What'd the UAW Do Now?

**rb336** · August-30-19, 11:48 AM

The most telling thing about this is how little is being said about the Fiat Chrysler role. Corporate media protecting their own.

**MikeM** · August-30-19, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

I hadn't heard about the HQ fire. Proactive destruction?

Laptop charging station possibly. Sprinkler system doused the entire building. Weekend fire with no one there. DFD had a hard time getting in.

**JBMcB** · August-30-19, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by rb336

The most telling thing about this is how little is being said about the Fiat Chrysler role. Corporate media protecting their own.

The Fiat/Chrysler part of the investigation is pretty much done. IIRC they were the first to be charged last year. Now they are working their way up the UAW food chain.

https://www.detroitnews.com/picture-...al/2904726002/

https://jalopnik.com/uaw-vice-presid...nda-1836996467

**archfan** · August-31-19, 01:12 AM

The Detroit News published this list of convictions in June:

- Fiat Chrysler Vice President Alphons Iacobelli was sentenced to 5 1/2 years
- Fiat Chrysler financial analyst Jerome Durden was sentenced to 15 months
- Michael Brown, a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles executive who helped run the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison
- Monica Morgan-Holiefield, widow of the late UAW Vice President General Holiefield, was sentenced in July 2018 to 18 months - UAW official Nancy Adams Johnson was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison
- UAW official Keith Mickens was sentenced to a year and a day in prison
- UAW official Virdell King was sentenced to 60 days

**Wesley Mouch** · August-31-19, 02:04 AM

Originally Posted by MikeM

Laptop charging station possibly. Sprinkler system doused the entire building. Weekend fire with no one there. DFD had a hard time getting in.

Sprinklers no doubt destroyed a lot of paperwork that wasn't burn up. Too bad. There might be been evidence proving this was all a corporate conspiracy.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · August-31-19, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

And that's why corporations and politicians get away with it. No one should ever 'look the other way'. That's as criminal as the act itself.

Hammer on the nail here....

**Meddle** · September-13-19, 01:30 PM

UAW official charged with embezzlement

The Voice|2 hours ago

A Missouri-based member of the UAW International Executive Board has been charged with embezzling union funds by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Detroit. The scheme, federal law enforcement authorities ...

http://www.voicenews.com/news/state/...d5466b0c6.html

-------------------------------------

UAW official Vance Pearson, others, accused of embezzling thousands

ClickOnDetroit|7 hours ago

Charles, Miss., was arrested Thursday by federal agents in Missouri after being charged in a federal criminal complaint with taking part in a multiyear conspiracy to embezzle thousands of dollars ...

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...ling-thousands

----------------------------------------

Director of UAW Region 5, successor to union chief Jones, charged in corruption probe

Detroit Free Press|22 hours ago

The current director of the UAW region covering 17 states from Missouri to California has been arrested and charged in the federal government's ongoing corruption investigation of the union, ...

https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...es/2302899001/

**ndavies** · September-13-19, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

Sprinklers no doubt destroyed a lot of paperwork that wasn't burn up. Too bad. There might be been evidence proving this was all a corporate conspiracy.

Not much business is done on paper anymore. Most paper content is created on computers. Computers are networked and backed up. Those backups are offsite, if the UAW's IT department is doing it's job. An onsite fire should not bring down a modern organization's records.

**Danny** · September-15-19, 07:26 AM

UAW: We will strike now, GM.

GM: Strike while your leaders embezzle millions.

**Zacha341** · September-15-19, 07:38 AM

^^^ While nondescript vehicles roll off the assembly line [[exempting Buick which is a very good offering IMO).

**Cincinnati_Kid** · September-15-19, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

^^^ While nondescript vehicles roll off the assembly line [[exempting Buick which is a very good offering IMO).

Still wish they'd kept Pontiac instead. Doesn't matter, they're all overpriced.

**313WX** · September-15-19, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid

Still wish they'd kept Pontiac instead. Doesn't matter, they're all overpriced.

China gets what China wants!

[[and it wasn't Pontiac)

**Colombian Dan** · September-15-19, 01:23 PM

Keeping this delegate system to elect nearly all UAW officials was the root cause that allowed the corruption. Even at this late hour, the membership has zero authority to remove these corrupted officials.

**stasu1213** · September-16-19, 05:33 PM

I thought that the plant in Hamtramck had closed earlier this year

**Lowell** · November-01-19, 12:05 PM

The rot has officially gone all the way to the top.

Feds say UAW President Jones, aide schemed to embezzle, split $700K in dues

Detroit — United Auto Workers President Gary Jones and a top aide were accused Thursday of conspiring to embezzle as much as $700,000 in member dues and splitting the money, according to a new criminal filing that marked a dramatic escalation of a years-long corruption investigation.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...al/4108832002/

**Wesley Mouch** · November-01-19, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

The rot has officially gone all the way to the top.

Feds say UAW President Jones, aide schemed to embezzle, split $700K in dues
...

'Power Corrupts...'

Until we remove monopoly status from Unions, there is no way to stop corruption -- because they have unchecked power.

Members have no choice. They should be able to have a second union come in if they wish. There has to be some way for members to hold their Union accountable. Otherwise, the power is in the Union's hands, and the members have no power.

