A Mack Trucks worker who was a presidential candidate in the initial round of the UAW’s first direct election of top leaders is suing the U.S. Department of Labor over its handling of a complaint he filed seeking to have the election re-run.
Will Lehman, one of five presidential candidates, has been a vocal critic of the way the election was handled as well as the corruption scandal that set the stage for an agreement with the government that led to the election. Shawn Fain bested Ray Curry, who was then the incumbent United Auto Workers union president, in a runoff phase earlier this year marked by counting delays related to challenged ballots.
On Monday, Lehman filed suit in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the Labor Department and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, seeking to force the department to reconsider his complaint. The Labor Department had sent Lehman a letter dated Thursday explaining that the department had investigated his complaint and that the findings “do not provide a basis for action by the department to set aside the protested election.”
Messages seeking comment were sent to two spokespeople for the department.
Lehman, in his filing, called the government’s decision “an abuse of discretion, arbitrary andcapricious, and contrary to law.”
Lehman has been outspoken in his criticism, and he once again highlighted the low participation in the election in his suit:
“To this day, many members are unaware that there was an election in which they had the right to vote. Out of 1.1 million eligible voters, only 104,776 cast ballots while roughly 1,000,000 did not. This turnout — 9% — is the lowest turnout of any national union election in U.S. history,” the suit said.
It’s not the first time Lehman has sought court intervention. Lehman filed an earlier federal lawsuit that was later dismissed seeking at least an additional month to have ballots returned in the election in part because many UAW members said they had not received ballots. He said then that the union and the independent monitor overseeing the union and the election had not done enough to notify eligible members of the election.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson ordered the monitor, Neil Barofsky, to provide details of complaints received about the election. That followed a court filing by Barofsky certifying the election results, noting that all election protests had been resolved, but saying that some protesters were appealing or still had time to appeal to the Labor Department.
Free Press staff writer Christina Hall contributed to this report.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.