Dirty Tricks by UAW Leadership and Interference by the Government.

January 19, 2026

The federal government monitor overseeing the United Auto Workers (UAW) union has intervened in the union’s affairs and brought about a shakeup at the top of the union. The chief of staff for UAW president Shawn Fain has resigned, and Fain’s Communications Director was suspended and demoted. A few months earlier, the Compliance Director had also resigned.

An investigation and report by the monitor said that these staff members, along with Fain, had fabricated charges against UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock and had orchestrated her removal from several assignments. The monitor also said that Fain and his top staff had not cooperated with his investigation and had deliberately deleted dozens of requested text messages.

In 2023, Fain won the direct election for UAW president in a very close run-off vote. It appeared that Fain took assignments away from Mock and Vice President Rich Boyer in order to consolidate his control over the union. Both Mock and Boyer had more votes and more of a base in the auto sector of the UAW than Fain. After the election, Fain brought in his top staff from outside the auto sector and mostly from outside the UAW.

Fain had campaigned for union president by promising transparency and a change from the heavy-handed bureaucracy of past union leadership. But the monitor’s report paints an ugly picture of dirty tricks coming from Fain and his top staff. It is similar to and in some cases worse than what was done by some past UAW leaders.

Some may celebrate the monitor’s action in this situation to undo some dirty dealings by Fain and his staff. In the past, others celebrated the monitor’s actions to bring about direct elections in the UAW, which helped Fain get elected. But the presence of the monitor and his authority over the activities of the UAW is a real danger to the workers and their union.

The federal government imposed the monitor onto the UAW in a consent decree in 2021, supposedly in response to corruption by some top UAW leaders. But the “corruption” cited by the government was minuscule in comparison to the corruption that goes on every day in the corporate world. The government’s investigation into the UAW was never about corruption. It was about the government being able to impose a consent decree on the UAW and hold the threat of punishment over union leaders and union members, if they propose a real fight against the corporations. In the monitor’s report, he did not take action against Fain, but he left open that possibility in the future. It was a clear threat to hang over Fain, who could be negotiating a new auto contract, which could possibly lead to a strike in 2028.

By imposing a similar consent decree on the Teamsters union, the federal government held a threat over the Teamsters union for 25 years. When Teamster president Ron Carey led a militant strike against UPS in 1997, the federal government used its hold over the Teamsters to remove Carey from office. The federal government’s consent decree with the UAW is supposed to expire in 2027. However, there is language in the consent decree that the government might use to extend the decree longer.

If there is corruption or wrongdoing by union leaders, UAW members can address it and make changes they want, not a monitor imposed by the government. If they don’t, they will simply get the union the government wants, representing the interests of the corporations, not the workers.