Gus Bevona

Gus Bevona (October 20, 1940 – September 21, 2010) was an American labor leader who served starting in 1981 as head of Local 32B-32J of the Service Employees International Union, who helped his local's elevator operators and janitors who work in New York City commercial and residential buildings some of the best paid in the country.

Bevona was hired as a filing clerk by the SEIU local, which had been founded in 1934 after a strike by 25 workers at a Seventh Avenue office building and had grown over the years to become one of the largest in the country.

[3] In a February 1998 referendum that gave local members the option to cut Bevona's salary to $122,000 a year, 70% of those casting ballots voted against the proposal.

[6] Bevona had been facing increasing criticism for receiving a salary that reached $531,529 in 1997 and a lavish package of benefits, more than 17 time the earnings of the building workers he represented.

[1] Upon leaving office in February 1999, Bevona received a $1.5 million package that included $850,000 in severance pay and compensation for accrued vacation time that added another $650,000, while Bevona's wife resigned from her position with the local as an administrative assistant and received a $50,000 severance package of her own.