A frame from the film shows Shawn Fain, a presidential candidate for the United Auto Workers, being questioned on January 13, 2023 in Detroit. On Thursday, the vote-counting process for the United Auto Workers’ election for supreme leader was expected to be completed. Although if challenger Fain is ahead of incumbent Ray Curry in the vote count, the outcome could yet change.
DEARBORN — After narrowly defeating the incumbent president of the United Auto Workers, the challenger vowed on Saturday to be more combative in talks with significant automakers.
Shawn Fain, the challenger, defeated incumbent Ray Curry, in the eyes of the court-appointed observer. Workers rejected the majority of the incumbents after a bribery, and Fain’s slate took control of the largest union.
The 14-member worldwide executive’s 372,000-member organization had its first direct election following the widespread scandal that resulted in the imprisonment of two former presidents.
Since March 1, the vote count has been ongoing, and on Saturday, challenges against several hundred ballots left the result unknown.
Curry had complained about improper campaign spending and electoral irregularities. But, he gave in on Saturday and announced that Fain would be sworn in on SundayFain claimed that the union’s members wanted it to deal with automakers more forcefully.
In a video, Fain stated, “Today we warned businesses that the battling UAW is back.”
Fain committed to remove two-tier contracts, which provide some workers reduced pay and fewer benefits. The UAW, according to him, will resist factory closures that result in the loss of union jobs.
Without any significant opposition from our union, “we have witnessed plant after facility being closed,” he claimed. In the past 20 years, we have lost 40% of our active membership. It concludes here.
Also, Fain pledged to improve the union.
Curry received 68,976 votes, or 49.8% of the vote, while Fain, 54, a current administrator at the Detroit International Union, received 69,459 votes, or 50.2% of the voteThe new leadership will need to move quickly to prepare for what are expected to be contentious contract talks coming this summer with Detroit’s three automakers, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
Many in the industry expect the union to strike against the companies.
Fain will have little time to prepare for the union’s bargaining convention, which is scheduled to begin in Detroit on Monday. The convention delegates decide what the union wants in the forthcoming contract negotiations.
In the past, contracts with the Detroit Three set the national standard for manufacturing wages. Fain said he wants to return to the union, which sets the wage and benefit standard for other sectors of the economy.
Fain and his list must grapple with members’ demands to restore concessions made when automakers ran into financial difficulties beginning in 2007. Many want cost-of-living wage increases, universal wage increases, defined-benefit pensions for all workers, and the abolition of tiers of workers so that they all receive equal wages and benefits.
Automakers prefer annual profit-sharing checks to pay rises so they can pay workers in good times and cut spending in economic downturns.
