Posts tagged Southern automakers
Shawn Fain, Who Pledged to Reform U.A.W., Faces Internal Dissent
September 16, 2025 // The dissident workers’ main complaints about Mr. Fain are rooted in internal union matters like budgets and his treatment of other union officials, rather than in grand philosophical disagreements about labor and political issues. The people seeking to oust him say that he has spent too much of the union’s money on organizing campaigns in the South and other initiatives they consider misguided. They contend that he has improperly stripped two board members of critical duties and say he failed to prevent a Michigan-based automaker from laying off thousands of workers.
Commentary: Shawn Fain’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year
January 28, 2025 // Last summer, the UAW’s court-appointed corruption monitor released a shocking report detailing an investigation into allegations that the UAW Presidents Office was engaged in misconduct and retaliation against other members of the UAW executive board. To make matters worse, the UAW was also accused by the monitor of withholding documents needed for the investigation. Eventually, a federal court needed to step in to force Fain to hand over the documents, and a new report by the monitor this month announced yet another investigation into the UAW’s leadership. The UAW’s campaign to expand its membership in the South isn’t having much better luck, despite the $40 million committed to it.
Opinion: The Dangers of Union Expansion in Missouri
September 25, 2024 // Consider the fact also that the UAW has spent lavishly on travel, hotels, and executive salaries over the past several years. For example, from 2013 to 2018, the UAW spent $43 million on hotels and resorts and $4 million on restaurants and bars. Two past UAW Presidents have been convicted of felonies involving financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, current President Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog. Fain has been accused by two union officials of retaliating against them when they refused to take actions that would have benefited Fain’s fiancé and her sister.
Can Distributed Organizing Unionize Millions?
September 17, 2024 // Together with similarly bottom-up union campaigns like Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) and the reformed UAW’s organizing across Southern automakers, EWOC has demonstrated the viability of a new strategy of seeding unionization efforts, rather than passively waiting for workers to reach out (“hot-shopping”) or exclusively organizing pre-chosen workplaces (“strategic targeting”). Along these lines, Svoboda describes EWOC’s proactive efforts to provide organizing tools to as many workers as possible as “planting seeds of worker power.”