Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press
Sun, Jun 2, 2024
Shawn Fain in his first year as UAW president received a total of $228,872 from the union in salary and other payments.
The total includes a gross salary before deductions of $198,526 and $2,835 in personal use of the union’s Black Lake conference center facilities in Onaway, Michigan, according to the union’s LM-2 form, an annual financial filing with the U.S. Labor Department.
In addition, the paperwork lists $15,955 in allowances and $11,556 in official business expenses for Fain, who was sworn in to office in March 2023 following his election victory over former UAW President Ray Curry. Total payments to Curry for the year were $109,142, including a gross salary of $95,860.
In 2022, the union listed total payments for Fain, then an administrative assistant, at $160,130, including a salary of $146,446. Curry’s payments that year were $267,126, including a salary of $219,996.
UAW president Shawn Fain sits at his office desk for a portrait at the UAW Solidarity House in Detroit on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.
The filing, an annual requirement for unions, highlights not just top union officer salaries but also the union’s assets and liabilities and what it paid out and took in for the year.
Labor expert: Nothing 'aberrational' in union finance report
It also provides a view of the union’s membership numbers, which declined in 2023 to 370,239 from 383,003 in 2022.
The union did not respond to a request for comment.
Marick Masters, professor emeritus and labor expert at Wayne State University, has reviewed the filing, which was dated March 28, and didn’t find anything surprising. Salaries, he noted, were in line with expectations.
“There’s nothing that strikes me as being aberrational,” he said, while noting that he wasn’t looking for something specific.
More: UAW's Fain takes oversight of union's Stellantis Department from vice president
The document itself is lengthy, at more than 100,000 words, referencing payments for everything from salaries to catering expenses.
The union’s assets stood at $1.1 billion and liabilities at $3.8 million; total receipts were $485 million and disbursements at $470 million. The union had $17 million in cash and $733 million in investments.
Per capita tax received, which likely covers dues from members, was $190.9 million.
The costs of being overseen by a monitor after scandal
The union spent money in a variety of areas, including $4.2 million in political activities and lobbying, $13.7 million in administration, $118.8 million in representational activities and $152 million in strike benefits during a year in which the union struck Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis, owner of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat. In 2022, the union spent $46 million in strike benefits.
The union is currently under the oversight of an independent monitor, a result of the agreement between the union and the federal government connected to the UAW's corruption scandal. The union paid $5 million to the Chicago law firm of Jenner & Block for monitor services and another $56,331 to KLDiscovery Holdings in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, for data “storage for monitor” last year.
The cost of the consent decree, however, isn’t just tied up in direct payments, Masters said. The union also must comply with recommendations from the monitor and commit staff time to meeting compliance needs, which all together will have an impact on what else the union can do with its resources.
“It’s going to be more than just the direct cost. It’s going to be a nontrivial sum that’s going to eat into their ability to do organizing,” Masters said.
That’s notable in light of the union’s commitment in February to spend $40 million in new organizing funds through 2026 in its campaign targeting nonunion auto assembly and battery plants. The union scored a major a victory at Volkswagen in Tennessee in April but lost at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama in May, although the union has filed objections seeking to have the Mercedes results set aside.
Here are a few other payment and salary amounts for UAW leadership:
Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock: $224,929 in total payments, including for official business, $201,628 gross salary
Vice President Mike Booth: $227,352 in payments, $195,690 in salary
Vice President Rich Boyer: $216,218 in payments, $196,050 in salary
Vice President Chuck Browning: $214,497 in payments, $195,690 in salary.
As for its fixed assets, the document values the union's Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit at $72 million and the Black Lake Family Education Center and Black Lake Golf Course in Onaway at $104 million and $7 million, respectively. The union also spent $8 million in improvements at Solidarity House and almost $1 million in improvements at the Black Lake facilities.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW report shows Fain's salary, union expenses, dropping membership
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