On Eve of Election, UAW's Shawn Fain Stands Up to Government Monitor

The federal monitor charged with rooting out “fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices” in the Auto Workers union issued a report today accusing UAW President Shawn Fain of “retaliation” against Vice President Rich Boyer. Earlier reports by Monitor Neil Barofsky had made similar claims regarding Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock.

The Monitor said he had not decided on remedies for the conduct he described, “pending further consultation with the parties to the Consent Decree.” It was a 2021 Consent Decree, quoted above, between the Justice Department and the union that put Barofsky, who had no prior experience with unions, in his job.

PRE-ELECTION SURPRISE

The move comes as Fain begins his campaign among members for re-election as president. Boyer is the best known of his opponents for the job. Ballots are to be mailed in August.

Fain says, in effect, that Barofsky is the one guilty of “retaliation.” His animus toward Fain dates to late 2023, when the new UAW International Executive Board was debating a call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Barofsky phoned Fain to ask him to block the move. Although he admitted that the union’s stance on international affairs was not in his jurisdiction as a monitor, he continued to try to influence Fain and the Board not to oppose Israel’s actions, even saying Fain’s position appeared “anti-Semitic.”

Ever since, Barofsky has issued a series of reports critical of Fain. His office has spent countless hours interviewing UAW staffers and officers, digging into internal decision-making.

In today’s report, for example, he notes that Fain was critical of Boyer, who oversees the union’s Stellantis Department, for holding a meeting of Stellantis local officers in Puerto Rico, though no Stellantis members work on the island. (Holding meetings in warm-weather resorts was common practice in the UAW before Fain took office.) But the Monitor defended the Puerto Rico junket, saying it was “the result of a good-faith reliance on UAW guidance and a failure of the Compliance Department to conduct timely training on the new policy. Boyer was therefore not derelict in his duty by having the conference in Puerto Rico.”

Last week the UAW’s quadrennial convention overwhelmingly adopted measures, proposed by Fain’s team, designed to continue the union’s more militant direction. Delegates also voted to divest the union of all Israel bonds.

BACKGROUND

Barofsky was appointed in 2021 as the result of a Justice Department investigation into corruption at the highest levels of the union, including embezzlement, self-dealing, and collusion with employers. Twelve union leaders (and one widow) and one Stellantis (then called Fiat-Chrysler) executive were convicted and most went to jail. One top official had his mortgage paid off by the company; another was charged with taking $1.99 million in kickbacks from vendors for UAW swag, among many examples.The idea, according to Stellantis execs, was to keep union bargainers “fat, dumb, and happy.”

Members then voted, in a union-wide referendum, that they wanted the right to elect top officers themselves, rather than delegating that power to the union’s convention.

In subsequent elections and run-offs that stretched over months in 2022-23, Fain’s slate—which at that time included Boyer and Mock—went on to win a majority on the union’s executive board, on a platform of “No Concessions, No Corruption, No Tiers.”

Fain immediately began prepping members for a contract campaign and strike against the Big 3 automakers. Their Stand-Up Strike won contracts equal in value to four times the money won in the previous four contracts.

But while the union was making history in the outside world, dissent was rife at union headquarters.

Fain said that Mock was managing the union’s finances in a way that undermined the union’s new approach. She refused to sign off on expenditures other officers saw as necessary, such as buying new picket signs for the Stand-Up Strike or billboards for the union drive at Volkswagen. Boyer, meanwhile, was accused of failing to enforce the contract at Stellantis, including the reopening of the Belvidere plant, and of agreeing to a new attendance program that members hated.

At Fain’s urging, the IEB voted to relieve Mock and Boyer of some of their responsibilities.

Barofsky called the board’s actions “retaliation.” The two were returned to all their posts earlier this year.

OUT SWINGING

Earlier, Fain had attempted to de-escalate his relationship with Barofsky and complied with his orders to reinstate Mock and Boyer. But today he issued a statement: “Now, more than two years after becoming aware of Vice President Boyer’s allegations, Mr. Barofsky has chosen to release a politically charged and false report about me. The most reasonable conclusion is that he is playing political games and abusing his power.”

Fain’s reelection slate, United UAW, is standing behind him unanimously.

Cathy Highet, a union democracy lawyer, said, “It is utterly inappropriate for a court-appointed monitor to try to influence a union's position on foreign policy.

“Court-appointed monitors only have the authority given to them by the court, and it's important they limit themselves to that role rather than trying to run the union…

“The Monitor has the authority to bring ‘charges’ against officers. Then the officers have a right to a trial by someone else, with a just-cause standard. In other words, the Monitor is a prosecutor, not a judge.”

Nick Livick, a General Motors worker in Kansas City and chair of the reform network UAW Member Action, said, “The Monitor told Fain to support Israel. Fain told him to kick rocks. It’s clear this has all been personal since then...

“We pay this corporate lawyer a lot of money to undermine our union. I’m glad Shawn is fighting back!”