A federal court-appointed monitor is investigating United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain over allegations of abusing his power as union leader.
The monitor, attorney Neil Barofsky, has alleged that Mr. Fain and other union leaders have attempted to interfere with the investigation, which potentially violates a 2020 consent decree between the UAW and the Justice Department that stopped a federal takeover of the union, according to documents filed to the U.S. District Court in Michigan.
“The Monitor has attempted for months to garner the Union’s cooperation in gathering the information needed to conduct a full investigation, but the Union has effectively slow-rolled the Monitor’s access to requested documents,” the court filing says.
The court appointed Mr. Barofsky as monitor in 2021 after the union faced a corruption scandal that resulted in a couple of former presidents facing federal jail time.
He launched an investigation in February to look into abuse of power allegations, including from Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock, who said she was fired for showing “refusal or reluctance to authorize certain expenditures.”
The court filing also says the union has not quickly supplied the monitor with the documents Mr. Barofsky requested. Officials have provided “a very small portion” or 2,600 documents of roughly 116,000, and the delay could violate the consent decree.
“Taking our union in a new direction means sometimes you have to rock the boat, and that upsets some people who want to keep the status quo, but our membership expects better and deserves better than the old business as usual,” Mr. Fain said Monday in a statement.
“We encourage the Monitor to investigate whatever claims are brought to their office, because we know what they’ll find: a UAW leadership committed to serving the membership, and running a democratic union,” the union leader said. “We’re staying focused on winning record contracts, growing our union, and fighting for economic and social justice on and off the job.”
Mr. Fain took over the union last April after making promises to be tougher on automakers and end the string of corruption.
“This election was not just a race between two candidates, it was a referendum on the direction of the UAW. For too long, the UAW has been controlled by leadership with a top-down, company union philosophy who have been unwilling to confront management, and, as a result, we’ve seen nothing but concessions, corruption, and plant closures,” he said after winning.
The union faced a multiyear corruption probe, made public in 2017, which led to the convictions of 15 people, including two past presidents with bribery and embezzlement charges. It ended in late 2020, with the appointment of the monitor in 2021.
Mr. Fain was the face of the union during the six-week strike that started in September between the UAW and the Big 3 car manufacturers — Stellantis, General Motors and Ford — that involved over 30,000 workers and ended in an agreement on higher wages.
Stellantis is the Italian American conglomerate that owns Fiat, Maserati, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram.
He offered up words of support for President Biden in January after the union endorsed the president for another four years.
“Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American workers,” he said. “We need to know who’s going to sit in the most powerful seat in the world and help us win as a united working class. So if our endorsement must be earned, Joe Biden has earned it.”
He called former President Donald Trump a scab, an insult that refers to someone who crosses a picket line to take strikers’ jobs.
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