When UAW President Shawn Fain took office in 2023, he promised to make the union more democratic and responsive. However, evidence has increasingly mounted that Fain has instituted another top-down regime to run the union.
Last year, Fain demoted Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock, who ran with him on a union democracy slate, from many of her duties after she dissented over spending within the union.
For more than two years, the Fain Administration also blocked the release of UAW executive board meeting minutes as legally required under the UAW’s constitution.
Last month, Fain even pushed to dismantle the Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), a reform caucus within the union that he once championed while running for office.
Now, the UAW’s Assistant Director of Communications Rachel Gumpert, a well-known communications professional, has resigned from the union, citing a culture of top-down retaliation within the UAW.
“I cannot lose my integrity by continuing to work in a place where dissent is a termination worthy event,” wrote Gumpert in a facebook post published in late April.
Gumpert went on to denounce UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks and UAW Communications Director Jonah Furman. Prior to their appointment to UAW top positions, neither of them had held any top labor leadership positions within the union. (See Payday’s 2023 piece “UAW Challenger Fain Purges Top Allies in Favor of Brooklyn Consultants)
Brooks and Furman have become larger-than-life influencers in the labor media world due to their connections, made while working at the Brooklyn-based Labor Notes. (In a sign of their influence, even The Wall Street Journal did a profile of the duo and their close associate, labor lawyer Benjamin Dictor, titled “Three Young Activists Who Never Worked in an Auto Factory Helped Deliver Huge Win for the UAW”)
“There are 2 primary sycophants - outsiders there for 2 years, who never were members and never held leadership roles at any union in their lives prior - who have taken the keys to the car from the elected President and hijacked this amazing union for personal gain, attention and ego,” wrote Gumpert about Brooks and Furman. “Now, they’ve driven it straight off a cliff”.
“The reason is inexperience, lack of intelligence, arrogance, and hubris,” wrote Gumpert. “It’s heartbreaking to see a righteous union with 100 years of righteous struggle be co-opted by two egomaniacs, who aren’t from it and have no real relationship to it or its membership.”
Gumpert wrote that while she was leaving the union, she hoped that UAW President Shawn Fain would take steps to make the union more democratic.
“Love to everyone still there watching their union fall apart in real time. President Fain is one of the most incredible and high integrity people I’ve ever eet, I’ll always root for him and the union, and hope he removes the outside cancer that has infected their union before they’ve fully destroyed what’s left of the union’s inspiring civil rights & social justice legacy.”
Gumpert did not respond to repeated requests for comments about her public statements on Facebook.
It remains to be seen what Fain will do about the staffers. Others have complained about the staffers and the union's anti-democratic tendencies, but Fain has not received much pressure to change things within the union.
The labor media has been largely quiet on the multiple union democracy scandals that have rocked the UAW. However, given Gumpert's denunciation, it will remain interesting to see if labor reporters start to pick up on the scandals.
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