LM2 (Link here.)

And The Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): AFA Salaries for 2008-2009

While we are waiting for AFA to hold the vote to ratify the recently released Letters of Agreement 39, 40 and 41, it’s time to catch up on some light reading, and just in time the U.S. Department of Labor has provided some very enlightening information. It’s been a year, and almost to the day another CWA (AFA) LM-2 has rotted off the presses, swollen with more eye-gouging salaries for everyone from AFA International President (and retired United flight attendant) Pat Friend (who also has her United pension, her AFA executive-style-pension and Social Security to draw on), to the lowliest part-time campaign “volunteer.”

As you may remember, the LM-2 is the Department of Labor-mandated yearly report detailing salaries and reimbursements for union officials (please note: the LM-2 does not include direct-billed personal expenses, such as hotel rooms, rental cars, cell phones, union credit card charges, or other miscellaneous items). It also only lists those who receive over $10,000 in compensation, so the scores of hangers-on who got paid up to $9,999.99 are not included in the report. This LM-2 covers the period from June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2009.

And when it comes to AFA, there’s more than ever to report from the 2009 LM-2 – so much that it screeches like a broken record of graft, greed and gluttony, just like that famous song from Evita, “And The Money Kept Rolling In (and out). . .”

“… The money kept rolling in from every side …
Now you may feel it should have been a voluntary cause
But that’s not the point my friends
When the money keeps rolling in, you don’t ask how
Think of all the people guaranteed a good time now….”

Of course, rolling on in at Numero Uno (not including AFA attorneys and other paid consultants or professionals) is none other than AFA’s own aging Evita, Pat “I’m a retired flight attendant serving as AFA President in violation of the AFA Constitution” Friend. Apparently that UAL pension AFA negotiated just wasn’t good enough. Way to go Pat! Woo-Hoo! $114,183.00 … Yeah, roll it on in girl!

Heading up the long list of NWA AFA staffers on the dole is everyone’s favorite best argument for union term limits, MSP flight attendant and glorified data entry clerk Mollie Reiley, shaking it down at a smooth $70,521.00 … Oh well, at least she actually puts out some work (like one email every 2 – 4 weeks) from some undisclosed location somewhere, unlike our next perennial offender …

. . . Danny Campbell. We’re not sure what he does and where he’s been half the year, although he does tend to show up on Facebook and other Internet sites at the oddest hours. But whatever the case, apparently fun experiences build character and God complexes, and whether choosing the right union or whether to have a union at all, even the wrong choice is well rewarded at $58,999.00; AWOL or not. And Danny collected that royal sum despite being on leave for several weeks, resigning from the campaign (and recently re-joining, just in time to pen a nonsensical article for the latest birdcage liner AFA littered our mailboxes with), and being back online as a flight attendant for most of 2009. Danny’s AFA salary – given his extensive absences – comes in at somewhere around $10,0 00 per month actually “worked.”

Danny’s wild union proselytizing while acting however he wants is historic, but in light of his salary and his lack of producing anything, his quote from a Feb. 11, 2008 Star Tribune is outright Looney: "We are not motivated by money or greed. We are an organization run by and for flight attendants and we exist to protect and advance our profession." Oh really Danny? Looks like you’re raking it in, but we haven’t seen any “advancements” other than to your salary. You look as guilty in that quote as someone who once said “I am not a crook”. Yes, Nixon.

Sandwiched in between Mollie and Danny is former MEC President Kevin Griffin, who paid himself over $66,000 for less than a full year’s work. Kevin’s per diem ran as high as $1,500.00 per month. How many days would you have to fly to collect that kind of money? This is the same Kevin Griffin who was forced to resign after he gave away contract language to the company and put flight attendants in precarious positions at arbitration. Despite running for office on a communications platform, Griffin didn’t announce his own resignation to the members until 10 days after he left office!

Neil McMahon rounds out the top 5 money-grubbing staffers with his cushy position as web master. And what do the members get in return for the $58,121.00 they paid McMahon? Not a whole lot. It took him an entire year just to post our contract online – long after the company had posted it in ATLAS. And there are certainly not a lot of updates occurring on the shambles of a website that NWA AFA operates. We certainly didn’t hear about secret AFA meetings with the NMB until well after the fact. And how many people does it take to send and post a weekly hotline? McMahon works with . . .

