It’s a Lifetime Job with a Six-Figure Salary,
So  Why  Should Old Labor Leaders Retire?

By Harry Kelber

The presidents of big international unions hold down some of the cushiest jobs in America and, although many of them are getting close to eighty, have  health problems and  have had to cut down on their activity, they don’t want to give up their jobs. Why should they, if they don’t have to?

It’s not only that they earn a six-figure  salary and benefits, plus the perks  and  influence that come with being an international  union president. They have something that corporate CEOs could envy: virtual job security that could stretch into a lifetime of service.  Many of them run their union as though it was their personal property. Theoretically, they could lose re-election to an opposing candidate, but they are rarely  challenged, and they have a variety of ways to squash opposition.

Many labor leaders, who are past seventy, do not believe that old age disqualifies them for a top union position. They point to Samuel Gompers, the first AFL president,  who held the position for 38 years  until his death in 1924 at age 74. He was succeeded by William Green, who  also died in office after 28 years of service. (He was 79.) Then came George Meany, who held the labor presidency for 28 years until he became terminally ill and died at age 86. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who at 75, is scheduled to retire at the federation’s 2009 convention.

There is growing sentiment that  these superattenuated labor leaders, who control the AFL-CIO’s 43-member, policy-making Executive Council, should retire and make way for younger, forward-looking leaders.  It’s not only their age, but their incompetence,  conservative bias and do-nothing policies that have aroused increasing anger against them from the rank-and-file. But you can’t compel the old boys to retire if  they don’t want to—unless you drive them out of office.

It has been suggested that a House of Lords be created, a  kind of Valhalla for old, battle-scarred labor leaders,  as a way of enticing them to give up their lucrative jobs for a title that may be meaningless. But it’s their call. What if most of them, or many refuse the deal. What then?

And even  if the old-timers are replaced by “new blood,” would the newcomers behave much differently, unless long-overdue reforms were put in place?

Beware of Roadblocks in the AFL- CIO Constitution

The test for reformers will come at the AFL-CIO’s convention, when there  will be an election of its three top officers and 43 vice presidents of the Executive Council.   To launch an effective campaign, reformers must recognize that the source of the Old Guard’s monopoly of  power  lies in four distinct provisions of the AFL-CIO Constitution,

If we can transform these provisions in the Constitution so they represent common sense, democratic values, we have a good chance of defeating  the group that now controls the AFL-CIO.