Detroit — Delegates at the United Auto Workers’ Constitutional Convention on Wednesday heard from high-profile guests including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh — and got an update on how much the union has spent to stay in line with a consent decree it entered into with the Justice Department following a years-long federal corruption probe.
To date, the Detroit-based union has spent more than $12.8 million on fees related to the consent decree, according to a handout provided to delegates.
Those fees include:
- Nearly $7 million paid to the court-appointed monitor tasked with overseeing the union.
- More than $2.2 million on vendor fees associated with a referendum in which members voted to institute direct elections of international officers.
- More than $850,000 on fees tied to an ethics hotline operated by the union.
- More than $165,000 on fees to an adjudications officer.
- And about $2.6 million for the estimated cost of International Executive Board elections later this year.
Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — who is running for a re-election this fall — touted some of her first-term legislative wins and vowed to “continue to fight for working people.”
Whitmer highlighted thousands of new auto jobs and billions in auto investments the state has won since she took office; a bipartisan economic development bill she signed into law late last year; the $54.8 billion state operating budget she signed into law last week; and her ongoing efforts to repeal the state’s pension tax.
“My message to anyone who wants to shortchange our workers is clear: Not on my watch,” she said. “I am a pro-worker governor to the core, and I will continue to fight for working people.”
Whitmer also emphasized the importance of the upcoming general election: “On this ballot is workers’ rights, is civil rights, is voting rights, is women’s rights — and we must win.”
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a former union official, touted President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda — including his support of the CHIPS Act that would provide incentives to support domestic semiconductor manufacturing and which cleared a key Senate vote this week — and cast his administration as pro-worker.
“The President wanted me to let you know, he has your back,” he told the roughly 1,000 delegates who are participating in the convention. “The president understands the fundamental importance of domestic manufacturing to our economy, to our climate, to our future.”
Walsh also sought to address high inflation, which is at a 40-year high and has become a key concern for voters as midterm elections loom. Walsh said Biden is “using every tool to fight global inflation.”
Walsh also put in a plug for the Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO, Act, a stalled piece of legislation that would provide protections for workers attempting to organize, and noted a new online toolkit with resources for workers on how to unionize.
“We’re using the bully pulpit to speak out in support of workers’ rights,” he said. “I want you to know that we stand with you, we always stand with you. The president stands with you. This administration stands with you. Organized labor stands with you.”
Earlier Wednesday, delegates pulled a resolution from committee to allow members on strike to receive strike pay from day one instead of the current day eight. Delegates approved the strike pay resolution. The International Executive Board in June increased the weekly stipend from $275 to $400.
Delegates also pulled resolutions from committee that would’ve opened the way for absentee voting in local elections. These proposals, however, ultimately were rejected by a majority of the approximately 900 delegates.
President Ray Curry said the strike fund sits at $827 million. It’s projected it could reach $850 million by December. A 2018 resolution set that amount as a threshold that would trigger a decrease in members’ dues. The decrease would return dues to the level they were before 2014, when UAW delegates approved a 25% dues increase, the first hike since 1967.
The fund balance in 2014 was at an all-time low of $596.7 million. The 2018 resolution included a provision that if the strike fund fell below $650 million, dues would return to the increased level.
The delegates also approved a resolution that denounced sexual harassment and workplace violence and called for the protection of reproductive rights.
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