Early unofficial results in the United Auto Workers’ first-ever direct elections of international officers confirmed that at least one runoff will occur, and showed that a challenger for the union’s top position was leading.
Vote tabulation began Tuesday. Turnout numbers released by the court-appointed monitor tasked with overseeing the union, as well as the election, showed that just 11% of UAW members cast ballots, signaling a lack of engagement among rank-and-file members even as a number of pressing issues face the Detroit-based union. A total of 106,790 ballots were returned out of the more than 1 million that were mailed out to active and retired members.
The International Executive Board, the union’s top leadership, will have 14 members, including UAW president, secretary-treasurer, three vice presidents and nine regional directors.
Incumbent President Ray Curry leads the Curry Solidarity Team slate and is vying for election against four challengers: Shawn Fain, an international UAW administrative representative in the Stellantis Department who is running as part of the Members United candidate slate; Mark “Gibby” Gibson, Detroit Diesel Corp. shop chairperson at Local 163 in Westland; Brian Keller, an employee at Stellantis NV’s quality engineering center in Auburn Hills who ran for UAW president in 2018; and Will Lehman, a Pennsylvania-based Mack Trucks Inc. worker.
As of Wednesday morning, the monitor’s office had provided unofficial results from UAW Regions 1 and 9, totaling 21,715 ballots out of the more than 100,000 that were cast.
The early results showed Fain with a narrow lead of approximately 39% to Curry’s roughly 38.5%, while the other three candidates for president trailed.
In the secretary-treasurer race, early results showed Margaret Mock, a Members United candidate, ahead of incumbent Frank Stuglin, roughly 61% to 39%.
In the race for three international vice president positions, eight candidates ran. Rich Boyer, Mike Booth and Chuck Browning were in the top three, according to early unofficial results Wednesday.
Region 1 appeared poised to have a new director, as Members United candidate LaShawn English had more than 52% of the vote to incumbent James Harris’ 47%, according to the unofficial results.
The top two vote-getters in the race for regional director of Region 9 are headed to a runoff, according to the monitor’s office, because none of the candidates received a majority of votes. The monitor’s office said more information about the runoff will be published soon.
A number of the other races went uncontested. Running unopposed for regional director positions with the Curry Solidarity Team were Laura Dickerson returning to Taylor-based Region 1A, Steve Dawes returning to Flint-based Region 1D, Brandon Campbell running for Illinois-based Region 4, Mike Miller running for the new Region 6 in the western United States and Tim Smith running for Tennessee-based Region 8.
The election also occurs as the UAW emerges from a landmark corruption scandal that involved former top leaders of the union paying and pocketing bribes, breaking labor laws and stealing members’ dues money. A federal investigation resulted in 18 convictions and the implementation of a consent decree that put in place the monitor and required a referendum on direct elections.
Meanwhile, the union faces the accelerating transition to electric vehicles in the automotive industry, a shift that is likely to bring disruptions to the sector’s manufacturing workforce as well as new plants the UAW would have to organize. The election also will determine who sits at the bargaining table starting next summer when a new round of contract talks with the Detroit automakers begins. And the union represents thousands of workers in other sectors, such as academia, who are are concerned about job security and economic issues, among other concerns.
Labor experts said weak turnout in the IEB election was not a surprise, pointing to generally low participation in union elections and activities and the fact that workers likely are focused on other issues in their lives. Additionally, some members reported difficulty getting their ballots.
Still, the election marked members’ first chance to directly elect their top leaders. For roughly 70 years, that wasn’t an option, as rank-and-file members elected delegates from their locals who in turn elected the union’s top leaders at the UAW’s quadrennial constitutional convention. But in last year’s referendum, members voted in favor of a “one member, one vote” election system for IEB members with 64% support. Thirteen percent of the membership participated in the referendum.
Preliminary IEB election results are expected in early December.
In the event a candidate doesn’t earn more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will occur. Any needed runoffs would happen in January, with vote tabulation beginning in February.
jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JGrzelewski