International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Financial Transparency & LM Reporting
International per-capita structure, airline-local funding, and a carrier-focused review of NetJets, Republic, and Sun Country, including the Republic / Mesa joint representation arrangement with CWA-AFA.
Financial Disclosures
IBT finances should be read in layers. The International books per-capita income and top-level disbursements, while the airline-facing work for the carriers reviewed here is handled through affiliated locals. That makes the IBT structure different from CWA-AFA’s pooled sector model: the top-level money story is clearer at the International, but the carrier-facing representation layer is pushed down into locals.
That structure creates a distinct transparency limit. The relevant airline locals are broader multi-industry Teamster bodies, so even when a local annual LM filing is visible, it is usually not a flight-attendant-only budget. For CrewSignal readers, the important question is not just what IBT National Headquarters receives in per-capita tax, but how much of the real airline representation story can be traced through Local 284, Local 135, and Local 120.
How the Money Flow Works
The IBT National Headquarters LM-2 shows that the International’s principal recurring labor-organization income is per-capita tax rather than direct dues and agency fees. Carrier-facing representation then sits in affiliated locals, with the Teamsters Airline Division serving as the industry coordination umbrella rather than a separate publicly visible dues-booking layer.
- International layer: per-capita tax receipts, top-level representational spending, and national administration.
- Airline Division layer: industry coordination and bargaining support across airline crafts.
- Local layer: carrier-facing representation through multi-industry Teamster locals such as Local 284, Local 135, and Local 120.
The IBT public record is therefore not a simple carrier-by-carrier dues ledger. It is a national per-capita system on top of local multi-industry treasuries, which means airline-specific money trails are visible only indirectly unless a public local filing and a carrier-specific membership grouping can be lined up carefully.
IBT National Headquarters Filings
The International’s LM-2 is the right place to show the top-level scale of the union. It is not the place to measure what NetJets, Republic, or Sun Country flight attendants receive directly, but it does show the size of the national per-capita system and the scale of top-level representational spending.
- FY ending 12/31/2023: IBT National Headquarters LM-2 — members 1,267,407; per-capita tax $204,186,672; total receipts $242,027,844; representational activities $57,935,613.
- FY ending 12/31/2022: IBT National Headquarters LM-2 — members 1,253,634; per-capita tax $192,885,463; total receipts $225,328,310; representational activities $47,517,778.
- FY ending 12/31/2021: IBT National Headquarters LM-2 — members 1,015,775; per-capita tax $184,593,605; total receipts $210,845,147; representational activities $46,856,917.
More recent National Headquarters filings surfaced in OLMS during this review, but the 2024 page returned a maintenance alert and the 2025 page did not load reliably enough to use here. This page therefore uses the latest fully readable National Headquarters filings reviewed in this pass.
Airline Division and Carrier Locals
The Teamsters Airline Division publicly describes itself as representing airline-industry members including flight attendants. But the key operational and financial units for the carriers below are still their affiliated locals, not a single national flight-attendant sector body.
For CrewSignal readers, that means the core question is not only what the International receives in per-capita, but whether the relevant local appears broad and adequately resourced enough to support the airline group inside it — while recognizing that the local’s annual report almost always mixes airline and non-airline activity.
- NetJets: Teamsters Local 284
- Republic Airways: Teamsters Local 135
- Sun Country: Teamsters Local 120
- Airline Division page: Teamsters Airline Division
NetJets
Public Teamster materials show that NetJets flight attendants are represented through Local 284 in Columbus, Ohio. Those same public materials also show that Local 284 represents multiple other NetJets workgroups in addition to flight attendants, including dispatchers, maintenance employees, and stock clerks.
- Official local site: Teamsters Local 284
- Public Teamster source: NetJets / Local 284 article
Important limit: Local 284 is not a NetJets-flight-attendant-only organization. Its local financial reporting therefore cannot be treated as a pure NetJets flight-attendant return-per-dues-dollar measure without additional internal breakdowns.
Republic Airways
Public Teamster sources place Republic Airways flight attendants in Local 135. Teamsters says Local 135’s Republic contract covers more than 2,000 flight attendants and related professionals, and Local 135’s own airline pages identify Republic as a major local airline unit.
- Official Republic page: Local 135 Republic Airways page
- Official Teamster release: Republic contract ratification release
- Contract PDF: Republic Airways Flight Attendant contract
Important limit: Local 135 is a broad Teamster local spanning many industries and divisions. Its public financial reports therefore cannot be treated as a Republic-flight-attendant-only budget without a more exact internal breakdown than the public record currently provides.
Sun Country Airlines
Public Teamster sources place Sun Country flight attendants in Local 120. Teamsters says Local 120’s current Sun Country contract followed a credible strike threat by more than 700 flight attendants, while Local 120’s own public filing record shows that the local is a large regional, multi-industry Teamster body rather than an airline-only treasury.
- Official Teamster release: Sun Country contract ratification release
- Official local site: Teamsters Local 120
- Official local filing: Local 120 LM-2 (FY ending 12/31/2022)
Current Local 120 Signals
- Members: 10,551
- Regular dues / fees rate: $15 to $157 per month
- Dues and agency fees: $9,501,732
- Fees, fines, assessments: $754,409
- Other receipts: $1,431,578
- Total receipts: $11,748,934
- Representational activities: $3,597,944
- Per-capita tax disbursements: $2,218,045
Local 120 is the clearest verified local annual-filing example in this review, and it is useful precisely because it shows the limit of the public record. The local is plainly substantial, but it is not a Sun Country-only labor organization, so its filing cannot be read as a pure Sun Country flight-attendant service-return scorecard.
Republic / Mesa Joint Representation Arrangement
The public relationship between IBT and CWA-AFA becomes most visible in the Republic / Mesa merger setting. Official CWA-AFA and Local 135 materials show that Republic flight attendants represented by Teamsters Local 135 and Mesa flight attendants represented by CWA-AFA reached a joint collective bargaining agreement after the merger, using the Republic contract as the base and covering nearly 3,000 flight attendants.
That public record goes beyond simple coexistence. Official merger materials also describe both unions contributing bargaining resources, including attorneys, subject matter experts, economists, and other support. In other words, the public materials support a real joint-representation and joint-bargaining structure.
- CWA-AFA release: Joint tentative agreement announcement
- Local 135 merger material: JCBA summary | Merger information page
Important disclosure limit: the reviewed official merger materials do not publicly disclose a cost-sharing formula, reimbursement agreement, or direct inter-union transfer arrangement between IBT and CWA-AFA. The joint bargaining structure is public; the financial allocation method is not.
Important Limit
Unlike CWA-AFA’s sector-wide structure, the Teamster carrier groups reviewed here sit inside broader multi-industry locals. That makes airline-specific representation more locally anchored, but it also means local LM-2 or LM-3 reports may mix airline and non-airline activity in ways that prevent a clean carrier-only return-per-dues-dollar analysis.
For CrewSignal readers, the cleanest current IBT financial story is: International per-capita structure at the top, then local-level carrier representation through Local 284, Local 135, and Local 120, with the added Republic / Mesa disclosure point that a joint IBT / CWA-AFA bargaining arrangement is publicly visible but its internal financial allocation is not.