A Rough Road Ahead For The UAW

by | Apr 20, 2023 | Bargaining/Negotiations, Corruption, DOL, UAW

The United Auto Workers currently sit in transition for multiple reasons:

(1) News that their flagging membership recovered a bit in 2022 by rising 3% to 383,000, which can partially be attributed to their aggressive higher ed campaigns;

(2) The union would also love to shed their legacy of corruption;

(3) The union’s recent fiasco of a first direct election turned out to be a “travesty of democracy,” thereby ensuring that goal #2 won’t be met anytime soon.

On that last subject, outgoing President Ray Curry bid a hasty goodbye from his position while wishing successor Shawn Fain “great success.” Rank-and-file candidate Will Lehmen won’t depart so quickly, though. UAW federal watchdog Neil Barofsky denied Lehem’s protest of the election, including his accusations of voter suppression.

In response, Lehmen accused Barofsky of a conflict of interest due to his partner status at the law firm of Jenner & Block, which has long represented General Motors. Likewise, Glen McGorty, who assists Barofsky in this monitoring, remains a partner for Crowell & Moring, which has done “extensive” GM-focused legal work. Lehmen then filed a different protest asking the Department of Labor to allow a do-over election.

This probably will not happen, and Shawn Fain is vowing to lead a “more transparent and communicative” approach than the old guard. He has declared “war” against automakers ahead of national contract negotiations while labeling GM, Ford, and Chrysler-Stellantis to be “the enemy.”

Fain has further promised to “fed up” autoworkers that the UAW is “ready to get back in the fight.” This outward rhetoric would have people believe that he will aggressively pursue reform and take a hard-line approach to bargaining for members.

However, an allegedly leaked internal memo from the Fain camp set tongues wagging, given that his team calls out autoworkers’ “unreasonable expectations” of regular raises. The memo further frets that Fain only has around six months to be seen as credible by members before they “become cynical/disillusioned.” In other words, do not expect smooth sailing ahead for Shawn Fain.

In Tesla news, CEO Elon Musk, who is now also the Twitter CEO, must delete a controversial 2018 tweet, according to a federal appeals court, which upheld a lower court’s ruling that Musk’s words threatened the loss of stock options for employees who unionize. Additionally, the court upheld a determination that a labor activist was unlawfully fired from Tesla in 2017 and must be reinstated with back pay.

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