By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON: United Auto Workers members are set to vote by Nov. 12 in a secret-ballot referendum to determine whether to change the union’s election method from the current delegate system to a direct election model.
The referendum at the 400,000-member union is required as part of a U.S. Justice Department settlement announced in December into corruption allegations, which includes the oversight of an independent monitor.
Neil Barofsky, a former federal prosecutor who was named an independent monitor to oversee the union for up to six years, disclosed the planned schedule Friday in a website posting, but said it could change.
The UAW did not immediately comment.
To date, 17 people have been convicted in a wide-ranging five-year probe conducted by federal prosecutors in Detroit, including two former UAW presidents, who have both been sentenced to prison terms.
“The UAW failed to address the fraud, corruption, and illegality problem within its own ranks and necessitates injunctive relief to protect the honest membership of the organization,” the Justice Department said in December.
Under a government consent decree, the UAW agreed to oversight by a monitor who has power to investigate, audit and review all aspects of the union other than collective bargaining agreements. Barofsky has the “duty to remove fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices from the UAW,” the monitor site says.
Barofsky’s office said the UAW and U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards “have reached an impasse on the issue of the use of union resources to advocate on the referendum.”
Barofsky issued interim referendum rules “while the UAW seeks to work with the Department of Justice to amend the Consent Decree to potentially allow limited and monitored use of union resources.”
If successful, the UAW and Justice Department “will likely also request an extension of the voting deadline by several weeks,” the monitor’s office added.
The UAW represents workers at Detroit’s Big Three automakers and in other fields. At its peak in 1979, the union had a membership of some 1.5 million.
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