Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

“Culture of Corruption” at UAW Documented by New Website

 In light of the recent guilty plea from ex-UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, the Center for Union Facts has created a new website www.UAWInvestigation.com. The site is the latest phase of an on-going campaign to hold the UAW accountable for corruption and anti-worker tactics.

A full page print ad promoting the site ran in three papers: The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The ad highlights what the Justice Department has described as a “culture of corruption in the senior leadership” of the UAW.

This critique stems from an ongoing federal investigation. Four high-ranking union officials pleaded guilty to funneling money away from workers and into their own pockets. Former UAW President Dennis Williams has also been implicated in the scandal for allegedly OK’ing the use of union training funds to pay for lavish meals and travel.

But that’s not the end of the union’s woes. The site also details a luxury cabin constructed for Williams that was bankrolled with interest from the union’s strike fund—and built with non-union labor.

Even the UAW’s own members admit the union has a problem with its leadership. It seems workers’ “justified doubts about joining and paying into” the UAW have finally come back to bite the union. Last year, the UAW saw a drastic drop in membership—the steepest decline since the Great Recession.

The union has already paid over $1.5 million of members’ dues to cover legal representation during the investigation—but no amount of money will change the facts.

Anyone who thinks the UAW has workers’ best interests in mind should think again.

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