President Shawn Fain led members of the United Autoworkers (UAW) to victory in the Stand Up strike against the Big Three automakers. Now, he’s facing trumped up allegations from a federal monitor who’s trying to tip the balance in the upcoming UAW election for International Union officers. Here’s what you need to know.
A court-appointed federal monitor and corporate lawyer is squaring off against a labor militant and union reformer in a fight with far-reaching consequences for one of North America’s most powerful unions and the labor movement as a whole.
Shawn Fain is the first President to be elected in a one-member, one-vote election by the 400,000 members of the UAW. In 2023, Fain led autoworkers to victory in the Stand Up Strike against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler).
Fain has cited TDU and the Teamsters contract campaign at UPS as models that shaped his insurgent campaign and the UAW’s Stand Up Strike.
Why the Federal Monitor Turned on Fain
Fain is running for re-election for a second term as UAW President and is the heavy favorite. But he’s made powerful enemies along the way from the Big Three automakers to Neil Barofsky, a corporate attorney and federal monitor who was appointed to oversee the UAW after top leaders embezzled millions in union dues and took bribes and payoffs from corporations.
UAW members elected Fain in 2023. Big wins followed from the Stand Up Strike which reversed decades of concessions to a historic organizing victory at Volkswagen in Chattanooga.
In December 2023, the UAW called for a ceasefire in Gaza where more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed.
That’s when things turned aggressively sour with the federal monitor – and fast. Barofsky personally called Fain and confronted him again at a meeting with the union’s International Executive Board.
When Fain would not back down, Barofsky responded with a series of reports and attacks, including one just days after members nominated Fain for re-election at the UAW Convention.
None of the reports issue any charges against Fain. In the Teamsters, monitors issue reports with formal charges. A hearing is held. The charges are ruled on.
In the UAW, the monitor can issue smear sheets and conduct press leaks. This week, a grand jury announced it was investigating “allegations” against Fain. No charges have been made; but they could follow.
UAW Election Interference
UAW members will vote by mail ballot in their union election in six weeks. Fain is the heavy favorite.
“The federal monitor charged with overseeing the United Auto Workers has become, in effect, the most significant supporter of UAW Vice President Rich Boyer’s campaign to unseat UAW President Shawn Fain,” labor journalist Harold Meyerson wrote in an investigative piece for the American Prospect.
Fain’s chief opponent in the election Rich Boyer was removed from running the union’s Stellantis division after he agreed to concessions there during the Stand Up Strike, hid company plans to move production from a Michigan assembly plant to Mexico, and tried to get his grandson hired by the UAW through a patronage scheme.
In a live update to members, Fain attacked the monitor’s actions as a “political stunt,” saying that the investigations against him grew out of his refusal to go along with nepotism, concessionary bargaining, and retaliation from the federal monitor for the union’s anti-war position.
“We’ve taken on corporate America, we’ve taken on the political establishment, and we’ve taken on company unionism in our own organization – and some of those powerful forces want to strike back. They don’t want a UAW that is fighting back,” Fain said. “The real question is what do you want?”
That question will be answered by UAW members this summer. Ballots for the International Union election will be mailed this summer.
Watch Shawn Fain’s full Facebook live update here.
Read UAW Member Action’s summary here.