Five things the UMWA spends miners’ money on 

Miners love barbecue.  Or at least their union does.  An examination of its annual financial disclosure form (LM-2) shows the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) spent $23,518 at Mr. C’s BBQ… in just one year. 

That’s a lot of pork, in both senses of the word.    

According to the same report, UMWA admitted to giving the Turkish Philanthropy Funds (TPF) $5,000 of its members’ money.  TPF funds civil society programs in Turkey, a country whose population is about 99 percent Muslim and 0 percent West Virginian miners.  

We’re guessing the TPF didn’t partake in the barbecue feast.

$35,000 in miners’ dues went toward the American Friends of Yitzhak Rabin Center, a non-profit that promotes late Israeli Prime Minister Rabin’s legacy.  One of AFYR’s latest projects was developing the $17 million Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, Israel.

(Wonder if anyone from UMWA headquarters in Triangle, Virginia cashed 6,000 frequent flyer miles to visit the Center.) 

The miners’ union doesn’t just fund for projects in the Middle East, though.  The union shelled out thousands to West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, a non-profit whose mission is to expand government-run healthcare. 

The UMWA also spent a whopping $28,890 at Pittsburgh-based Partyline Catering.  The union spares no expense when it comes to good grub… wish we got an invite.

So where did all this money come from? 

In 2014, the UMWA took in a total of $104,733,957.  Of that, $13,052,405 was collected from dues and agency fees.  Two times every month, UMWA members pay $82.04 in dues.  Now that West Virginia is a right-to-work state, miners do not have to pay the union anything. 

“Fees, fines, assessments, work permits” made up $7,806,933 of the union's revenue.  The UMWA reported spending over nine million on “benefits,” but before you breathe a sigh of relief, these benefits are for union employees, not miners. 

In fact, the UMWA spent a mere $5,000, or .0047 percent, of their total receipts “on behalf of individual members.” 

Five.  Thousand.  Dollars.

29 UMWA employees, six of whom are listed as assistants, have a salary over $100,000.  In 2007, the UMWA boasted 80,060 members.  That number is down to 73,937 and Obama’s Clean Power plan (CPP) could kill an additional 125,800 jobs.       

It seems that the UMWA is better at creating jobs in Turkey and Tel Aviv than it is protecting mining jobs in West Virginia.