UAW monitor reveals new details in union leader investigation

A court-appointed monitor is probing allegations that United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain retaliated against a vice president who refused to act on orders that would have benefited his partner and sister.

The monitor, Neil Barofsky, also said he was investigating allegations that a regional director embezzled union funds "by using a UAW corporate credit card for personal purchases and misappropriating Union property” in a Monday filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Fain is also accused of retaliating against Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock for denying or delaying certain expense requests by stripping her of certain duties.

“Although the above allegations are serious, with several potentially implicating federal criminal statutes, they are merely allegations, subject to investigation, and the Monitor has not determined or endorsed their veracity,” Barofsky wrote.

The Hill has contacted the UAW for comment.

Barofsky was tasked with monitoring issues of fraud, misconduct and corruption in the union as part of a 2021 consent decree that ended a federal corruption probe that convicted 11 senior UAW officials, including two former presidents.

Fain exploded onto the national stage a few months after the UAW elected him as president in March 2023, spearheading a historic six-week strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall. 

The strikes drew national attention, with lawmakers and President Biden making trips to the picket line to show their support. Fain later endorsed Biden in January in the upcoming presidential election, saying “he stood up and he showed up.”

The monitor began investigating Mock's claim in February, according to the filing.

Barofsky and the union have gone back and forth on certain documents the monitor requested in February regarding the Mock investigation. But according to the filing, the union provided him just 18 documents by the April deadline.

Even after Barofsky provided a list of search terms that generated a list of 216,044 documents, the filing says the UAW “would not turn over that complete set of documents.” 

The monitor later agreed to revised terms that yielded over 116,646 documents, but the UAW refused to turn over the documents without the “ability to review documents that are protected by the attorney-client privilege or concerning collective bargaining strategy,” according to the filing.

Barofsky also said the UAW had turned over just 1,638 of the 10,571 documents related to the vice president inquiry, and that the monitor requested documents related to the regional director investigation last Wednesday.

In its own filing last week, the UAW argued the consent decree gives them the right to review and redact the documents to protect attorney-client privilege and “trade secrets.” 

The union also said the monitor was demanding documents related to “extraordinarily broad search terms” and pointed out that they had already provided over 750,000 pages of materials in addition to voluntarily facilitating 30 interviews, calling the monitor’s position “untenable.”