WASHINGTON, March 25, Reuters -- Shawn Fain won the race for United Auto Workers president, defeating incumbent head Ray Curry in a shakeup for the Detroit-based labor union.
Curry and a court-appointed monitor said Fain would be sworn in Sunday, a day ahead of the start of the union's bargaining convention.
Fain's election came at a critical time for the union. Fain has pledged to take a tough line with Detroit's Big Three automakers after they expire in September.
Fain said on Saturday that the election was not just a race between two candidates, it was a referendum on the direction of the UAW. The UAW has been controlled by leadership with a top-down, company union philosophy that has not been willing to confront management, and we have seen nothing but concessions, corruption, and plant closures for too long. Fain has been a UAW member for more than two decades, serving as an officer at a local in Indiana representing workers at a Stellantis NV casting plant.
Stellantis congratulated Fain on his victory in a historic election and said it looked forward to working on issues that will further contribute to our mutual success while securing Stellantis' position in this highly competitive market. General Motors congratulated Fain and said it was committed to building a working relationship that is based on trust and mutual respect and in the best interest of our employees and stakeholders. The UAW is working to organize new battery plants and members worry that moving to electric vehicles will cost jobs.
The UAW won a key victory in December when workers at a Ohio General Motors-LG Energy battery cell factory voted to join the union.
Fain said Saturday that while the election was close, our membership wanted to see a more aggressive approach with our employers. We now have a historic opportunity to set the standard across all sectors. UAW officers were previously elected through a delegate system. Members approved direct elections in a 2021 referendum required as part of a 2020 Justice Department settlement to resolve a corruption probe that resulted in the incarceration of two former UAW presidents.
The UAW has 375,000 U.S. members, down from 1.5 million in 1979. The union has unsuccessfully tried to organise workers at foreign-based U.S. auto plants, including Volkswagen and Nissan.