This is Dominic Pino filling in for Jim Geraghty. Audrey Fahlberg takes over tomorrow. For the latest on the New York City mayoral race, check out Jeff Blehar’s take here and Vincent Cannato’s explanation of how the city got to this point. New Yorkers ended up voting for the public menace.
On the menu today: Last year, the court-appointed monitor who oversees the internal activities of the United Auto Workers union announced an investigation into workplace misconduct by union president Shawn Fain. The results of the investigation, released last week, paint a picture of a petty man who fabricated accusations of wrongdoing against others to amass more power for himself. And he used black women in the organization to cover himself against potential charges of racism.
‘I Will Cut Your F***ing Throats’: How Shawn Fain Treats His Coworkers
Shawn Fain is one of the most powerful union bosses in America. The UAW is one of the country’s largest and most storied private-sector unions, and Fain has received glowing coverage from the mainstream media obsessed with promoting organized labor. The Washington Post gave him a glossy profile when he became UAW president in 2023. He was CNN Business’s labor leader of the year in 2023.
Left-wing outlets want you to know that Fain is the future. The New Republic said Fain is “the president we deserve,” and Jacobin called him “a light in the darkness.” Fain endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024 and called Donald Trump a “scab.” Fain is so close with the Democrats that Joe Biden wrote his entry in Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2024. “Shawn and I share a basic view of how workers deserve to be treated,” the former president wrote.
Lost in all of this hype is that the UAW operates under a court-appointed monitor because it can’t be trusted to operate on its own. And the latest report from that monitor shows that Joe Biden might not want to say he shares Fain’s view of how workers deserve to be treated.
As a result of a consent decree with the Department of Justice signed in 2021, attorney Neil Barofsky, appointed by a federal judge, has power to independently monitor the UAW’s behavior to make sure it is complying with the union’s constitution and with federal law. The consent decree came at the conclusion of a years-long DOJ investigation that resulted in fraud and embezzlement convictions for over a dozen former UAW officials, including two former presidents.
The appointment of the monitor is basically the federal government’s way of saying the UAW can’t be trusted to operate ethically without outside oversight. Because federal law gives unions monopoly powers over workplaces and other special privileges, the government has an interest in making sure that people aren’t being abused. The Teamsters operated under a similar arrangement from 1989 to 2015.
Barofsky’s latest report provides evidence that the government’s mistrust of the UAW is deserved. Fain alleged misconduct by UAW Secretary-treasurer Margaret Mock, and Mock alleged misconduct by Fain. “The Monitor concludes that Mock was falsely accused of misconduct, subjected to retaliatory action by Fain, and improperly stripped of her responsibility for various departments and board assignments,” the report says.
“The allegations against her — centered on claims that she ‘weaponized’ financial policies, obstructed Union operations, and sought to improperly influence Board votes — were either unsupported or outright unfounded.” Rather than weaponizing union rules, she was merely following them as written, and for that, she was punished and repeatedly cursed out by Fain, the report says.
Fain stripped Mock of authority over eleven departments and removed her from posts where she represented the UAW at the AFL-CIO and the IndustriALL Global Union. To do so, he colluded with the union’s compliance director to fabricate a report alleging wrongdoing by Mock. The results were determined in advance and the charges were spurious.
Mock’s supposed sins were following the union’s rules for expense requests and bidding for third-party contracts, even when Fain didn’t want her to do so. Fain wanted to rush through a contract with a communications firm to advertise the UAW’s drive to organize Volkswagen workers in Tennessee without getting competing bids. Mock denied that request, following the union’s rules about competitive bidding. She also did not go along with requests from Fain’s close associates to approve expenses without receipts and from personal accounts.
Mock has good reason to be a stickler for financial rules given the UAW’s abysmal track record on the subject. The report says that she “repeatedly emphasized to colleagues her commitment to strict adherence to policy” and “described this approach as essential to restoring trust and preventing further misuse of funds.” Fain apparently did not share those concerns.
Fain had the union’s compliance director read the fabricated report of Mock’s alleged wrongdoing into the record at an executive board meeting in February 2024. Mock was never interviewed in the creation of the report, and did not know it existed until it was delivered in the meeting.
Mock is a black woman. Fain coordinated with two other black women on the executive board, regional directors Laura Dickerson and LaShawn English, to strip Mock of much of her authority in the organization. Dickerson made the motion and English seconded it. The exact wording of the motion was scripted by Fain’s aides, text messages uncovered by the monitor revealed, and Dickerson said she had agreed to make the motion before the report was even finalized.
Fain told the monitor that he intentionally concealed that he was behind the motion and sought to launder it through Dickerson to avoid being accused of racism. “I thought it would be better coming from her than me, a white guy,” he said.
Of the eleven departments he removed from Mock’s authority, Fain took control of nine of them and gave one each to Dickerson and English. He gave Mock’s posts representing the UAW at the AFL-CIO and the IndustriALL Global Union to English. If that’s not a payoff for helping Fain increase his own power, it certainly looks like one.
Barofsky said that the UAW must give Mock her authority back because it was improperly taken from her. Nothing rises to the level of a crime, but Fain’s actions were in violation of the UAW constitution. The report also notes that the union was not prompt in complying with documents requests during the investigation and still has not complied at all with some of the requests. Barofsky had to go to a judge to get an order to access some materials that the UAW was wrongly withholding.
The report also provides anecdotes that illustrate Fain’s toxic management style and how he can melt down over petty issues:
- In a staff meeting attended by about 300 people, Fain said he would “slit” or “cut” the “f***ing throats” of anyone who “messed” with his closest allies within the UAW. “Nearly all interviewees who recounted this scenario to the Monitor said they interpreted Fain’s words as a serious threat that if they went against him or these referenced members of his inner circle, they would be retaliated against,” the report says.
- Mock’s photo was set to appear alongside Fain’s photo on some UAW literature. Witnesses said that Fain launched a “tirade” against the head of the union’s print shop. He reportedly said, “Who told you to put [Mock’s] motherf***ing photo on there? This is my motherf***ing membership,” and, “Who the f*** runs this motherf***ing department?” Fain then called Mock on the phone and “cursed her out,” the report says.
- Fain wanted to put a banner up on the exterior of the UAW headquarters building. The union’s maintenance department said hanging such a banner would void the building’s warranty. “Fain reacted poorly to this news, cursing out an employee,” the report says. Fain mistakenly believed the directive had come from Mock.
- When Mock denied an expense request made by one of Fain’s top aides, Fain confronted Mock directly. Mock said she had a fiduciary responsibility to the UAW, to which Fain responded, “Your only responsibility is to sign the f***ing check.”
Fain is wrong. Mock’s duty was not to simply sign any check he or his aides wanted. Yet that’s how union presidents often view the organizations they lead: as piggy banks for their personal projects. Whether it’s 1199SEIU president George Gresham using union funds for concerts and expensive airfare or Fain bullying his treasurer for following the rules, most workers know that union bosses are not looking out for them when spending their dues — which is a big part of the reason why 94 percent of private-sector workers aren’t union members.
ADDENDUM: The Japanese rice market is like the American baby-formula market: almost entirely insulated from foreign competition. And just like the baby-formula market, rice prices in Japan have soared in response to what would in a competitive market be a manageable supply shock. Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket, and don’t source all your goods from one country, even if that country is your own.