**Hermod** · November-01-19, 08:53 PM

In principle, unions are a really good thing looking out for the working stiff. Unfortunately, like governments bureaucracies, they become more interested in the survival and advancement of the bureaucracy than in what they are supposed to represent. Just like the VA in government, so also the unions.

**Meddle** · November-02-19, 05:28 AM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

'Power Corrupts...'

Until we remove monopoly status from Unions, there is no way to stop corruption -- because they have unchecked power.

Unions, businesses, governments ....

**Lowell** · November-02-19, 12:43 PM

Breaking news...
UAW president takes leave of absence amid corruption investigation

UAW President Gary Jones is taking a leave of absence as prosecutors in a widening corruption investigation appear to be closing in on possible charges against him.

Rory Gamble, the vice president in charge of the UAW's Ford Motor Co. department, will be acting president, the UAW said Saturday. Both changes are effective Sunday.

The union's International Executive Board held an emergency meeting earlier Saturday in which Jones asked for the leave of absence, according to an email from Jones to union employees that was obtained by Automotive News.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/automo...-investigation

**Colombian Dan** · November-02-19, 01:55 PM

The UAW has refused to get rid of their Soviet style Politburo delegate system of electing officials. A direct election of their officers by the members was and still is forbidden by the UAW constitution. Now comes the Federal government with likely RICO charges and 25+ years of federal oversight of the union .. .

**Wesley Mouch** · November-02-19, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Unions, businesses, governments ....

Yes.

The important question is 'what checks the power for each'?

Unions... not much -- members [[once they've been certified) can't do much. Voting out bums, but only if they know they're being cheated -- which is very hard due to lack of financial transparency.

Businesses... if employees or owners embezzle, the market punishes them as they either have to raise their prices [[to cover lost funds) or lower profits to owners [[who redeploy their capital elsewhere where returns don't include embezzlement losses).

Government... Probably the worst place for embezzlement, since there isn't much of a check. Whistleblowers can help. And at least at the local level people can move to a city where their taxes are lower and services better [[because cash isn't going into waste.).

Your point, Meddle, is good.

**Metro25** · November-03-19, 11:54 AM

Is it just the law of this country that all terrible people get paid leave instead of suffering actual consequences? Sure seems like it.

**Hypestyles** · November-03-19, 09:24 PM

https://eurweb.com/2019/11/03/a-salu...uaw-president/
*Detroit, MI – In the wake of the decision of the United Auto Workers [[UAW) International Board to select its vice president to become its new president, the Rev. Horace L. Sheffield, III, releases the following statement:
“In October 1959, at the UAW Constitutional Convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, my father rose to nominate Willoughby Abner for the vice presidency of the UAW, and thereby, if he won, making Abner the first African American to serve on the UAW Board. In his nominating of Abner my father declared, ‘Here it is that I go all over the south representing this union in the civil rights movement, bailing civil rights workers out of jail, and marching to eliminate Jim Crow and alas right here in my own union a black cannot even serve on the board of the UAW. Therefore, I rise today to place into nomination the name of Willoughby Abner for Vice President of the UAW.”
It wasn’t until 1962, three years later that an African American, Nelson Jack Edwards, was elected to the UAW Board, and thirteen years later, that the same person became the first African American vice president of the UAW. I bring all this back to our attention because as we celebrate this historic event, Rory Gamble [[pictured above) becoming the UAW’s first African American president, it’s important for us to note the road that was paved and the shoulders he has had to stand upon for this to come to fruition.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · November-04-19, 07:27 AM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

'Power Corrupts...'

Until we remove monopoly status from Unions, there is no way to stop corruption -- because they have unchecked power.

Members have no choice. They should be able to have a second union come in if they wish. There has to be some way for members to hold their Union accountable. Otherwise, the power is in the Union's hands, and the members have no power.

You can say the same for Politicians. The people have no power. We're all witnesses to that.

**Wheels** · November-04-19, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

https://eurweb.com/2019/11/03/a-salu...uaw-president/
*Detroit, MI – In the wake of the decision of the United Auto Workers [[UAW) International Board to select its vice president to become its new president, the Rev. Horace L. Sheffield, III, releases the following statement:
“In October 1959, at the UAW Constitutional Convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, my father rose to nominate Willoughby Abner for the vice presidency of the UAW, and thereby, if he won, making Abner the first African American to serve on the UAW Board. In his nominating of Abner my father declared, ‘Here it is that I go all over the south representing this union in the civil rights movement, bailing civil rights workers out of jail, and marching to eliminate Jim Crow and alas right here in my own union a black cannot even serve on the board of the UAW. Therefore, I rise today to place into nomination the name of Willoughby Abner for Vice President of the UAW.”
It wasn’t until 1962, three years later that an African American, Nelson Jack Edwards, was elected to the UAW Board, and thirteen years later, that the same person became the first African American vice president of the UAW. I bring all this back to our attention because as we celebrate this historic event, Rory Gamble [[pictured above) becoming the UAW’s first African American president, it’s important for us to note the road that was paved and the shoulders he has had to stand upon for this to come to fruition.

And the UAW has been in steady decline ever since!