The counting of remaining votes in the United Auto Workers election to determine its president for the next four years has been delayed until March 16 as the court-appointed monitor’s office finishes resolving the eligibility of the members who cast the 1,608 challenged ballots.
Of the ballots counted in the presidential race, Shawn Fain leads incumbent Ray Curry 50.2% to 49.8% or by 645 votes, according to unofficial results from the office of the monitor, New York attorney Neil Barofsky.
The tabulation that began Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, paused on Saturday with the remaining ballots that were unresolved over whether members were in good standing or for other reasons. The monitor’s office, the UAW and election vendors had hoped to have determinations on the remaining ballots so that they could be counted on Thursday, but decided more time was needed.
The uncounted ballots have been sealed and are under security in Dayton. Those votes will decide who will lead the Detroit-based union into one of its more consequential periods in history as it returns to the bargaining table this summer with Detroit’s three automakers.
The rank-and-file say they want to end the different treatments between full-time, temporary or supplemental, and joint-venture battery-plant workers; achieve job security in the face of uncertainty around how electrification could affect manufacturing footprints; and gain a greater slice of the profits that automakers have made.
All the while, automakers are eyeing economic conditions that include recession concerns and cost cuts to ensure investments and vehicle affordability for the future.
Either result will make history for the UAW, which is engaged in its first direct runoff election of international leaders because of a referendum supported by members in 2021, a requirement of the consent decree reached with the Justice Department over union corruption.
Fain, 54, is an international administrative representative in the Stellantis Department who is running on the Unite All Workers for Democracy Caucus-backed Members United slate. His victory would end the Reuther Administrative Caucus’ more than 70-year hold on the union and indicate rank-and-file workers are looking for change.
A victory by Curry, 57, meanwhile, would be stand out among the results of the fall and runoff elections during which no other candidate backed by the Administrative Caucus in a contested race won. A Curry win would signal confidence in his experience to get what the rank-and-file want at the bargaining table and in the efforts that have been taken to reform the union as it seeks to leave behind a years-long corruption scandal that had entangled two former UAW presidents. Curry, formerly the UAW’s secretary-treasurer, was elected by the IEB to become president in 2021 after his predecessor, Rory Gamble, retired.
The runoff results also included Chuck Browning with 64% support winning a second term as vice president, beating out Tim Bressler. Both Browning and Bressler were members of the Curry Solidarity Team slate who advanced to the runoff after Mike Booth and Rich Boyer, both Members United candidates, won vice president positions in December.
One challenger in the runoff did win. Daniel Vicente, a Members United candidate was elected director in Region 9, which covers western and central New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He beat Lauren Farrell, a member of the Curry Solidarity Team, with 52% of the vote.
In December, not a single establishment candidate who was challenged won outright in any of the contested races for positions on the 14-member International Executive Board. Five won unopposed, while six challengers came out victorious.
The runoff had a larger turnout than the election last fall. With more than 1 million ballots sent, 141,548 were received for the runoff compared with 106,790 last time.
bnoble@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @BreanaCNoble