Rene Foss: $52,714.00. Despite not having any background or experience in union or news communications, Foss was appointed in secret by your MEC to head NWA AFA communications. She has spent more time on our dime promoting her show, than in promoting the very real issues that affect Northwest flight attendants – and even less time in actually – um – communicating with us. In this article: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=823855&catid=39 , Foss indicates that AFA is pursuing a yes/no ballot with the NMB for the pending representational election. When was Foss going to let her employers (that’s us) know? Why the secrecy until this bombshell in the media? Will this delay the representational vote even further? Most importantly, why are the members kept in the dark?

Running in circles and delivering little on experience, Janette Rook may have been too wiped out to attend National Mediation Board meetings regarding the most important vote of our careers, and was allegedly too busy to answer emails from the pre-merger Delta Flight-Attendant Seniority Committee (has she gotten back to them yet?!?!??), but she had plenty of time to deposit $54,054.00 of our hard earned dues money into her bank account. Janette’s take would have been even higher – and we have to give her brownie points for trying – but she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar not too long ago, when she was trying to collect extra “incentive bonuses” above and beyond her authorized pay, and had to return the money to the AFA coffers. Gold star for effort, Janette. It’s too bad Bernie Madoff couldn’t cut himself the same deal: return the money and you’re off the hook.

All in all, Janette’s pay performance as MEC president is pretty disappointing, given that she had managed to pay herself $48,238.00 as a part time Council Rep in the prior year, even while she voted against paying her own LEC President, and simultaneously elevated herself off Reserve status out of seniority order, essentially taking trips away from senior schedule holders.

Meanwhile, Janette embarrassed herself, AFA and Northwest and Delta flight attendants with yet another egregious misstatement to the media. In a September 4, 2009 article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Janette, when talking about contract negotiations, claims, “The largest carrier sets the benchmark." Wrong, Janette: the benchmark belongs to TWU at Southwest Airlines and IAM at Continental Airlines and APFA at American Airlines. AFA does not hold the benchmark at any category of carrier it represents; not legacy, not regional and not commuter. Just ask the USAirways/America West flight attendants, still waiting for AFA to negotiate a contract nearly four years after their merger.

Other notables include (and by the way, income from the company for flying hours is not included):

*** Bruce Retrum – $28,002, Negotiator (when no negotiations were going on). Let’s see how much he collects this year as LEC 95 president.

*** Daniel Grey – $47,447.00 as Detroit Council Representative and newly minted MEC Vice President. To date, Daniel’s greatest union accomplishment was torpedoing the Scheduling Task Force hotline that was being set up in anticipation of the 2006 holiday scheduling debacle. This hotline, manned by true volunteers, would have provided flight attendants a much-needed resource, but Things weren’t going his way – and he had political reservations – so Daniel stomped his feet and went home. Not too long later, Daniel was rewarded with the MEC vice president position, a job he has effectively reduced to forwarding news articles and setting up Facebook “fan” pages for his friends and political allies – all during paid office hours. In the meantime, Daniel has been predictably silent about incompetence and corruption he has run into in the grievance department and other areas. Daniel doesn’t care so much about right or wrong as he cares about political alliances.

*** Sean Oltersdorf – $30,114.00; we’re not sure what he does, but he is Daniel Grey’s partner and travel companion to “union meetings” in exotic locations.

*** DTW Council Reps and officers – they are thick as thieves and appear to be robbing the flight attendants blind. Do they not understand that this is supposed to be a part-time “volunteer” position according to the AFA Constitution? Notables include: Jeffrey Martoia: $58,121.00; Anthony Hytche: $55,329.00; John O’Donnell: $53,176.00; Belea Bower: $52,403.00; Daniel Gray (before he became MEC VP): $47,447.00; Diana Mitcham: $37,243.00; Kevin Boston: $29,553.00. That’s over $325,000.00 per year – for what? With more staffers than Detroit has ever had, they have eliminated 24/7 on call for the office and reduced communications significantly. How many grievances do they even file? How many are won? Where is their report to the members justifying their huge salaries? Is there any coincidence that Danny, AFA Pres. Janette, AFA Vice Pres. Daniel and Average Joe all come from DTW? Why haven’t Pat and the international clamped down on DTW’s wild salaries?

