Candidates who challenged incumbent United Auto Workers leaders in the union’s first-ever direct election of top officials scored some significant victories as vote tabulation continued Thursday.
The election will determine who serves on the UAW’s International Executive Board, made up of 14 members: president, secretary-treasurer, three vice presidents and nine regional directors.
The election pitted a slate of candidates who are affiliated with the Reuther Administrative Caucus, which has effectively had control over the IEB for more than 70 years, against independent candidates as well as a slate of challengers who ran on promises to reform to the Detroit-based union.
Challenger candidates so far have unseated three incumbent regional directors who are part of the Administrative Caucus, and are leading in several other key races, according to early unofficial results provided by the office of the court-appointed monitor tasked with overseeing the union as well as the election.
In a statement, the Unite All Workers for Democracy caucus and UAW Members United — the candidate slate backed by UAWD — applauded the election of numerous challengers, calling the regional director wins “unprecedented … for the union’s top leadership.”
“These Regional Director victories show that the membership is ready to rebuild our great union. Brandon, LaShawn and Dave will be strong voices on the International Executive Board for reform and democracy,” said Margaret Mock, a UAW Members United candidate for secretary-treasurer. “The companies should prepare for a new, more aggressive UAW.”
Brandon Mancilla, a UAW Members United candidate who unseated an incumbent in the election for Region 9A director, said in an interview that the results show “that members are tired of the status quo:” “It’s very clear that members want to take on the companies. And the companies need to know that there’s a new UAW coming and we’re ready for the fight.”
UAW Members United and UAWD noted that the wins marked the first time in more than 30 years that a candidate outside of the Administrative Caucus has won a position on the IEB.
As of Thursday, the monitor’s office had provided unofficial results from UAW regions 1, 1D, 2B, 9 and 9A, totaling 60,273 ballots, or roughly 56% of the total that were cast. Vote tabulation began Tuesday and is expected to take several days.
In the event that a candidate doesn’t get more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will occur. Any needed runoff elections would happen in January, with vote counting beginning in February.
Incumbent President Ray Curry is at the top of the Curry Solidarity Team slate. He is facing challenges from four other candidates: Shawn Fain, an international UAW administrative representative in the Stellantis Department who is running as part of the UAW Members United 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.
The early unofficial results on Thursday showed Fain with a lead of approximately 40% to Curry’s roughly 36%, with the other three presidential candidates trailing.
In the race for secretary-treasurer, Mock was ahead of incumbent Frank Stuglin, a Curry Solidarity Team candidate, roughly 64% to 36%.
Eight candidates ran for three international vice president positions. Members United candidates Rich Boyer and Mike Booth, as well as incumbent and Curry Solidarity Team candidate Chuck Browning, were in the top three, according to the early unofficial results.
In Region 2B, challenger Dave Green won with 59% of the vote over incumbent director Wayne Blanchard, who is part of the Curry Solidarity Team. Green, who ran as an independent candidate not affiliated with any slate, is the former president of UAW Local 1112 in Warren, Ohio, and now is part of UAW Local 440 in Indiana. Region 2B covers Ohio and Indiana.
“I feel honored and privileged to have an opportunity to represent the members,” Green told The Detroit News. “Moving forward, I know there’s a lot of work ahead. But with member support, we can overcome anything.”
In Region 9A, unofficial results showed Mancilla winning with 58% of the vote over Curry Solidarity Team member Beverley Brakeman.
Mancilla, a New York-based staff organizer for UAW Local 2325, is the former president of the Harvard Graduate Students Union/UAW Local 5118. Region 9A covers eastern New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Puerto Rico.
“Region 9A is a little different than most regions of the UAW; it’s not primarily an auto or a manufacturing region,” said Mancilla. “However, we see the same issues in our region as we do in many of the other regions that are primarily manufacturing and auto sector — and that’s concessions, it’s tiers, it’s corruption, it’s a culture of patronage, a culture of favors, and non-transparency and a real lack of democracy.”
Mancilla said he would have liked to see higher turnout in the IEB elections, but would “much rather have 100,000 members tell us directly who they want to be in leadership,” rather than 1,000 delegates at the convention.
Unofficial results reported earlier this week indicate that Region 1 (which represents locals in eight counties in Michigan) will have a new director. Members United candidate LaShawn English had about 53% of the vote, compared to incumbent and Curry Solidarity Team member James Harris’ 47%.
And the top two vote-getters in the race for the 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 Members United candidate in that race, Daniel Vicente, won about 40% of the vote, followed by Lauren Farrell, a Curry Solidarity Team candidate, with about 31%.
The Curry Solidarity Team campaign has declined to comment on the results until they are finalized.
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.
For roughly 70 years, 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 a referendum last year, members voted in favor of a “one member, one vote” election system.
The referendum was one of the conditions of a consent decree the UAW reached with the Justice Department following a landmark corruption scandal that resulted in 18 convictions of former top union leaders and auto executives. The consent decree also put in place the court-appointed monitor.
Just 11% of the roughly 1 million active and retired UAW members to whom ballots were sent voted, according to numbers released by the court-appointed monitor tasked with overseeing the union, as well as the election. A total of 106,790 ballots were returned.
jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JGrzelewski