United Auto Workers Appear to Rebuke Leaders in First Vote by Members

[RandySF]

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.

“If these results hold, it can only be seen as shocking,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who has followed the U.A.W. for more than three decades. “It’s a major upset for the incumbent administration. The union is entering a new and profoundly different era.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/business/uaw-union-election.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. What is also shocking

Very few participated in the election. I haven't confirmed it but there may have been even fewer voting than those voting for the Referendum.

[RandySF]

2. I heard less than 10%.

[LiberalFighter]

3. It would all depend if they have accurate numbers of eligible members.

I manage several retiree chapters and one of them had over 400 retirees on file that were deceased. Chapters with active Locals are probably in better shape but when it involves Chapters that no longer have an active Local I don't think there is much management.

Then there is the issue of maintaining good addresses.

For the Referendum they had the breakdown by Local and whether active or retiree voted. I have only seen the breakdown by Local for the election. I've encouraged retirees to vote because I figured whoever is in office will have to give more respect to retirees knowing they could make the difference.