The independent UAW monitor has determined that a local union officer in upstate New York violated election rules when he sent a letter to more than 100 retired members telling them to vote for incumbent President Ray Curry and two other candidates in the current UAW runoff election.
At issue was the use of union resources for the letter — a copy of which was obtained by the Free Press — which the monitor, in an email also obtained by the Free Press, characterized as a campaign letter. Rules prohibit the use of union resources to promote specific candidates in the current runoff election, which pits the top vote-getters in three races where no candidates secured a majority of votes from last year’s first direct election of top union leaders.
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Without providing evidence, the letter, which went to members of Local 634 in the Buffalo area, using union envelopes, asserted that two candidates in the UAW runoff election — Shawn Fain and Daniel Vicente, who are running for president and director of UAW Region 9, respectively — would move the union’s headquarters out of state, to Pennsylvania.
But Vicente, during a recent Facebook interview that described the letter as fearmongering, said that makes no sense because most of the region’s members live in New York and that “of course I would move there.” He also said he doesn’t have the authority to shut down a regional office.
The letter also listed “the people we need to vote for” as Curry, Chuck Browning, a vice presidential candidate, and Lauren Farrell, who is running against Vicente.
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Curry, Browning and Farrell are part of the same slate of candidates running for office in the election. Fain and Vicente are part of the opposing slate.
The letter said the monitor had advised the officer, who is unnamed, of the rules violation and that Fain and Vicente would have the “opportunity to send a letter of similar length and format to the same list of approximately 132 individuals to whom the letters was mailed, and whose mailing addresses were derived from the Local 634 contact list.”
The letter said Farrell was not involved or aware of the mailing, so was not found to have violated the rules.
UAW spokeswoman Sandra Engle provided a comment on Tuesday:
“The monitor’s election rules are featured on the UAW’s website, and the UAW has provided additional guidance to local unions. However, mistakes and violations have happened on both sides. We have been working with the monitor’s office to remedy the violations, where appropriate.”
A representative for the monitor’s office sent an email reply Tuesday to a request for comment with information describing the investigation that found the violation by the local officer and noting that the office provides updates on investigations in its periodic public reports.
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The issue is not the first time that the monitor has found a violation of the rules in the election process. During the initial election, the monitor’s office admonished James Harris, who was then the director of UAW Region 1 after he acknowledged “inappropriately” denying his opponent, LaShawn English, a pass to last year’s UAW convention in Detroit. English ultimately defeated Harris in the election.
UAW members are in the midst of voting. The voters are being told to mail their ballots back by Feb. 17 in order to meet the Feb. 28 deadline in the election.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.