KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Under scrutiny for lavish spending practices and a lack of accountability, leaders of the Boilermakers union five years ago took steps to show they were being good stewards of members' dues.
They made across-the-board pay cuts and eliminated some positions _ including that of the president's then 23-year-old son, whose salary and expenses totaled $124,000.
But a recent examination of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers found that things appear to have returned to business as usual.
Six-figure salaries for officers and their relatives. Fine dining, stays in posh hotels and expensive hunting retreats. Cars as parting gifts for retired employees, and hundreds of thousands spent on promotional events and videos. All while membership continues its downward spiral and the pension fund struggles to stay afloat.
The union, with headquarters in Kansas City, Kan., represents about 58,000 workers in the United States and Canada who assemble, install and repair boilers, fit pipes, and build power plants and ships.
The Kansas City Star investigated the Boilermakers in 2012, finding that the president and other executives were living the good life. President Newton B. Jones' salary and business expenses totaled more than $607,000, which put him above the presidents of the biggest unions in the country.
The newspaper also found that several of Jones' family members and relatives of other officers were earning hefty union salaries, as well.
In an updated analysis, The Star found similar concerns:
_While the union cut salaries across the board _ including Jones' _ at its headquarters in fiscal year 2013, the numbers have climbed back up. Jones' base salary, which was $295,628 in 2013, rose to $435,240 in 2016. And his total disbursements _ which include salary plus expenses for official business, such as travel _ grew from $491,866 in 2013 to $756,973 in 2016.
_The salaries of the union's seven top officers now add up to $2.5 million, with total disbursements to those officers exceeding $3.5 million. Of the 107 other employees, 46 earn six-figure salaries, with 16 of them receiving total disbursements of more than $200,000 _ including one of $365,546.
_Family members of executives are still earning healthy salaries working for the union or its affiliates, and Jones' wife is now on the payroll along with his brother and son.
_The union headquarters continues to spend sizable sums on classy hotels, fine cuisine and entertainment, such as season tickets to professional sporting events.
_Federal authorities, including the U.S. Department of Labor, have investigated the $28 million Boilermaker Vacation Plan and one of its local lodges.
"This is so over the top," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center in Falls Church, Va., a conservative ethics-in-government group. "It really tells you that there aren't the kinds of checks and balances that are supposed to be there."
The union did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But in a letter responding to The Star's report in 2012, it defended executives' compensation, saying that "pay for top leaders of the Boilermakers union is voted on, in true democratic fashion, by delegates representing rank-and-file members, every five years."
The union said at the time that the hiring of family members was part of the Boilermakers culture.
"Those who work in our trade often do so because it is what their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did," the union said. "It is quite common for working members _ and their leaders _ to have relatives employed in the industry at various levels."
As executives' pay is amassing, the union's membership has steadily declined, from 57,203 in 2012 to 53,287 in 2016, according to its annual reports filed with the Labor Department.
Yet Jones' base salary and total disbursements remain significantly higher than those of the leaders of the country's biggest unions.
It's not just the union members who are affected by the spending practices. Taxpayers have a stake in the issue, as well.
The Boilermakers, like most unions, are structured as a nonprofit organization, said Marcus Owens, a Washington, D.C., attorney who once headed the division of the IRS that oversees nonprofits. That means the union qualifies for exemption from federal income tax.
"They're not paying income tax," Owens said, repeating a concern he expressed five years ago. "So in a sense, we're all supporting them."
Because unions are exempt, Owens said, the law prohibits union officials from improperly benefiting from the tax-free money they raise.
"So when a tax-exempt organization abuses that tax-exempt status and ignores the boundaries, it really has something in common with somebody who cheats on their taxes individually," Owens said. "They are eroding the very idea of a voluntary tax system, and that's ultimately destructive for civil society."
A group of relatives all working for one tax-exempt organization raises concerns about whether the income is being used for the benefit of certain members, Owens said.
"Labor unions are designed to further the interests of workers in collective bargaining," he said. "They're not a personal money-making business or an individual's own enterprise."
The steep salaries infuriate some rank-and-file Boilermakers, who note that the work they perform is physically demanding and dangerous. Many have to travel long distances to their job sites and live away from home for extended periods.
"This is just more proof that they're completely out of touch with the rank-and-file membership," said Nick Giannone, a trustee of Local 29 in Boston who was sued by Jones in 2012 after creating a Facebook page called "Lord Newton B. Jones, Monarch" that pilloried Jones and criticized his salary. The lawsuit was later dismissed.
The median annual wage for boilermakers was $60,120 in May 2015, according to the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $36,810, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $86,290.
Boilermaker members pay dues to the international headquarters that range from $26.55 to $27.10 per month.
"The union is supposed to be for the benefit of the members, not a family clique," Giannone said. "It's a living for us. But it's a family business for them.
"I think we need to shine a light into some of these places and expose it."