*** BOS LEC officers Bob Cannatelli: $46,266.00 and Jacob Easter: $10,784.00. Once again, these two have broken the Boston budget in violation of the AFA Constitution. Cannatelli’s salary and over $1,000 per month in per diem for working from home (how much per diem do you get per month and do you get to work from home?) is almost twice the entire BOS budget. And what do the BOS flight attendants have to show for his salary and perks? His grievance record is abysmal (Has he even filed any grievances?). Cannatelli is facing internal union charges for his derogatory anti-woman comments. His defense to the accusations? He claims that’s how he deals with stress.

*** Josh Zivick: $22,901.00. Boys will be boys and Josh is also facing internal union charges for anti-woman epithets. Who knows if justice will ever be served, since Josh and Bob are two big Pat Friend supporters, and Pat is politically motivated to cover up bad behavior, greed and corruption of those who support her. Meanwhile, Josh has let grievances (if he even files them) slip through the cracks, causing unnecessary discipline for flight attendants. How is this better than a direct relationship with the company?

*** Greg Riffle: $56,777.00. As MEC Grievance Chair, Riffle has blundered the most important grievance of the last 3 years: the LOA me-too clause where we should have gotten several raises worth thousands of dollars when the pilots pay snapped-up. Instead, he has been hot in pursuit of the red dress grievance. Where are your priorities, Greg? With $7,851.00 in per diem last year (all for sitting at a desk in MSP), it’s clear where his priorities are: his own pocketbook. How many of Greg’s members got almost $8,000 in per diem last year? That’s one expensive can of Progresso soup the members are buying for your lunch, Greg.

*** Shawn Fivecoat: $47,393.00. Shawn is a perennial also-ran – always aiming, but never quite reaching the top spot in pay. He can console himself with union paid trips to Africa and other consolation prizes, though. Shawn likes to brag about how he bought Pat Friend a fancy new computer monitor with NWA FA dues money. Maybe that’s how he is trying to explain away the flat screen TV charged to his union credit card.

*** Les Meeks: $43,102.00. Meeks has “an arrangement” with NWA management so that he can maintain 9-5 office hours (sort of). Les’ greatest achievement as LEC President is to avoid flying at all costs and using his union status to elevate him off reserve status out of seniority order. Les has also paid himself for “working” holidays such as Christmas, New Years, July 4 and Labor Day. Ironically, those are all days the union office is closed, so why is Les paying himself for non-working? If it’s good for him, it’s good for us. Maybe AFA should negotiate this kind of holiday pay into our next contract – sit at home on the holidays and get paid!

*** Jarrod Anderson: $45,230.00 and Angela Brewer Woods: $40,448.00. Their titles say member engagement, and they are asking us to volunteer our time t o help them. Really, Jarrod and Angela? Can we get volunteer positions like your “volunteer” positions that pay upwards of 90 flight hours per month? Where do we sign up? Meanwhile, the last update on the Member Engagement page of the website is almost 2 months old. How engaging!

Get out your W-2s, folks; get out your paystubs. See where you fall in the pay range, compared to the salaries and perks these people are grabbing. It’s no wonder they are so hot and heavy about keeping AFA – it guarantees them a good paycheck – but not anyone else. In the last three years of outrageous salaries and bloated perks, the only ones who have benefitted are these staffers and hangers-on. Meanwhile, the Northwest flight attendants get hit with the double-whammy of dealing with their incompetence in maintaining/improving our contract and actually having to pay these outrageous salaries with our hard earned dues money.

Sincerely,

Jose Arturo Ibarra

p.s. - Please see my blog post from March 25, 2008: AFA ­ Just a Dues Collection Agency?