Posts tagged runoff election
Union ties could make or break the Chicago mayoral race
March 23, 2023 // Progressive Brandon Johnson and centrist Paul Vallas, both Democrats, fought through a nine-way race that saw the incumbent mayor fail to make the April 4 runoff. The election is “a movement that unions helped to anchor,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates told Morning Shift. Johnson, a former public school teacher who’s done paid work for the CTU — his opponents call him a lobbyist — has received millions from teachers’ unions, and is set to receive up to $2 million more from a recently-announced plan to apportion $8 from each CTU member’s monthly dues to PACs for him. Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools who’s been criticized for relative conservatism in a Democrat-run town, nabbed endorsements from the local Fraternal Order of Police, firefighters and construction unions.
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.
United Auto Workers Appear to Rebuke Leaders in First Vote by Members
December 5, 2022 // Insurgent candidates showed strength, citing corruption scandals and calling for a tougher bargaining approach. The union president seems headed for a runoff. The first United Auto Workers election open to all members appears to have produced a wave of opposition to the established leadership, signaling the prospect of sweeping changes for a union tarnished by a series of corruption scandals. As the count neared completion on Friday, the current president, Ray Curry, was in a close contest with an insurgent challenger, Shawn Fain, with each getting slightly under 40 percent. The remaining votes were scattered among three dark-horse candidates. If those results are confirmed by a court-appointed monitor overseeing the count, Mr. Fain and Mr. Curry will head for a runoff election in January.