Business

Grocery Workers Get Low Wages While Retiring Union Boss Gets $656,892 Payout

May 11, 2018, 10:28 AM

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876 in Madison Heights represents more than 17,000 grocery store employees, mostly at Kroger stores in Michigan.

A typical cashier might make about $11.80 an hour. They struggle to make ends meet. Then there's Roger Robinson, who until last summer was the longtime president of Local 876.

Ross Jones of WXYZ reports:

  • In 2006, when Robinson was named president, he made just over $158,000.
  • In 2009, he earned nearly $214,000.
  • In 2013, he made more than $250,000.
  • In 2015, he raked in  more than $309,000.  

And here's the kicker: When he retired last June, he left with a payout from the union of more than $656,000. 

“They should be well-paid, but not like corporate CEOs,” Ken Paff, founder of Teamster for a Democratic Union, tells WXYZ. “I mean that’s not what the labor union is about…the union movement can’t afford to have top officials using the union to advance themselves and not the members.”

“I think it’s outrageous,” said a Kroger employee who asked we not identify her. “To walk away with that much money. How nice, I want that job.”

The union issued a statement to WXYZ saying Robinson’s big payout was part of a longstanding separation agreement no longer in effect.


Read more:  WXYZ


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