One would be hard-pressed to pinpoint the precise moment when UAW corruption began, but the official clean-up attempt started five years ago. In 2021, Neil Barofsky began a six-year term as the union’s federal monitor with the onerous task of prodding the union toward legitimacy. What has transpired since then is almost a spectator sport, given a dozen monitor reports that painted President Shawn Fain as a fear-inducing leader who makes his own staffers cry and retaliates against those who don’t fall in line with his expenditure demands.
Barofsky was installed as a direct consequence of the UAW corruption scandal that resulted in convictions of more than a dozen union officials, including former President Gary Jones and former Vice President Norwood Jewell. We won’t know the monitor’s final recommendations until at least May 2027, but the cost has been mounting, and members are footing the bill through dues payments. The union’s newly released 2025 LM-2, filed with the Department of Labor, tells that tale and much more.
The Federal Monitor’s Price Tag
The U.S. government requires the UAW to pay for its oversight costs as established in the union’s Consent Decree with the DOJ. In 2025, that added up to $8.3 million on monitor-related costs, including $7.06 million paid to Barofsky’s law firm, Jenner & Block, where he co-chairs the Monitorship Practice.
Other monitor-related costs included payments totaling $666,252 to risk-management consulting firm StoneTurn Group and $651,936 for data storage services from KLDiscovery. As the Detroit News further notes, the $7.06 million brings the five-year total to over $25 million.
Officer Salaries
In 2025, Fain took home $276,378 in total compensation including his $245,390 salary. Sure, the UAW chief isn’t the wealthiest union leader out there–SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland famously took home over $1 million in 2024–but Fain’s 2025 base salary is comparable to Sean O’Brien’s $258,983 in 2025.
And if you’re wondering how many “Eat The Rich” t-shirts that Fain could buy with his salary, you’re not alone!
Additionally, Schedule 11 of the LM-2 further reveals that 13 of the UAW’s 15 listed officers received gross officer disbursements of $200,000 or more, adding up to over $3.3 million in gross compensation.
Spending outpaced revenue
The LM-2 reveals that the UAW took in $294.4 million in total receipts and spent $298.8 million. That signals negative operating cash despite the union also reporting $1.2 billion in net assets.
Separately last year, two members of the Senate HELP Committee asked why the union offloaded $340 million in stocks to cover strike benefits in recent years. Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time that the UAW’s financials recently raised questions, which isn’t a good look for a union with an extensive history of embezzlement and other forms of corruption.
Strike Benefits
The union paid $8.5 million in strike benefits during 2025, roughly the same amount it spent on federal oversight of its own leadership. These payments covered multiple disputes, including a three-week strike on GE Aerospace and a month-long counterpart at Lockheed Martin. However, the LM-2 further reveals that reimbursements for 2023 strikes against Big Three automakers were also included in the total.
The writing on the corrupted wall
The UAW’s full LM-2 spans 330 pages, but what stands out most clearly is how the union’s 2025 monitor costs ($8.3 million) are nearly equal to strike benefits costs ($8.5 million). That’s a stark illustration of how the union’s resources, funded by members, are being redirected to investigate the people who are claiming to represent workers’ interests.
