UAW votes for direct election of leaders in wake of scandal
DETROIT — Members of the United Auto Workers union have overwhelmingly approved picking their leaders by direct ballot elections, rejecting a system that many blamed for a bribery and embezzlement scandal in the union’s top ranks.
The “one member, one vote” measure got about 64% of 140,586 valid ballots that were received by last week’s mail-in deadline.
Only about 36% favored the current system of leadership picked by delegates to a convention, according to results released Thursday. The results are not official until approved by the Labor Department and a federal judge.
A court-appointed monitor will develop rules and oversee the election of the union’s 13-member International Executive Board, which includes the president, three vice presidents, secretary-treasurer and regional directors.
All current board members including President Ray Curry are expected to run.
The monitor, Neil Barofsky, said in a statement that the election is likely to take place in the summer or fall of next year.
The change is a dramatic one for the 86-yearold union with 397,000 members nationwide. In the past, union leaders were chosen every four years at a convention, with the delegates picked by local union offices.
But the new slate of leaders is picked by the outgoing president, and seldom has there been any serious opposition.
Direct elections received 89,615 votes, while 50,971 wanted delegate voting. Over 1 million active members and retirees were eligible to vote.
Barofsky was appointed by a federal judge earlier
this year as part of a settlement that avoided a government takeover of the union after a wide-ranging bribery and embezzlement scandal. The vote on direct election of leaders also was part of the settlement.
Peggy Jones, a worker at General Motors’ truck assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, said she voted to keep the delegate system but understands that many workers are upset with and don’t trust union leaders because of the scandal.
Jones said she voted for the delegate system for fear that smaller industries and locals won’t be represented under the direct election system. She’s also afraid that some fringe members without experience could be elected.
“You don’t want someone in here that doesn’t have experience,” she said. “There’s still a whole lot of good people in the UAW. I have trust in the people who are left.”
But Eric Truss, who makes axles for Ford F-150 pickup trucks at the company’s Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, said
he voted for direct elections to hold leaders accountable.
“They know if they’re not listening to their members, they won’t be back in office next time around,” said Truss, a member of a union caucus formed to oppose leaders after news of the scandal broke.
Many members, he said, were upset because dues were misused by union leaders after they were raised at the last union convention.
The vote and monitor are part of a December 2020 deal between former UAW President Rory Gamble and ex-U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider in Detroit that held off moves by the government to take over the union.
Gamble, who retired in June and was replaced by Curry, was not charged in the federal probe.
Eleven union officials and a late official’s spouse have pleaded guilty in the corruption probe since 2017, including the two presidents who served before Gamble, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams. Both were sentenced to prison.