DETROIT —Incumbent United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain declared victory in the union’s second-ever one-member, one-vote for top leadership jobs, with unofficial tallies showing he won 68% of the vote. His United UAW slate also won every race it contested, garnering enough votes each to secure spots for Secretary-Treasurer, vice presidents, and regional directors.
That’s a far cry from the union’s first-ever popular election in 2022, when reformer Fain and his slate barely beat incumbent Ray Curry, candidate of the union’s longtime ruling Administrative Caucus—a caucus brought down by a massive payoff scandal involving union officers and Stellantis (formerly Fiat-Chrysler) management.
This time, Fain easily defeated four other hopefuls for the union presidency. The runner-up, Rich Boyer, head of the Stellantis Division, received 26% of the vote in Michigan’s Region 1, which contains Warren Truck and Sterling Heights Assembly, but reportedly received only 14% overall.
Fain’s platform was “End remaining tiers, Win retiree healthcare, Fight forced overtime, More time with family, Combat artificial intelligence and automation, Protect our jobs, Bargain for our retirees, Significant wage increases no matter what sector.” It also included “Grow the union; More members = Better contracts.”
He cited his administration’s record in one breakthrough organizing victory in the heavily anti-union South—at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tenn.—and in the success of the 2023 Stand-Up Strike against the Big 3 automakers and subsequent contracts.
In that strike, the UAW reclaimed the rollbacks on wages and pensions, as well as ended most of the two-tier wage system imposed on UAW after the 2008-2009 Wall Street-caused Great Recession plunged Stellantis and GM into bankruptcy.
Even though Fain and his slate easily won election to terms expiring in 2030, this election saw some controversy over union spending and over Palestine.
Fain and former Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock, the first African-American woman in either of the union’s top two jobs, fell out against each other when Mock questioned Fain’s expenses and payments to staffers who were also family members. Mock wound up seeking re-election, but with Boyer’s slate. Fain rejected the claims, and particularly took aim at what he described as the opportunistic use of the federal monitor by Boyer, calling them “bogus” and politically motivated.
Neil Barofsky, the MAGA regime-appointed monitor, accused Fain and the UAW of anti-semitism—a charge Fain wholeheartedly denied—when the UAW became one of the first major unions to call for a ceasefire and support the Palestinian cause. That clash has led to an ongoing federal Justice Department investigation of Fain, also an outspoken critic of billionaire-backed GOP President Donald Trump.
One of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian movement within the UAW, Region 9A President and national executive board member Brandon Mancilla, won a new term without opposition.
“We need to mobilize to elect the United UAW slate this fall,” Mancilla said of the Fain ticket. “Around the country, workers are fighting back against the billionaire takeover of our economy and politics. In the past four years, thousands of members in Region 9A have built powerful campaigns to take on our bosses and win record contracts.
“We’ve fought against corporate greed, layoffs, and funding cuts from union busters at the federal and state levels… and we’re just getting started.”
Once all the votes are counted and certified and challenges, if any, resolved, Fain will be sworn in for a new term, along with Brandon Campbell, Region 4 Director, as the new Secretary-Treasurer.
Campbell is a longtime member and former president of Local 1268 at the Stellantis Belvidere, Ill., plant—the first plant where the two-tier wage system was imposed in 2009, and one which Stellantis schemed to close just before the Stand-Up Strike.
Now, the Fain-United UAW slate has a renewed mandate from the membership as they prepare for the next round of contract negotiations with the Big 3 on May 1, 2028.
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