That is the claim of some employees who work in the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. who are locked in a contract battle with AFL-CIO executives over fair wages and working conditions.

The workers, who include janitorial staff, drivers, secretaries, and others, say AFL-CIO management is “imposing an anti-union contract” on them and accuse the powerhouse union of trying to “strong-arm” them into submitting to unacceptable concessions.

The AFL-CIO employees standing up to their employer are paid hourly and say they are the lowest paid in the office.  Two thirds are older than 50 and three quarters have worked there for more than a decade (over half have worked there more than 15 years). They say AFL-CIO executives presented them with a new contract in September that includes a three-year pay freeze, significant cuts to sick leave, an increase in weekly hours without compensation, and removes their right to bargain over hours and working conditions. 

The workers unanimously rejected that contract, which they called “dangerously hypocritical.”  AFL-CIO’s response was to discontinue negotiations and announce the contract would be implemented despite their rejection.  In protest, the workers are threatening a strike against the AFL-CIO if they aren’t offered better terms.

The irony of AFL-CIO employees—the lowest paid in the office, no less—declaring their employer is refusing to offer them fair wages and working conditions, and is bullying and running roughshod over them in the process, cannot be overstated. 

The AFL-CIO is the largest (and arguably the most powerful) federation of unions in the nation, representing 55 unions and boasting membership of over 12 million workers from a wide range of industries and government jobs.  The money collected from those workers provides the umbrella union group with a mammoth annual budget ($185 million in 2016 and $170 million in 2017) that allows the union to spend heavily on politics and lobbying each year ($45 million in 2016 and $37 million in 2017).

It also allows the union to generously compensate its top executives. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka earns a compensation package totaling $300,000 annually.  He isn’t the only big earner.  The top three AFL-CIO executives under Trumka each earn more than $200,000 annually, and more than 175 AFL-CIO employees earn in excess of $100,000 each year. 

That generosity apparently ends when it comes to the hourly wage workers who clean their offices and chauffer them around. For those workers, a pay freeze and reduced benefits are in order.

The hypocrisy is stunning.  Trumka, a self-styled voice of the working people, routinely rails against the “greedy corporations” and the wealthy “1%” who “exploit and marginalize working people.”

Two years ago Trumka doubled down on the rhetoric with an AFL-CIO report purporting to show the glaring inequality of CEO pay in comparison to workers:

“The income inequality that exists in this country is a disgrace. We must stop Wall Street CEOs from continuing to profit on the backs of working people.”

Of course, what Trumka didn’t mention was his $300,000 salary dwarfs the average CEO salary of $185,850.  Or that his salary is 700% more than the average nonsupervisory worker earnings of $36,900 per year.  Now that’s some income inequality.  (As a side note, the AFL-CIO’s report was widely panned by fact checkers and the media as wildly misleading.)

Adding to the hypocrisy is Trumka’s demand that employers “give every worker out there the right to bargain with their employer for better wages and better working conditions.” Yet the AFL-CIO is refusing to offer its own lowest paid workers better wages, while also demanding they relinquish their right to bargain for better hours and working conditions. 

Clearly Trumka is not worried about practicing what he preaches.