UAW presidential race might finally be called on Saturday

Saturday might be the day when members of the United Auto Workers finally know who will lead the Detroit-based union through potentially one of its most critical negotiations and for the next four years.

Tabulation of the presidential race will resume at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Region 1A office in Taylor. Just 505 votes separate leader Shawn Fain and incumbent Ray Curry.

A decision could come right in time for the union’s three-day bargaining convention that kicks off Monday in Detroit. The gathering will determine the priorities for negotiations later this year with Detroit’s three automakers at a time when job security and benefits are on the line because of the move to electric vehicles. In addition, the UAW will be competing with its Canadian union counterpart, Unifor, whose contracts also expire this year.

Without a clear mandate from the rank and file, either candidate who wins will have to work to unite the union around a common strategy for bargaining as well as organizing and its other efforts. That includes regaining trust of the members after more than a dozen former UAW leaders, including two presidents, were convicted in a years-long federal corruption investigation.

Counting in the union’s first runoff election of directly elected international leaders began March 1. Every other member of the 14-member International Executive Board has been sworn in. The holdup in the presidential race has been that the margin between Fain and Curry has been smaller than the number of ballots cast by members whose status — whether they are in good standing with the union and thus eligible to vote — is in question. There are 586 of these challenged ballots.

The UAW, the office of the court-appointed monitor and election vendors have been working to verify the status of those members, a laborious process that often includes getting in touch with the financial secretaries of the local unions of which the members are a part.

The ballots will be taken to Taylor from Dayton, Ohio, where they were scanned and logged after an initial 676 other challenged ballots were counted on March 16 in Detroit. The initial count in the runoff was done in Dayton, as well.