{"id":235701,"date":"2022-12-05T11:55:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=235701"},"modified":"2022-12-05T12:32:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T17:32:30","slug":"reformers-win-big-as-incumbent-uaw-president-curry-fights-for-job-in-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/12\/reformers-win-big-as-incumbent-uaw-president-curry-fights-for-job-in-runoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Reformers Win Big as Incumbent UAW President Curry Fights for Job in Runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United Auto Workers new executive board will take office next week with a new attitude and a new agenda as it heads into negotiations with Detroit\u2019s three automakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UAW
The UAW election revealed the corruption involving leaders from the Administration Caucus proved costly as reform-minded candidates claimed a slew of victories.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The first direct election of top union officers<\/a><\/span><\/strong> reshaped the United Auto Workers executive board with reformers winning six seats outright and setting up runoffs elections for at least two other seats on the 14-member board, including the UAW presidency. The new members will be sworn in Dec. 12, according to the court-appointed monitor responsible for the elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur members have spoken. We are confident that all re-elected and newly elected UAW International Executive Board members look forward to leading all of our sectors and membership with a vision of strengthening our great union,\u201d said UAW president Ray Curry, who was left fighting for his political life after three of every five union members voting in the election cast their votes for one of the other four presidential candidates on the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the unofficial vote tally, Curry, who took over as UAW president in July 2021, led challenger Shawn Fain by 614 votes, setting up a runoff. The runoff will require another mail-in vote and leave the union without a president until early March even as negotiations with Detroit\u2019s three automakers loom with contracts set to expire in nine months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsibility for bargaining with Detroit\u2019s automakers shifts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"UAW
Shawn Fain, head of the reform-minded \u201cMembers United” slate heads to a runoff with incumbent president Ray Curry.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But reformers said the shift in power inside the union, which has been rudderless since it became engulfed in scandal in 2017, means concessions of any kind are off the table in 2023. The reformers also want to eliminate the multi-tier pay system, which has prevailed in the UAW\u2019s contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis since 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fain said in an interview with TheDetroitBureau.com he believed corruption of the old union leadership as well as frustration among the membership about the lack contract gains during the past decade as corporations posted record profits were primary issues in the campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to help a company during a recession, but that hasn\u2019t been the case for a decade now,\u201d he said. \u201cPrepare for a new, more aggressive UAW.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Significantly, two members of Fain\u2019s Member\u2019s United Slate, Michael Booth and Rich Boyer, were elected vice president over candidates from the old guard Administration Caucus, which has represented UAW members at the bargaining table for more than 70 years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union\u2019s vice presidents typically head bargaining teams, which face off against company bargainers, giving Booth and Boyer key roles in 2023 negotiations. In a sign of the shift in influence inside the UAW, Curry will not have the authority to change the system, which leaves reformers in charge of negotiations with two of the three automakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UAW
Curry’s ties to former President Gary Jones likely hampered his efforts to win election. He’s in a runoff now.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In addition, in a sign of the dissatisfaction with union\u2019s approach to bargaining in recent years, UAW members at Volvo<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and John Deere<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, favored reform. UAW members at GM where the union struck for 40 days also tilted against Curry and the Administration Caucus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reformers capture key posts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reformers captured the union\u2019s second highest post, Secretary Treasurer where Margaret Mock ousted Frank Stughlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Members United slate also captured executive board seats from Region 1 on the east side of Detroit where LaShawn English will now be the regional director and in Region 9A centered in New York and New England where Brandon Mancilla, a former Harvard graduate student will now serve as regional director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave Green, the former president of UAW Local 1112 in Lordstown, Ohio, will take over as director of Region 2B, which includes Indiana and Ohio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green, who mounted a vigorous campaign to block the shutdown of the GM\u2019s Lordstown assembly plant ran as an independent but is considered a reformer since he beat the Administration Caucus favored candidate. Green ran for regional director two years ago and received no votes during a regional convention run under the union\u2019s old rules for filling its top officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UAW<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He said in an interview the change in the election rules made all the difference. The rules changes were imposed under the terms of the settlement of a racketeering suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in the wake of the corruption scandal inside the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the runoff, Curry faces an uphill battle. The third-place finisher Brian Keller collected 14% of the vote and in the first round of voting. He also recommended voting for the other candidates on the Members United slate. Keller, who has built a large following on Facebook during the past two years, also has indicated he prefers Fain to Curry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curry also is hobbled by some major baggage. He was elected UAW Secretary Treasurer at the UAW\u2019s Constitutional Convention on a slate headed by Gary Jones, who was later convicted on federal corruption charges. Jones\u2019 one significant accomplishment was pushing through a major pay increase in 2018 for the union\u2019s top officers <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his campaign website, Curry noted he was vetted by the monitor before becoming a candidate for president this time around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While only about 11% of active union members and retirees returned their ballot, it was clear from the votes counted this week UAW members wanted a change the in the union, which has been hobbled by corruption and the stagnation in the union\u2019s leadership brought on by the heavy-handed control of Administration Caucus, which ruled the union\u2019s internal politics for decades, observers said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Auto Workers new executive board will take office next week with a new attitude and a new agenda as it heads into negotiations with Detroit\u2019s three automakers. This all happens as there is a runoff for the top job between the incumbent and a reformer. Get details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":229110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[914,7,8],"tags":[8872,8925,512,8924,3131],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235701"}],"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=235701"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235726,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235701\/revisions\/235726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235701"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=235701"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=235701"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=235701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}