Change is coming to the top ranks of the United Auto Workers’ leadership.
That was one of the takeaways as vote tabulation in the historic first-ever direct election of the Detroit-based union’s International Executive Board members wound down Friday. The election will determine who serves in the IEB’s 14 roles: president, secretary-treasurer, three vice presidents and nine regional directors.
With unofficial results from eight out of the union’s nine regions reported by the court-appointed monitor tasked with overseeing the union and the election, challengers were poised to take over three regional director positions as well as the IEB’s secretary-treasurer position.
Another regional director race is headed to a runoff. The other five regional director elections were uncontested.
Results from the president’s race indicated a runoff was all but certain, as neither incumbent President Ray Curry nor any of the candidates running against him had cleared the 50% vote threshold needed to win. And results from races for three international vice president positions remained unclear, but at least one opposition candidate appeared to have crossed the threshold needed to win.
“This is a real upset victory and upsurge within the UAW that will certainly change the direction of the union — however the presidential race is decided,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California Berkeley. “This is a historic election. It is a major victory for the opposition, whatever the final results. And it puts a real burden on whoever wins the presidency to bring the union together.”
The election marked the first time that rank-and-file members voted directly on the union’s top leadership. For about 70 years, members elected delegates from their locals who in turn voted on IEB members. But the union’s membership last year voted in a referendum to implement a “one member, one vote” election system.
That 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.
The election saw numerous independent candidates, as well as the UAW Members United slate that campaigned on promised reforms, challenge the Curry Solidarity Team — a slate of candidates affiliated with the Reuther Administrative Caucus. That caucus has effectively had control over the IEB for more than 70 years, and this election marked the first time in more than 30 years that a candidate outside of the caucus won a position on the board.
In the race for secretary-treasurer, UAW Members United candidate Margaret Mock appeared to have won over incumbent and Curry Solidarity Team candidate Frank Stuglin, 61% to 39%, according to the unofficial results.
Meanwhile, Curry, the union’s current president, appeared headed to a runoff against UAW Members United candidate Shawn Fain. Fain is an international UAW administrative representative in the Stellantis Department. With nearly 85% of ballots counted, Curry had roughly 39% of the vote to Fain’s approximately 37%. Three other presidential candidates trailed.
In a statement Friday night from the Members United campaign, Fain hailed the results.
“The newly elected officers from our team will be strong voices on the International Executive Board for reform and democracy,” he said. “No matter what company our members work for, whether it’s the Big Three auto companies, Caterpillar, or the University of California system, we want to put every employer on notice: Prepare for a new, more aggressive UAW. The cozy labor-management relationship is on its way to the dustbin of history.”
In a statement posted Friday night on Facebook, Curry also addressed the results.
“Our members have spoken,” he said. “We are confident that all re-elected and newly elected UAW International Executive Board members look forward to leading all of our sectors and membership with a vision of strengthening our great union.”
Eight candidates ran for three international vice president positions. It was unclear Friday whether some of the candidates would have to go to a runoff. The top three vote-getters, according to the unofficial results, were Members United candidates Mike Booth and Rich Boyer, and incumbent and Curry Solidarity Team candidate Chuck Browning.
Meanwhile, the results showed a major shakeup within the ranks of regional directors.
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.
But in three regions, challengers defeated candidates who were part of the Curry slate.
In Region 2B, independent candidate Dave Green won with 59% of the vote over incumbent director Wayne Blanchard. Region 2B covers Ohio and Indiana. In Region 9A, which includes eastern New York and much of New England, UAW Members United candidate Brandon Mancilla won with 58% of the vote over incumbent Beverley Brakeman.
And in Region 1, which represents locals in eight counties in Michigan, UAW Members United candidate LaShawn English prevailed over incumbent James Harris, 53% to 47%.
The top two vote-getters in the race for Region 9 director are headed to a runoff because none of the candidates crossed the 50% vote threshold needed to win. 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% in the race to lead the region, which covers New Jersey, central and western New York, and most of Pennsylvania.
Candidates who won their races as part of the UAW Members United slate, which was backed by the reform-minded Unite All Workers for Democracy political caucus within the union, vowed to be more transparent with the union’s membership and to take a more aggressive stance with the companies whose workers the UAW represents.
Less than 11% of the roughly 1 million active and retired UAW members to whom ballots were sent voted, according to numbers released by the monitor tasked with overseeing the union. A total of 106,790 ballots were returned.
“A lot of that (low turnout) reflects anger and a lot of it reflects a feeling of, ‘You can’t change anything, why vote?,’ said UC Berkeley’s Shaiken. “This election has confirmed, voting changes a lot.”
jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JGrzelewski