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Transport Workers Union

Financial Transparency & LM Reporting

Official International filings, what the International-plus-local structure shows, and carrier-focused financial visibility for Southwest, Allegiant, Flight Services International, and JetBlue.

Financial Disclosures

TWU’s finances should be read in two layers. The International books the top-level per-capita and affiliate-transmittal structure, while the flight-attendant groups reviewed here are organized through identifiable local bodies where local annual filings can be independently verified.

That makes TWU easier to follow than a parent/sector structure like CWA-AFA in one important respect: the public record gives readers named flight-attendant locals rather than a pooled sector body. The most important question is therefore not only what TWU International receives, but how much real financial and representational capacity is visible at the local level.

How the Money Flow Works

TWU International’s LM-2 shows that the International does not book direct dues and agency fees as its principal recurring labor-organization income. In the reviewed filings, the top-level recurring money story is per-capita tax together with funds collected on behalf of affiliates for transmittal to them.

TWU’s FY2025 International LM-2 lists rates of dues and fees as “2 HRS PAY per Month,” but Statement B still shows the International’s recurring receipts dominated by per-capita tax and affiliate-transmittal lines rather than direct dues booked on line 36.

Official Filings

The International filings are the right place to show TWU’s top-level scale and the degree to which the International acts as a clearing and transmittal layer for affiliates.

TWU International Overview

The International filings show a clearer top-level pass-through structure than CWA-AFA’s parent/sector split, but the most important member-facing representation still sits at the local level.

PAC Activity

TWU’s political action committee is tracked separately through the Federal Election Commission rather than through the International LM-2 spending schedules.

Carrier Groups Under Review

Southwest Airlines — Local 556

Southwest is the clearest current TWU example of directly visible local flight-attendant funding because Local 556 files its own official LM-2 and explicitly identifies its unit as “AIR TRANSPORT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS.”

Local 556 is the strongest public TWU example because the same local that represents the bargaining unit also files a clearly labeled official annual report.

How local funds appear to reach bases: the official Local 556 filing reports one local-union treasury for Southwest flight attendants rather than separately reported base treasuries. The filing shows both domicile-specific officer roles and centrally booked committee / staff roles, which suggests that base-level service is delivered through one local structure rather than through separate publicly reported base funds.

Allegiant Air — Local 577

Allegiant is traceable in official filings through recurring TWU International transactions with TWU Local 577, but a stand-alone Local 577 annual LM filing has not yet been independently surfaced in this review.

That makes Allegiant more traceable than a pure organizing-opacity story, but less transparent than Southwest, where a stand-alone official local annual report is readily available.

Flight Services International

Flight Services International remains the least transparent TWU carrier group in the official filing record reviewed here. A stand-alone local annual filing tied directly to the FSI flight-attendant group has not yet been independently surfaced.

That is why this page keeps the FSI section cautious. The official money trail is not yet clean enough to assign a full local treasury with confidence from non-union public sources alone.

JetBlue — Local 579

JetBlue is one of the clearer non-Southwest TWU examples because official filings show a documented startup / reimbursement relationship between TWU International and TWU Local 579, even though a stand-alone Local 579 annual LM filing has not yet been independently surfaced in this review.

Publicly, JetBlue shows a clear local identity and a documented International-to-local funding relationship, but not yet a fully verified local annual treasury in the official filing record reviewed here.

Important Limit

TWU is easier to follow than a multi-layered structure like CWA-AFA in one important respect: the flight-attendant groups reviewed here sit in identifiable local bodies, and at least one of those locals — Local 556 — files a clearly labeled flight-attendant LM-2.

But not every local filing has been independently verified in the official public record reviewed here. For Allegiant and JetBlue, this page therefore combines official International funding signals with the absence of a surfaced stand-alone local annual filing. For Flight Services International, the page remains more cautious because the official International reimbursements are not yet cleanly assignable to a specifically named local annual report.