Race for UAW leader heads to runoff

DETROIT — The question of who will lead the UAW during next year's contract negotiations with the Detroit 3 is still unanswered after the union's first-ever direct election of officers, as the race for president heads to a runoff.

But what is clear from the voting completed so far is that members — or at least the 11 percent of them who actually voted — are ready to end the ruling Administrative Caucus' decadeslong grip on power after the corruption scandal that involved a number of former officials.

Three regional directors, two vice presidents and the secretary-treasurer won election to the International Executive Board as outsider candidates, most running as part of the Unite All Workers for Democracy reform caucus. Those six newcomers are scheduled to be sworn in Monday, Dec. 12.

Ray Curry, the incumbent president, will go head-to-head in January against Shawn Fain, also from that caucus, after none of the five candidates earned a majority of votes. The race for a third vice president and one more regional director post will also be decided by runoffs.

At the very least, reformers will occupy six of 14 board seats, with the possibility of winning a majority. The leadership shift is among the most drastic in the union's history and could upend next year's high-stakes contract talks.

"The newly elected members will feel emboldened and a little more willing to push that envelope," Art Wheaton, a labor expert from Cornell University, told Automotive News. "If they take a very adversarial approach during bargaining it could lead to a strike, for sure, and lead to some angst and turmoil within the automakers."

Already, signs are emerging the reformers want to take a different tack.

Fain, in a statement, said the challengers who won "will be strong voices on the International Executive Board for reform and democracy."

"No matter what company our members work for, whether it's the Big 3 auto companies, Caterpillar, or the University of California system, we want to put every employer on notice: Prepare for a new, more aggressive UAW," Fain said.

"The cozy labor-management relationship is on its way to the dustbin of history."

A number of longtime union officers lost their elections.

They include Frank Stuglin, who was appointed secretary-treasurer in 2021 when Curry was promoted to president. Margaret Mock received 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Stuglin, a former Region 1 director who joined the UAW International staff in 1999.

"The only path forward is together in solidarity, setting aside our differences and finding commonalities: our commitment to the labor movement," Stuglin said in a concession statement.

Beverley Brakeman, ousted by a reformer after four years as director of Region 9A, said she'll continue to be an active part of the union as a retiree.

"I have loved our members, our region and our union deeply and leaving will be sad, but I leave knowing that along with all of our 9A members and leaders we led during some of our union's and the world's darkest moments and we stood strong and proud," she said in a statement.

Curry, in a statement, said he was "confident that all re-elected and newly elected UAW International Executive Board members look forward to leading all of our sectors and membership with a vision of strengthening our great union."

Among the board's challenges next year will be negotiating pay raises and product commitments from the Detroit 3, along with unionizing battery plants as the industry pivots to electrification. Last week, workers at the Ultium Cells plant in Warren, Ohio — a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution — voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW.

"As the auto industry transitions to electric vehicles, new workers entering the auto sector at plants like Ultium are thinking about their value and worth," Curry said in a statement after the vote, which was 710 to 16 in favor of joining. "This vote shows that they want to be a part of maintaining the high standards and wages that UAW members have built in the auto industry."

GM CEO Mary Barra has said she would welcome the UAW at the Ultium plants. She told the Automotive Press Association last week in Detroit that she would want to finalize a labor agreement "as soon as possible," and that she doesn't believe a unionized work force would necessarily raise costs at a battery plant.

"We have to be competitive to be able to reinvest in our business in the future to create that job security," Barra said. "When you have that conversation on the plant floor, they get it."

In the immediate future, Curry's challenge will be to rally his base so he can retain the presidency.

A recent Facebook post for the "Curry Solidarity Team" slate of candidates touted health care gains negotiated during contract talks with General Dynamics alongside the tag line "Real experience. Real results."

The candidates not in the runoff got about 25,000 votes among them, so the outcome could hinge on whether those voters sit out the next round of voting or rally behind a different candidate — and whether any of the nearly 900,000 active and retired members who didn't vote do so this time.

"It really is a matter of who can turn out the voters," Wheaton said. "I don't know if they'll be able to energize the Curry caucus to overtake the other group. [The reformers] certainly smell blood in the water and want to see if they can finish this off."

Lindsay VanHulle contributed to this report.