(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/20/2023) Shawn Fain, a 56-year-old Indiana native who's served as an international representative for the International United Auto Workers (UAW), remains set to defeat incumbent President Ray Curry for leadership over one of the largest North American unions for the next four years.
Neither Curry nor Fain obtained more than 50% of the vote during the initial December 2022 election for the UAW presidency. Amid an ongoing run-off election, Fain is reportedly leading Curry by 505 votes. Unofficial results for the run-off race show 138,267 votes have been recorded, although more than 1 million ballots were mailed out to current and retired UAW members.
Curry, 57, was the union's second Black president. He kicked off his career serving on the assembly line for Freightliner Trucks in North Carolina. Today, Curry represents Michigan as a Democratic National Committee (DNC) member, and advocated for Michigan to become an early presidential primary state for the party on the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Presently in Michigan's three UAW regions, Curry is losing to Fain in Region 1 by 394 votes, is winning in Region 1A against Fain by 6,180 votes (66.4% to 33.6%) and is losing in Region 1D by 1,668 votes (Fain is winning 55.1% to 44.9%).
"This is an epochal, revolutionary change in the governance structure of the UAW, and it's going to have an enormous impact in Michigan, around the country, in the Democratic Party, in Michigan government . . . I mean, anything the UAW touches, this is going to have an enormous impact," said one Michigan Democrat to MIRS.
In early December 2021, Independent Monitor Neil Barofsky – a former federal prosecutor of 13 years for the Southern District of New York – announced 89,615 UAW members (63.7% to 36.3%) approved replacing a delegate-based system with a direct election system for selecting international officers and executive board members through a referendum.
Around seven months before the secret-ballot referendum was approved, Barofsky was selected by U.S. District Judge David Lawson to provide six years of oversight over the UAW following an anti-corruption and anti-fraud civil lawsuit filed against the union by the United States.
"It's obviously more democratic now, and that's a result of the (U.S.) Department of Justice, and their intervention dealing with the crime that was occurring at the top leadership levels of the UAW," said Roland Zullo, the director of the Center for Labor and Community Studies at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, to MIRS. "I think this is a game changer. Now, it remains to be seen what the new leadership will do once they get into power."
Moreover, Curry is involved in the UAW's Administrative Caucus, which is an internal party within the union that has maintained top leadership roles for more than 70 years.
On one hand, the Administrative Caucus is known for its experience and has spent decades in the negotiation room, and can claim challengers like Fain, who's been referred to as a "reformer," won't know how to execute their ideas. Meanwhile, those backing Fain can try to make the case that the Administrative Caucus has grown too close to the auto companies and inefficiently settles when bargaining.
Today, the Detroit Free Press published a draft plan written by Fain's transition manager, Chris BROOKS. Some of the highlights in the plan consisted of a vision to "build good will and excitement among potential allies in the lead up to striking the Big 3."
One of the first lines shared by the Detroit Free Press reads "there is a new sheriff in town, something different is happening. This starts with who is appointed to what, who does and does not get fired, and by demonstrating the willingness of the new leadership to embrace new ideas and new practices."
The plan also lists ambitions for a "complete rebranding of the union…informed by a more militant-fighting vision," for a public meeting with President Sean O'Brien of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and to "organize the South and make the Green New Deal a reality by unionizing the next generation of EV."
Zullo told MIRS the ongoing run-off election really illustrates an important dilemma within labor unions. He described how a labor union ultimately discovers its power in its members, wanting both a large membership and individuals prepared to win negotiations, strikes and political pursuits.
"The trouble is, here's the dilemma . . . if you stifle dissent down throughout your system, through a system that basically gives key positions to people who are loyal to the top . . . if you do that, then you undermine the activist base that you need to achieve good things," Zullo said. "You want to have an activist base, but what an activist base means is that those same activists could turn and challenge you."
The UAW's current contract with the "Detroit 3" automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis – expires in September 2023. In June 2022, under Curry's leadership, the union announced its executive board boosted weekly strike pay for members from $275 weekly to $400 per week.
