Ballots are being mailed this week to more than 1 million active and retired members of the United Auto Workers union for a vote set up by the sweeping scandal that left two of the union’s past presidents in federal prison.
The election is being supervised by a court-appointed monitor put in place as part of the settlement of a of a racketeering suit the U.S. Department of Justice filed against the organization to fix what the federal prosecutors described as a culture of corruption inside the union.
Ballots are due back Nov. 29 to the elections officer employed by the court-appointed monitor, Washington D.C. attorney Neil Barofsky, and they will determine if the union will change the way it selects its top leaders.
For decades the union’s leadership has been selected by delegates to a convention, which then votes for president and other top officers. Union members and retirees are being asked to either keep the current system or change to direct election of top officers similar to the method used by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Reformers push for change
Federal investigators believe direct election of officers would serve as a permanent check on the corruption that led to 11 different union officers and officials as well as the widow of a 12th pleading guilty to federal crimes.
The federal investigation also led to Stellantis paying $30 million fine for violations of U.S. labor law by Fiat Chrysler, which became part of the new automaker after the merger with PSA Group.
The vote has spawned a contest between the UAW’s scandal-scarred, Administrative Caucus, which has run the UAW for decades, and a loose alliance of reformers and critics, who believe it is time for a change to reinvigorate the union and rebuild some of influence it has lost.
During a forum organized by the monitor, supporters of the shift to direct election of officers said the tight control exerted by the Administrative Caucus has demoralized union members. They also believe it’s led to a string of substandard contracts, which undercut UAW members standard of living and fostered the corruption, badly damaging the union’s reputation.
Two sides square off in debate
Frank Hammer, a longtime union activist and frequent critic of UAW leaders, said, “They have expressed no regret — as a caucus — to the rank and file, nor offered any reforms to their orchestrated Conventions that got us into this mess.
“The political leadership of the union must fundamentally change to lead the charge in reinventing a democratic UAW,” Hammer said. “The only way to do that is to support one member one vote, as advocated by the rank-and-file group, the UAWD.”
Other speakers calling for reform criticized the current system for its failure to fight against concessions and two-tier contracts, which union members complain divide UAW members. Others noted Fiat Chrysler successfully spent $3.5 million to purchase influence with key union officials, according to federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor and the FBI.
Other UAW member defended the existing delegate system because it meant UAW leaders had to work their way up through the ranks and master their job rather than becoming a politician constantly campaigning for votes, according to Dave Curson, a longtime UAW staff member, who served as a top aide to former UAW president Dennis Williams, who is now serving a prison sentence for violating federal law.
Direct election of officers also would open the union up to “dark money,” which would come into the union campaigns to buy influence inside the UAW, other speakers noted.
The UAW leadership, according to new a ruling by the federal judge overseeing the racketeering settlement, cannot use any UAW funds on any aspect of the referendum campaign. Even explanatory material must come from the monitor and his website rather than the UAW executive board or existing local union leadership.
The UAW’s current executive board, which is opposed to the direct election and putting their posts in jeopardy, is reaching out to an informal network of retired staff members to campaign among fellow retirees to maintain the current system. That push begins with former UAW President Rory Gamble, who signed the racketeering settlement before his retirement in June, said has served the union well over the years.
The UAW retirees, however, also are restless as one of the speakers during the forum noted. The last union president to pay attention to the interest of retirees was Steve Yokich, who left office in 2002, according to the poster.
Reformers also trying to build interest in the vote not only among disgruntled industrial workers but also among “academic workers” on the East and West Coasts, who make up about 20% of the union’s active membership but have no representation on UAW’s executive board.