Having done my research into Federal Employee Unions, lets look at the largest one, AFGE. National dues are between $16 and $17 per month. Local dues add to this so that the typical dues are $30 to $35 per month.
The question is what your Union bosses do with this money. AFGE Headquarters in DC is huge, beautiful and close to the Capitol – the high rent district. It even includes art displays and an IHOP cafeteria. AFGE is very closed mouth about the number of its headquarter’s employees, but there are certainly enough to make and IHOP profitable.
AFGE has a long list of national officers. This link provides a partial and I emphasize partial list.
National Office | AFGE
To get an idea of how AFGE spends its member’s money, I supply the following list of AFGE conferences and their locations:
June 18-22 Region A Training Conference – Location: Trump Taj Mahal Hotel, Atlantic City. Be assured that a number of national officers will attend on the member’s dollars.
July 27-29: Ninth District Training and Retreat. Location Camden on the Lake, Lake Ozark, MO. Again national officers will attend en-masse on the member’s tab.
Aug. 13-17: AFGE National Convention. Location: Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV. Imagine that – Unions going to Las Vegas. The entertainment will certainly be better than that provided to GSA employees for the most recent scandal – especially for the National and District Officers.
We will never know the actual cost of this convention, but we do know that it could be held in the outskirts of DC with no travel or hotel costs for the National officers and other ‘miscellaneous’ costs. The cost savings would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a pattern here – the Union bosses live high on the hog at member expense. The members buy into the idea that the Union is doing something for them.
For the amount you paid into the Union over three years, you could have taken you and your wife for a five-day visit to Las Vegas. Admittedly, this would not include your shows, other entertainment and food – that is for your Union bosses only. But you could have had a great vacation. You however, prefer sending John Gage and his sycophants on a First Class Las Vegas vacation, rather than taking your wife there so the two of you can enjoy a vacation together.
To quote you on your ideas of Federal employee unions – “Horse Hockey".
Beyond that, you accused me of plagiarism. I contested and said your statement was dishonest. You ignored my reply and chose to attack. My question stands – can you show I plagiarized or was this a dishonest statement?