Auto Workers to Vote on Direct Elections for Officers

[Omaha Steve]

Auto Workers (UAW) went on strike against GM and two-tier wages in 2019. Now members are voting for control over their union through an upcoming one-member, one-vote referendum. Photo: Jim West / jimwestphoto.com

https://labornotes.org/2021/09/auto-workers-vote-direct-elections-officers

September 27, 2021 / Jonah Furman

United Auto Workers members will soon vote in an unprecedented referendum to decide whether the union’s 400,000 working members and nearly 600,000 retirees will directly elect their top officers. Ballots hit the mail October 19 and are due back November 29.

The UAW’s executive officers are currently elected to four-year terms by delegates at its convention. An “Administration Caucus” has dominated these positions for the past seven decades, using the powers of appointment available to International officers to wield tight political control.

In the auto industry, where most UAW members work, many are frustrated with years of concessionary contracts that have allowed automakers to build a two-tier workforce, with the number of temporary and lower-paid workers ballooning.

“Two-tier was the worst thing,” says Mark Gevaart, who works at GM’s Fort Wayne Assembly and is a former president of Local 2209. “I work right across the line with someone making half my wage. How do we deal with that?”

FULL story at link above.

[LiberalFighter]

1. I don't care for either option.

Delegate system only allows working members and retirees of an active Local Union to vote. When a Local becomes inactive because the company goes out of business the retirees don't get to vote for delegates.

The One Member One Vote system allows all working members and all retirees to vote. Even if any retiree no longer is attached to a Local Union with voting rights. What I have not seen about this system is what happens if the members vote for this system when the elections are held? Where will retirees that do not live in the area of the Local Union vote? Or will it be a mail-in ballot?

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My preference would be a delegate system devised for both active and retirees. All retirees regardless of their Local Union status would be able to elect their own delegate based on their size. The current delegate system determines the number of delegates based on a per capita system that does not include retiree membership. And the likelihood of a retiree elected as a delegate is slim.

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Unless, I hear something else, I am voting for One Member One Vote.