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United Auto Workers Seek to Shed a Legacy of Corruption

Detroit — For the United Auto Workers, the last five years have been one of the most annoying chapters in the union’s history.

A federal investigation found widespread corruption. Dozens of high-ranking officials, Convicted of embezzling more than $ 1 million in union funds for extravagant travel and other extravagant personal expenses, including two former presidents. Since last year, the union has been under the watchful eye of a court-appointed watchman responsible for ensuring the implementation of anti-corruption reforms.

The scandal once hurt a powerful organization, angering and disillusioning many of its 400,000 active members.

“I must be angry,” said Bill Bagwell, who has been with the UAW for 37 years and works at General Motors’ parts warehouse in Ypsilanti, Michigan. money. People don’t like stealing our money. “

UAW members now have the opportunity to decide how many breaks they want to take from the past. In one of the changes caused by the corruption scandal, the union elects leaders through direct elections this year. This is the first time. So far, the president and other senior officials have been selected by the representatives of the convention, a system in which the union’s executive committee can shape the results with goodwill and goodwill, and the results do not necessarily reflect the views of the ranks and files. It was.

“Everyone in power was one-party, and that was forever,” said William Parker, a retired worker who is eligible to vote and wants to see the new slate of officers take over. Said. “But now we have a vote with a man and we are mobilizing to change.”

At a chaotic convention in Detroit last four days, about 900 representatives discussed various issues facing the union. In the fall election, four members were nominated to challenge incumbent President Ray Curry. Under the rules approved by the delegation, nearly 600,000 retirees of the union can vote, but cannot run for executive office. If no candidate wins at least 50% of the votes, the top two will compete in the final vote.

The minutes of the convention were pulled out daily as members stepped into Mike and provided motions, objections, and requests for explanation. The day after they voted to increase strike workers’ benefits from $ 400 to $ 500 a week, they withdrew the move. Mr. Curry will give a State of the Union speech at least three times, the extended debate was forced to be postponed, and the convention was postponed without his speech.

Curry is considered a strong favorite for reelection. He has held senior positions for over 10 years and became president in 2021 due to the corruption scandal.

One of the potentially serious challengers is Shawn Fain, an electrician who has been a member of the UAW for 28 years and has been a staff member of the union’s headquarters. He is part of the slate of senior candidates, supported by a dissident group that has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the campaign, uniting all workers for democracy. ..

“Members must believe in leadership and corruption is behind us,” Fein said.

Another candidate is Brian Keller, a quality Stellantis worker who has been running a Facebook group for years that is critical of union leadership. Will Lehman, a worker at the Mack Trucks plant in Pennsylvania. Mark Gibson, chairman of 163 locals in Westland, Mississippi.

Challenger and Curry agree on most of the key issues at stake in next year’s contract negotiations. Members want automakers to resume wage adjustments for living expenses, which was once a key element of UAW contracts, to eliminate the difference in compensation between new employees and senior workers. Workers hired before 2007 earn a full UAW wage of approximately $ 32 per hour and are guaranteed a pension. Workers hired after 2007 are starting with lower wages and can work up to the highest wage in five years. They get a 401 (k) severance pay account instead of a pension.

Dorian Fenderson, a member of the UAW at GM’s location in Warren, Michigan, started working as a temporary worker for $ 17 an hour a year ago, and four months later became a full-time employee for $ 22 an hour. rice field.

“There are people who do the same job as me and earn $ 34,” he said. “I know they’ve been here for a long time, but it’s not really fair to people like me.”

Opposition candidates are regaining concessions, maintaining more production in the United States and more union workers, now that the UAW has taken a more confrontational policy in contract negotiations and manufacturers are making solid profits. I’m asking you to use it. GM is building four battery factories as a joint venture, and Ford Motor is building three with its own partners. Unions have the opportunity to organize these plants, but their success is not guaranteed.

“We’re a bleeding job, and we have to stop it,” Fein said.

Curry said he was confident that a battery factory would be organized and that workers would be subject to a UAW contract with an automaker.He said a similar joint venture had been represented by the union in the past, and that the current contract allocates engine production to the UAW.

“Our belief is that batteries are the powertrain of electric vehicles,” he said in an interview. “This is just a new technology. We have the right to negotiate it and establish those places.”

One of Curry’s potential weaknesses may be recent behavior that has offended some members. He and his board members have recently increased salaries and pensions for themselves and others working at union headquarters. The Vice President running for reelection spent $ 95,000 on union funding for a backpack that was to be handed over to members at a union rally with his name embroidered. This can be considered using union funds for his campaign.

In a July report, court-appointed monitor Neil Barovsky said he had conducted 19 open investigations into possible fraud, and said Curry’s leadership group was sometimes uncooperative. Barovsky, a lawyer for a New York company, wrote that union leaders discovered mishandling of union funds by senior officials, but they hid the problem, but cooperation and transparency improved in recent months. He added that he did.

Curry said he intervened to address the issue when he learned of a problem communicating with the monitor.

“You need to read the report to the end. Finally, the monitor talks about true transparency, response times, and lawyer changes. The steps we have taken are that we are moving in a positive direction. Shows, “he said. “And if there’s a problem with the monitor, I asked him to come directly to me, so I won’t read about it in the report four months later.”

Barovsky refused to comment beyond the findings of his report.

Decades ago, the UAW was a powerful organization that could influence presidential elections, often consistently earning increased wages and benefits through tough negotiations and strikes. Contracts with GM, Ford and Chrysler set standards that help raise wages and allowances for working class, union and non-union across the country.

However, its fate declined as Detroit carmakers steadily reduced their operations in the United States and Toyota, Honda, Nissan and other foreign carmakers built non-union factories in the south, struggling to compete. .. The 2009 bankruptcy filing by GM and Chrysler forced the union to make previously unthinkable concessions, including a two-step wage structure.

Over the last decade, automakers have rebounded, often making record profits, and union workers have benefited. Last year, GM paid each UAW employee a $ 10,250 profit sharing bonus. But on the other side, the union is still retreating. The 40-day strike in 2019 could not prevent GM from closing its factory in Lordstown, Ohio, and since 2009 workers have not adjusted their wages without adjusting their living expenses.

Corruption investigations were initiated around 2014 by a US lawyer in Detroit and eventually found plans to embezzle more than $ 1.5 million from membership fees and more than $ 3.5 million from training centers. The union’s top executives spent money on expensive cigars, wine, liquor, golf clubs, apparel and luxury travel.

More than a dozen UAW officials have pleaded guilty. As part of a consent decree to resolve the investigation, the US District Court in Detroit has appointed Mr. Barovsky to monitor 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 in a 28-month sentence. Another former leader, Deniece Williams, served nine months in prison for 21 months. Other convicted officials were also released after serving less than half of their sentence.

At last week’s convention, the shortened text was a source of dissatisfaction for many attendees, but as the process progressed, many supported Mr. Curry and the current board position on the issues that arose.

David Hendershot, a forklift driver at the Ford plant in Lawsonville, Mississippi, said he wasn’t happy with the corruption that occurred as he asked the union to raise wages in contract negotiations next year. But he’s not sure he wants a major change in leadership. “I will probably stick to what we have,” he said.

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