UAW president being investigated by US Federal Court monitor
NEW YORK: United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain is under investigation by the union’s federal corruption watchdog, posing a serious threat to a union celebrity who has taken on some of the world’s largest corporations and forged a close relationship with the Biden administration.

The court-appointed monitor, Neil Barofsky of Jenner & Block LLP, said in a filing he is investigating allegations that Fain retaliated against another union officer.

The 36-page report describes claims of increased stonewalling and non-cooperation by the union, as well as delayed access to documents required under a sweeping consent decree that avoided a full-fledged government takeover in 2020.

The monitor’s report, submitted to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, poses a liability to Fain, who narrowly won the presidency last year by pledging to eschew top-down leadership and backroom deals that plagued his predecessors.

While it’s not yet clear whether the allegations could expose Fain to legal trouble, the document paints the portrait of an organisation deeply sceptical of federal efforts to keep the union clean of corruption-a stark contrast to Fain’s public image as a morally centred activist.

The report came the same day the UAW reached a historic contract agreement with electric vehicle battery maker Ultium Cells LLC, a major notch in Fain’s agenda to ease the transition from gas-powered cars.

The agreement would more than double wages, from US$16.50 per hour in starting pay prior to the union deal to US$35 after a year on the job, building on gains made during a 46-day strike last year against the three Detroit automakers.

Fain also led a campaign to unionise a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in April, landing the first major union victory in the South in decades. But momentum sputtered a month later when Mercedes workers in Vance, Ala, decisively rejected the union.

The report identifies at least two union officials who say they faced retaliation for not approving certain expenditures sought by Fain.

Barofsky’s investigation zeros in on a recent incident where Fain stripped duties from an unnamed union vice-president overseeing the UAW’s relationship with Stellantis, reassigning the division under his own control May 29, citing the official’s “dereliction of duty” related to collective bargaining. — Bloomberg
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United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain is under investigation by the union’s federal corruption watchdog, posing a serious threat to a union celebrity who has taken on some of the world’s largest corporations and forged a close relationship with the Biden administration.