Posts tagged SCANDAL
Opinion: UAW Constitutional Convention can protect direct democracy
June 17, 2026 // We also know what the delegate system got us: corruption and concessions. Throughout the final decade of delegate elections, members endured concessions that weakened our contracts and confidence in our union. At the same time, top officials were involved in a racketeering, bribery and embezzlement scandal that eventually landed them in prison. All the while, the delegate system continued to produce leaders from the same Administration Caucus.
Shawn Fain seeks reelection as UAW convention tackles major policy issues
June 15, 2026 // Key issues include: Increasing strike pay from $500 to $625 per week. Potentially reducing union dues from 2.5 hours of pay to 2 hours. Determining how aggressively to fund future organizing campaigns. Clarifying membership and retiree eligibility rules. Protecting the union’s direct election system. The convention comes as the UAW navigates the aftermath of a corruption scandal that sent two former presidents to prison and placed the union under federal oversight. Notably, court-appointed monitor Neil Barofsky has criticized Fain and other senior leaders over transparency and internal governance concerns, with another report expected soon.
Cost of Fed oversight of UAW skyrockets as union moves from scandal
April 1, 2026 // Barofsky's firm, Jenner & Block, has been paid $25.39 million since 2021, and the firm charged more than $7 million last year ― an increase of almost 21% from one year earlier ― as the watchdog and his team investigated Fain and several members of his team. The total cost of federal oversight, however, is much higher, considering there are additional firms working for Barofsky.
EXCLUSIVE: Congress Asks Union About Blunder That Reportedly Sent About $80 Million Down The Toilet
September 16, 2025 // United Auto Workers (UAW) has not disclosed what happened to $340 million it used to cover strike costs in 2023 while promising to reinvest the funds, the House Education and Workforce Committee told the union in a letter scheduled to be sent Thursday. The committee is requesting documents and information on the alleged blunder, which angry UAW officials claimed cost an estimated $80 million in potential gains, according to a Reuters report cited in the letter. Failing to reinvest the funds may have violated UAW’s fiduciary duty under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), ushered in higher dues, led to lesser strike benefits for members and made them miss out on stock market surges that followed President Donald Trump’s reelection in November, according to the letter.
Opinion: Hochul must shame LIRR unions —by revealing their outrageous strike demands
September 15, 2025 // The agency’s overtime spending regularly stands out by national standards (only periodically rivaled by the MTA’s other big rail outfit, Metro-North, which is stuck operating under the federal law that governs the LIRR). LIRR employees in 2023 made an average of more than $26,000 each in overtime alone.
Members of Warren union local move forward with effort to oust UAW president
August 3, 2025 // According to copies of the charges reviewed by the Michigan Advance, Fain is accused of dereliction of duty, financial mismanagement, retaliation against union members, hiring non-UAW personnel for positions that should be filled by union members, and failing to comply with the conditions of a consent decree appointing an independent monitor to investigate misconduct and remove fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty and unethical practices from the union.
Union drive at Wells Fargo heats up as employees allege intimidation tactics
October 21, 2024 // After Wells Fargo was mired in a 2013 scandal over employees who opened millions of fake banking accounts, the bank created a new centralized unit to review customer complaints and employees’ allegations of workplace abuses. Now, however, that team is upended by its own turmoil as its members have accused bank officials of aggressively trying to block a unionization drive and firing employees in retaliation for their efforts to organize.
Rigged: The fight over a union election in New York City
April 3, 2024 // According to Local 983’s filings, Puleo in 2022 received $349,083 in compensation from the union, more than 10 percent of the $3.2 million Local 983 received from membership dues, meaning at least ten cents of every dollar members paid the union for representation went to him. Puleo gets an extra bump of $22,522 from the District Council, bringing total pay in 2022 to $371,605, putting his pay just above that of DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, and well above the compensation for Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Puleo and his union administration had won election in 2013 over long-time incumbent Mark Rosenthal. Rosenthal had been elected to union leadership in 1998 following a corruption investigation that revealed a “vast pig-sty of corruption, self-dealing, lavish party going, and vote rigging,” according to City Journal. The scandal within DC 37 saw union local presidents in handcuffs and DC 37 placed under trusteeship by AFSCME International. Rosenthal came in and cleaned house. When he was elected, it was the first contested election in 20 years and it was not without controversy, including accusations of threats and intimidation. Puleo won an election in 2013 over the aging Rosenthal, who since passed away in 2017, and has been at the helm of Local 983 ever since.
Fed-up and furious: Gov urged to put State Police into receivership
February 8, 2024 // Galvin said a key issue still not addressed is the power the State Police union has, especially having sergeants allowed in the union as they oversee troopers who are fellow members. "The union has way too much power," he said. "It's an investigation of power from the Legislature on down with no oversight." All this, he lamented, as they MSP "goes down the tubes."
The Year of the Union…Corruption?
February 1, 2024 // According to an annual report by the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), over 155 criminal investigations into union-related activity were completed over the past year. As a result, the OLMS distributed 39 indictments and collected 57 convictions for numerous offenses ranging from petty theft to labor racketeering. While these findings are certainly disturbing, they likely only represent a drop in the bucket of national union corruption. This is because, according to the Department of Labor, it is simply “not feasible” to audit every union. Instead, forced to optimize limited resources against widespread corruption, the OLMS has developed an auditing methodology for unions whose “metrics suggest the possibility that there may have been criminal activity.” In 2023, the OLMS conducted 222 of these targeted audits, ultimately finding that 18.3% of these cases warranted criminal action. With nearly 1/5 of audits uncovering some form of wrongdoing, even in the limited sampling size permitted by OLMS resources, it is fair to say that corruption is entrenched within the American labor movement.