{"id":228494,"date":"2022-07-20T11:58:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T15:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=228494"},"modified":"2022-07-20T11:59:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T15:59:02","slug":"uaw-boosts-staff-pensions-monitor-flags-spending-as-election-campaigns-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/07\/uaw-boosts-staff-pensions-monitor-flags-spending-as-election-campaigns-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"UAW Boosts Staff Pensions, Monitor Flags Spending as Election Campaigns Begin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With a potentially close race for the presidency looming this fall, United Auto Workers President Ray Curry signed a memorandum boosting the pensions of members of the Staff Council, the UAW in-house union for UAW representatives responsible for contract enforcement and grievances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UAW's
UAW President Ray Curry signed a memorandum raising the pension benefits for members of the Staff Council.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The court-appointed monitor that oversees the union in the wake of its recent financial scandal also flagged a $95,000 expenditure for a backpack distributed to union members at a conference as an improper use of UAW funds because it supported the candidacy of Frank Stuglin, the administrative caucus campaign for UAW Secretary-Treasurer, the union\u2019s second highest office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curry\u2019s memorandum, which was obtained by TheDetroitBureau.com, eliminates a two-tier pension system built into the UAW\u2019s contract with the Staff Council, which was put in place during the 2008 recession when the auto industry was reeling and the union as well as the auto companies were trimming staff and benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes made as UAW election season gets underway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUAW leadership and Staff Council have been in discussions regarding parity of benefits for all staff employees. It has been agreed to increase the Staff Retirement Income Plan pension multiplier from 1.01% to 2.2% for plan participants who were hired after 6\/1\/2008,\u201d according to the memo. \u201cThe pension multiplier is now consistent for all staff employees, and retirees regardless of their date of hire,\u201d noted the memo, which was distributed to plan participants and passed along to TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Staff Council negotiates its new labor pact after the conclusion of the negotiations with Detroit\u2019s three automakers. Tim Bressler, Curry\u2019s chief of staff said in a memo to Scott Andrews, the head of the Staff Council, a study by an outside consultant \u201cfound that plan funding is sufficient to modify the pension multiplier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ford
UAW workers will get a chance to vote directly for the top officials in the union for the first time this fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The changes to the Staff Council contract come on the eve of what promises to be a heated election season inside the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2018 convention, delegates approved a 31% raise in the salary of top union official by pegging the president\u2019s rate at 1.8 times the salary of appointed staff, belong to the Staff Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scandal changing UAW\u2019s internal politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Former UAW President Gary Jones, and his predecessor Dennis Williams, went to prison<\/a><\/u><\/strong> after pleading guilty for their part in a scandal that sent a dozen UAWs officers and staff to prison for theft and other violations of federal law that damaged the union\u2019s reputation. The scandal also led to the union pleading guilty to racketeering and the installation of a court-appointed monitor as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the two-tier wage and benefit system where new workers get less than more senior employees is being dissolved. The UAW\u2019s current contracts with General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis reach the top wage tier after a long grow in period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, new hires at GM, Ford and Stellantis are not eligible for a traditional pension, like the one for which members of the Staff Council are eligible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional pensions have been under pressure for years and were eliminated completely for new hires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Neil
Neil Barofsky, the UAW monitor, squelched the distribution of backpacks endorsing a candidate paid for by the union.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The improvement in the Staff Council pension plan came as Curry, who became the UAW\u2019s Secretary-Treasurer as part of the Jones\u2019 slate in 2018, and other top union officers, such as Stuglin, are preparing to face union members during an election campaign in which those members and retirees will have an opportunity to vote directly for the top officers for the first time in the UAW\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than 70 years, the union\u2019s internal politics have been dominated by what is known has the administrative caucus in which members of the union\u2019s professional staff have played a key role in lining up support for the caucus\u2019 candidates, minimizing debate and suppressing criticism of the leadership from the ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal prosecutors, who built the case against Jones and other union officials, believe direct election of officers was the best way to clean up the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monitor acts on mandate to clean up union<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The monitor, Washington D.C. attorney Neil Barofsky, reported Tuesday<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, \u201cIn March 2022, an allegation was submitted to the Monitor\u2019s hotline that the UAW had branded certain merchandise with the names of IEB officials who were running for reelection and had distributed, or planned to distribute, the branded merchandise to attendees at UAW-hosted conferences in Spring 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the UAW\u2019s new travel and entertainment Policy prohibits reimbursement of business meals above $150 per person and prohibit \u201cexcessive alcohol costs,\u201d the T&E Policy is not expressly applicable to expenditures at conferences, according to the Monitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Monitor later confirmed that a total of approximately $95,000 in Union funds were used to pay for approximately 1,500 backpacks for two conferences, branded with the name and title of Secretary-Treasurer Frank Stuglin, and that approximately 800 of them were distributed at the first of these conferences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn March 30, 2022, the Monitor brought the matter to the UAW\u2019s attention. Specifically, the Monitor expressed concern that, given the upcoming election of International Officers, the distribution of UAW-purchased branded merchandise bearing the name of a candidate could be viewed as a violation of the Labor-Management Reporting & Disclosure Act of 1959, Title IV, 29 U.S.C. \u00a7 401(g), which prohibits the contribution or application of union funds to promote the candidacy of any person in an election,\u201d the Monitor\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the UAW embroidered over Secretary-Treasurer Stuglin\u2019s name on the backpacks that had not yet been distributed, and decided not to distribute other branded items, such as mugs and pens, bearing his name, the Monitor said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Auto Workers prepares for what could be a bruising election season as member get ready to vote for top officers for the first time. Find out what\u2019s going on and why the court-appointed monitor is watching closely at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":204325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[914,7,8,1164,1169],"tags":[6951,3803,5971,512,6952],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228496,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228494\/revisions\/228496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228494"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=228494"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=228494"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=228494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}