UAW's Shawn Fain and others obstructing corruption monitor's investigation?
UAW's Shawn Fain and others obstructing corruption monitor's investigation?
UAW Monitor's 36-page report reveals investigation began in February.
By Peter List, Editor | June 10, 2024
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain and other union executive board leaders have been under investigation since late February and have become ‘non-cooperative’ with the investigation.
According to multiple media outlets, the UAW’s independent monitor—who was appointed following years of corruption at the top of the UAW as part of a consent decree—began an investigation into Shawn Fain and other union leaders of the UAW’s International Executive Board (IEB) and are refusing to cooperate fully.
Per the Detroit News:
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is under investigation by the court-appointed watchdog tasked with eliminating corruption, according to a federal court filing, one of a series of probes targeting top leaders of the scandal-plagued union.
The watchdog, monitor Neil Barofsky, revealed the probe Monday while accusing union leaders of obstructing and interfering with attempts to access information, actions that could serve as an apparent violation of the 2020 consent decree that averted a full-scale takeover of the UAW by the Justice Department.
In a federal court filing, Barofsky described an erosion of cooperation by union leaders in February after he revealed investigations targeting members of the UAW's governing International Executive Board, including Fain, Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock and one of the union's regional directors who is not named in the documents.
Related: UAW board removes secretary-treasurer from department roles over alleged violations
An expanded investigation
“The monitor expanded his investigation to also include allegations made by Fain against the leader of the union's Stellantis department,” reported Reuters. “Fain took over the Stellantis department leader's duties at the end of May.”
The monitor later received complaints that Fain's decision was an act of retaliation because the Stellantis head refused to engage in acts of financial misconduct to benefit others, according to the court filing.
UAW leaders being ‘non-cooperative’
According to the monitor’s 36-page report (in full here), UAW leadership is making it difficult for the monitor to conduct the investigatation.
With more than three months having passed since the inception of the Monitor’s investigation, and only a small fraction of the requested documents produced, the Monitor’s assessment is that the Union’s delay of relevant documents is obstructing and interfering with his access to information needed for his investigative work, and, if left unaddressed, is an apparent violation of the Consent Decree. DOJ similarly informed the Monitor that it believes that “[t]heUnion’s position is making it difficult, if not impossible, for the Monitor to fulfill his mandate to remove fraud, corruption and illegality from within the UAW as required by Paragraph 22 of the Consent Decree.”
Notably, the Union’s Secretary-Treasurer has also disavowed the Union’scurrent position as non-cooperative and inconsistent with her own direction to Union staff to fully cooperate.
Read the UAW Monitor’s full 36-page report here.
This story is developing, and there will undoubtedly be more coverage in the near future.