Earlier this month, UAW members went to the polls to vote in their international officer elections and decided to give Shawn Fain a second term as International President.
While the results from the election are currently waiting for certification, Fain appears to have been reelected with about 68 percent of the vote in an election with an abysmally-low turnout rate of nine percent.
Notably, Fain performed strongest in regions that have a lower number of union members working in actual auto plants.
Fain’s strongest areas were UAW Region 9A, which generally represents university students and lawyers in the northeast, and UAW Region 6, which generally represents students at the University of California. Fain took 76.65 percent of the vote in Region 9A and 75.23 percent of the vote in Region 6.
In comparison, Fain only received 57.71 percent of the vote in UAW Region 1, which is primarily made up of auto plant employees in the Detroit area. Even Shawn Fain’s home chapter, Local 685, only gave him 58.73 percent of its vote.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a disconnect between the UAW’s traditional base of automotive workers and its growing base of college students and white-collar employees. In one recent incident, members of Region 9A supported protests at a Colt firearms plant that other members of Region 9A worked at.
The election results will likely embolden Fain. In addition to his own re-election, several other UAW officers who have accused Fain of misconduct lost their positions on the UAW’s executive board. All but one of the UAW’s executive board seats will be held by Fain loyalists once the results are certified.
Still, it might not be smooth sailing for Fain.
Ahead of the election, Fain took aim at the UAW’s court-appointed corruption monitor, accusing him of “pushing bogus charges against me based on a political disagreement.” Fain may feel he has a mandate to continue feuding with and ignoring the Monitor.
But the Monitor can bring charges and discipline against the UAW as he sees fit.
The idea of extending the UAW’s monitorship has already been floated due to Fain’s behavior over the past several years. The UAW spent $12.6 million on lawyers last year, most of which was due to the monitorship program. That’s an increase of 22.4 percent from 2024, and now accounts for over 15 percent of the UAW’s itemized expenses.
An emboldened Fain who increasingly feuds with the Monitor may well lead to an extended monitor program – and keep this increasingly large drain on the UAW’s coffers in place.