Union's fiery leader wins decisive victory and places allies in key positions
By Christopher Otts
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and his allies on Friday claimed an easy victory in the union's election, cementing Fain's leadership of one of the most powerful forces in American organized labor.
Fain, known for his profane, confrontational style, secured a position of strength for the union's next showdown with Ford Motor, General Motors and Jeep-Ram parent Stellantis in 2028 over labor contracts. The UAW priorities will include seeking to restore benefits such as traditional pensions and winning protections against artificial intelligence and automation replacing factory jobs.
"The membership has spoken," Fain said Friday. "UAW members are united and want us to keep fighting and building on what we've done."
While official results weren't available, tallies posted by Fain's campaign showed his garnering about 68% of the vote as of Friday afternoon. A UAW spokesman said official results would come later.
UAW Vice President Mike Booth, who ran on a ticket opposing Fain, told The Wall Street Journal that there is no doubt about the outcome.
Fain faced five challengers, including a UAW vice president with whom he had feuded. Fain's allies defeated top UAW officials whom Fain viewed as impediments to his agenda for vice-presidential slots and other key roles.
"Fain's got to be very happy about this; it could not have turned out better for him," said Marick Masters, a business professor and labor expert at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Fain had clashed with another UAW vice president, Rich Boyer, who unsuccessfully challenged Fain for the top job. He also feuded with the person who signs the checks for union expenses, Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock. Boyer and Mock didn't immediately return a request for comment.
Fain, a former Chrysler plant electrician from Kokomo, Ind., had been a virtually unknown staffer at the union's Detroit headquarters when he narrowly won the top job in a runoff election in 2023. He was part of a hastily arranged "reform" slate meant to steer the union past a corruption scandal that sent two former UAW presidents to federal prison.
It was the first time the storied union allowed its members, rather than a cadre of insiders, to directly vote on its president and top leaders.
Fain, 57 years old, soon became one of the labor movement's most recognizable figures, adopting a more confrontational posture with the Detroit automakers, hurling profanities and wearing "Eat the Rich" T-shirts during speeches.
During contract talks in 2023, Fain called targeted strikes of certain auto plants, such as the Kentucky facility where Ford produces its most profitable trucks. The union secured large wage increases and other gains when the carmakers relented.
Fain's UAW then realized a long-sought goal of organizing a foreign automaker's plant, winning union representation at Volkswagen's factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. But the UAW has been unable to extend its wins to other foreign auto plants.
At the union's home base in Detroit, Fain has been bogged down in internal controversies. A federal monitor charged with overseeing the union accused Fain of retaliating against Mock and Boyer. Fain has had to restore powers he and the board had stripped from his rivals and part ways with his chief of staff and top strategist.