DETROIT—The federal government is investigating United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain and his family as part of what many union members believe is an effort to retaliate against the union for its member-supported call for a ceasefire in Palestine.
New reporting based on internal documents reveals that the federally-appointed monitor for the UAW, Neil Barofsky, conducted a series of escalating efforts to lobby the union to reconsider or soften its opposition to the genocide in Gaza in the months following the union’s Dec. 1, 2023, ceasefire statement.
At the time, UAW was the largest and one of the earliest unions in the United States to openly oppose the war on Gaza. Since then, a steady flood of labor unions has raised the call for a ceasefire to a deafening roar.
The AFL-CIO issued an official statement calling for an end to the war in Gaza in February. This announcement was followed shortly by the emergence of a new coalition calling itself the National Labor Network for Ceasefire, representing nine million workers from seven large unions and 220 locals and labor councils. This past week, the National Labor Network for Ceasefire met with Palestinian trade union leaders in an effort to build solidarity with the people of occupied Palestine.
Fain himself has been vocal in public appearances, including in congressional testimony, on the importance of international solidarity between the UAW and the people of Gaza. “From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe,” the union said in its statement.
This vocal opposition to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza did not go unnoticed by Barofsky, who was appointed by the Biden administration in 2021. The UAW’s legal settlement with the federal government to resolve prior corruption in the union appointed Barofsky as an independent monitor. That same 2021 settlement also put in place the direct rank-and-file election procedures which led to the election of Fain as UAW president in March 2023.
Fain has since led the wildly successful “Stand Up” strike against the Big Three automakers in the fall of 2023 and is currently leading a growing campaign to unionize auto manufacturing facilities across the southern United States.
New reporting by Drop Site News cites sources close to the matter who say that Barofsky reached out directly to Fain following the UAW’s ceasefire announcement. He urged Fain to reconsider the union’s position, alleging concerns over “anti-Semitism.” In a move that many saw as highly inappropriate, Barofsky claimed he was voicing this opinion as a matter of personal concern and not in his capacity as a Department of Justice-appointed federal monitor with near-limitless visibility into the UAW’s internal workings.
Fain reportedly rejected the accusation of anti-Semitism and characterized the UAW ceasefire statement as being exactly what it claims to be: a call for peace. Fain also raised serious concerns over Barofsky’s ability to separate his personal views from his role as a federal monitor. The next day, Fain appeared alongside members of Congress calling for a ceasefire in a press conference on Capitol Hill.
Barofsky escalated the conflict further, writing a letter to the UAW board in February 2024 that cited concerns from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) about anti-Semitism at UAW ceasefire demonstrations. This led to direct confrontation between Barofsky and the UAW board at a meeting held later that month.
The UAW board cited Barofsky’s comments as an inappropriate and unethical use of his power as a federal monitor and an attempt to exert leverage over the union’s public statements. Barofsky persisted in his claims that the UAW’s position on the war in Gaza amounted to “anti-Semitism,” again citing the ADL.
Within days, Barofsky retaliated, exercising his power as a federal monitor to demand that the UAW turn over all communications between Fain, his top advisors, and the UAW’s lawyers prior to the UAW board meeting in which Barofsky had been reprimanded.
Barofsky has since found allies among House Republicans, who held hearings this week about supposed “rampant anti-Semitism” within American unions. And a report citing Barofsky and published in the Wall Street Journal this week makes the highly misleading allegation that Fain sought benefits for his family members as part of UAW negotiations.
Fain has several close family members who are members of the UAW and work in the auto industry; they would therefore stand to benefit from union contract negotiations alongside and in the same way as thousands of other UAW organized workers.
A federal investigation into allegations of “corruption” against Fain is reportedly underway. This investigation appears to be a direct retaliation against Fain and the UAW for their leading role in the labor movement’s strong and growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The union’s ceasefire stance is politically inconvenient for the Biden administration, which prides itself on strong union support but has granted extensive military and political assistance to the Israeli state in its genocide against the people of Palestine.
The Department of Justice’s attempt to smear Fain and the UAW may be indicative of the growing leverage of the labor movement against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
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