Posts tagged Ray Curry
Narrow win adds to challenges for new UAW President Shawn Fain
March 28, 2023 // Curry’s team argued that “tens of thousands of ballots” were returned to the union as undeliverable and questioned whether the monitor’s office made “all reasonable efforts” to ensure those members could vote. They also called into question the validity of Daniel Vicente’s victory as director of Region 9, which represents workers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Curry argued that Vicente was not able to run because he had not paid the dues necessary to be a UAW member in good standing until after the original November vote. Curry also said campaign rules were not consistently enforced and that campaign donations to his opponent came from employers with whom the union has a bargaining relationship, which would be against the rules. The monitor dismissed Curry’s calls for a new election, although it’s unclear if he’ll take additional steps to challenge the results. In the meantime, Fain will have to build out his staff within a UAW bureaucracy he criticized as a candidate. According to a transition memo first reported by the Detroit Free Press, he plans big shakeups within the union’s staff.
The president of the United Auto Workers union has been ousted in an election
March 27, 2023 // A court-appointed monitor declared challenger Shawn Fain the winner over incumbent Ray Curry. Fain's slate of candidates won control of the big union, as workers rejected most incumbents in the wake of a bribery and embezzlement scandal It was the 372,000-member union's first direct election of its 14-member International Executive Board, which came in the wake of the wide-ranging scandal that landed two former presidents in prison. The vote count had been going on since March 1, and the outcome was uncertain going into Saturday because of challenges against several hundred ballots.
UAW Election Results Delayed to “Challenged” Ballots
March 7, 2023 // The outcome will be decided by 1,608 “challenged ballots.” The court-appointed monitor is determining whether the challenged ballots come from eligible voters. In many cases, the voters never included the number of their Local Union on the ballot. In other cases, the elections officer appointed by the monitor was unable to determine if the voter appeared on a list of a local union’s list of active or retired members, observers said. “The independent monitor is continuing to conduct the vote count process. No outcome has been determined,” the Curry Solidarity Team said in a Facebook post. “This is a process that make take a while,” Members United noted. So far, the elections officer has counted 137,591 votes and Fain, boosted by the fallout from a scandal, is leading by 645 votes, according to the unofficial results compiled by the monitor, who was appointed in the wake of the recent scandal during which a dozen union officials were sent to prison.
Detroit’s giant auto union is having a historic election after a series of scandals. Get ready for more strikes and higher car prices.
March 1, 2023 // This is the first direct election of the union’s leadership in the UAW’s 88-year history, following a series of corruption scandals that sent two former presidents to prison. In the races that have already been counted in the election, it’s clear that, for the first time in decades, the union leadership will be closely divided between the old guard and the challengers. This transformation of how the UAW is governed sets up what is widely expected to be a more adversarial relationship between the union and the Big Three domestic car producers. Regardless of who wins the presidency, a more combative stance with automakers is likely to result in more strikes, higher car prices and also greater competitive pressure on domestic companies to outsource or challenge unionization at new plants opening to make electric vehicles and their components.
Tennessee for Worker Freedom Companies that get subsidies couldn’t bar secret ballots in union organizing elections.
February 22, 2023 // It would be better if states didn’t pick winners and losers with taxpayer dollars. While Tennessee doesn’t have a personal income tax, it imposes a 6.5% corporate tax rate plus a gross receipts tax, which make the state less attractive to businesses relative to others in the Sun Belt. Mr. Sexton says he also wants to cut the corporate tax rate, which is good to hear. But if states are going to give businesses handouts, it makes sense to condition them on respecting worker rights. Competition among states is heating up. Kudos to Tennessee Republicans for seeking to make their state friendlier to workers as well as business.
The UAW’s Candidates for President Are Making Their Case
January 18, 2023 // Ballots for the UAW’s runoff officer and board elections began to be mailed out on Thursday, to be completed by members and mailed back by February 17 to get in before the February 28 deadline. At stake is exactly how much members want their union, which was mired in a corruption scandal for years, to change.
Labor union wants more SC auto workers, manufacturers split on response
January 18, 2023 // The UAW has about 55,000 members working in the southern states — about 15 percent of union active members nationwide — building Daimler trucks in North Carolina, SUVs in Tennessee, and automotive and airplane parts in Alabama. About 2,500 members live in South Carolina, but most are retirees or surviving spouses. The number of working UAW members in South Carolina statewide is 364. Palmetto state’s lack of members is consistent with the state’s overall ranking of having the lowest percentage of unionized workers nationwide — just 2 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Michigan could become first state in nearly 60 years to ditch ‘right-to-work’ law
January 13, 2023 // Michigan was not the first state to enact right-to-work. But it is a state steeped in labor history now poised to become the first state in nearly 60 years to ditch such a law, with Democrats controlling the executive and legislative branches of state government for the first time in four decades.
Michigan Democrats to tackle Right-to-Work. Unions are a top donor
December 19, 2022 // Bridge Michigan analysis shows unions were among the top donors to Democrats, but especially Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and incoming legislative leaders Sen. Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids and Rep. Joe Tate of Detroit. Combined, unions gave $577,500 to the three as of Nov. 28, comprising 31 percent of the $1.9 million the trio collected in group donations, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis. Five big unions alone — the United Auto Workers, Michigan Region of Carpenters, the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU — made a total of $3 million in political contributions across Michigan during the election, all but $51,000 of which went to Democrats, the analysis shows.
Stellantis has blamed rising EV costs for idling an Illinois plant that makes Jeep Cherokee
December 14, 2022 // Stellantis said it issued WARN notices to both hourly and salaried employees. This refers to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), which requires employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days’ advance written notice prior to a mass layoff that is expected to affect at least 50 employees at any single site.