DETROIT — For the National Auto Workers Union, the last five years have been one of the most troubling chapters in the union’s history.
A federal investigation uncovered widespread corruption. a dozen senior officialsincluding two former presidents convicted of embezzling more than $1 million in union funds for extravagant travel and other extravagant personal spending. are overseen by court-appointed monitors charged with ensuring the implementation of
The scandal has damaged the once-powerful organization, leaving many of its 400,000 active members angry and disillusioned.
“I must be mad,” said Bill Bagwell, a 37-year UAW employee who works at a General Motors parts warehouse in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on behalf of Local 174. money. I don’t like people stealing our money. “
Now, UAW members have a chance to decide how far they want to move from that past. In one of the changes sparked by the corruption scandal, the union will elect its leaders through direct elections this year. This is the first time. Historically, the president and other high-ranking officials were chosen by delegates to the convention. This system allowed the union’s executive committee to shape the outcome through favors and favors, and the outcome did not always reflect the views of the general public.
“Everyone in power belongs to one party, and it has always been,” said William Parker, a retired worker who is eligible to vote and wants new officials to take over. “But now we have one man, one vote, and we are mobilizing for change.”
During a chaotic four-day convention in Detroit last week, about 900 delegates debated a variety of issues facing the union. Four members have been nominated to challenge incumbent President Ray Curry in the fall elections. Under delegate-approved rules, the union’s approximately 600,000 retirees can vote but cannot run for executive office. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes cast for him, the top two candidates will have a runoff vote.
The convention proceedings were dragged out each day as members stepped into the microphone to submit motions, objections and requests for clarification. They backed off the move a day after voting to raise benefits for striking workers from $400 to $500 a week. At least three times he was scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address, but an extended debate forced a postponement and the convention was postponed without his address.
Curry is seen as a strong candidate for re-election. He has served in his senior position for more than a decade and will be sworn in as president in 2021 in the aftermath of a corruption scandal.
One potentially serious challenger is Sean Fain, an electrician who has been a member of the UAW for 28 years and holds a position on the union’s headquarters staff. He is part of a list of candidates for senior positions and is backed by Unite All Workers for Democracy, a dissident group that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the campaign.
“Members must believe in leadership and believe the corruption is over,” Fain said.
The other candidate is Brian Keller, a quality worker at Stellantis who for years ran a Facebook group critical of union leaders. Will Lehman works at a Mack truck factory in Pennsylvania. His Mark Gibson, chairman of Local 163 in Westland, Michigan, said:
The challenger and Curry have agreed on most of the key issues at stake in next year’s contract negotiations. Members want automakers to resume cost-of-living wage adjustments, once a key component of UAW contracts, and close the pay gap between junior and senior workers. Workers hired before 2007 receive full UAW wages of approximately $32 an hour and a guaranteed pension. Workers hired after 2007 start at a low wage and can work up to the maximum wage in five years. They get her 401(k) retirement account instead of a pension.
Dorian Fenderson, a UAW member at GM in Warren, Michigan, started a year ago as a temporary worker making $17 an hour and four months later became a full-time employee, making $22 an hour.
“There’s someone doing the same job as me and making $34,” he said. “I know they’ve been here for a long time, but it’s not fair to people like me.”
Opposition candidates say the UAW has taken a more confrontational line in contract negotiations, and now that manufacturers are sure to make a profit, they want to get back concessions, keep more production in the US and use more union labor. I am asking you to encourage me to do so. GM is building his four battery plants in joint ventures, and Ford Motor is building his three battery plants with its own partners. Unions have the opportunity to organize these factories, but their success is not guaranteed.
“We’re bleeding work. We have to stop that,” Fain said.
Curry said he is confident the battery factory will be organized and workers will be covered by UAW contracts with automakers. He said similar joint ventures have been represented by unions in the past, noting that the current contract allocates engine production to the UAW.
“We think of batteries as the powertrain of electric vehicles,” he said in an interview. “It’s just new technology. We have the right to negotiate it and establish a place for them.”
One of Curry’s potential weaknesses may be his recent actions that have angered some members. He and his executive committee members recently increased salaries and pensions for themselves and other employees working at union headquarters. A vice president running for re-election said he spent $95,000 in union funds on backpacks embroidered with his name and to be handed out to union members at union rallies.
Court-appointed observer Neil Barofsky wrote in a July report that he had conducted 19 public investigations into possible fraud and said Mr Curry’s leadership group was uncooperative at times. Barofsky, a New York company attorney, wrote that union leaders had discovered mishandling of union funds by senior officials but covered up the matter, but said cooperation and transparency had improved in recent months. added.
Curry said he stepped in and addressed the issue after learning of the problem communicating with the monitor.
“You should read the report to the end. Finally, Monitor talks about true transparency, response times, changes in attorneys and the steps we’ve taken to show we’re moving in a positive direction.” He said. “And I asked them to come directly to me if they had problems with their monitors so I wouldn’t read about it in the report four months later.”
Barovsky declined to comment beyond the findings of the report.
Decades ago, the UAW was a powerful organization that influenced presidential elections, consistently winning wage and benefit increases, often through hardline negotiations and strikes. Contracts with GM, Ford, and Chrysler set standards that helped raise wages and benefits for working-class workers across the country, unionized and ununified.
But that fortunes waned as Detroit automakers steadily scaled back their U.S. operations and Toyota, Honda, Nissan and other foreign automakers struggled to compete as they built non-union factories in the South. . His 2009 bankruptcy filings by GM and Chrysler forced the union to make once-unthinkable concessions, including his two-tier wage structure.
Over the past decade, automakers have often rebounded with record profits, and union members have benefited. Last year, GM paid each of his UAW employees his $10,250 profit-sharing bonus. But in other respects the union is still falling behind. His 40-day strike in 2019 failed to prevent GM from closing its Rosetown, Ohio plant, and workers have gone without a cost-of-living adjustment to their wages since 2009. .
A corruption investigation was launched by Detroit federal prosecutors around 2014 and ultimately found a plot to embezzle more than $1.5 million from membership fees and more than $3.5 million from training centers. Union officials spent the money on expensive cigars, wine, liquor, golf clubs, apparel, and luxury travel.
More than a dozen UAW officials pleaded guilty. As part of the consent decree to settle the investigation, the U.S. District Court in Detroit appointed Mr. Barofsky to oversee the UAW’s efforts to become more democratic and transparent.
In July former UAW President Gary Jones was released from federal prison after serving less than nine months of his 28-month sentence. Another former leader, Dennis Williams, served nine months of a 21-month prison sentence. Other convicted officials were also released after serving less than half their sentences.
At last week’s convention, the shortened sentence was a source of frustration for many in attendance, but as the proceedings progressed, many supported Curry and the current executive committee’s position.
David Hendershot, a forklift driver at a Ford plant in Lawsonville, Michigan, hopes the union will demand higher wages in contract negotiations next year and is happy with the corruption that has taken place. “I’ll probably stick with what we have,” he said.