Another Criminal Charge Presses Question: How Should UAW Elect Officers?

The pressure on the UAW to change the way selects its top officers ratchets up as a second former union president faces felony charges.

Dennis Williams is accused of conspiring with other UAW officials to embezzle union funds, according to Matthew Schneider, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Federal prosecutors allege Williams, 67, conspired with his successor, former UAW President Gary Jones (below, left) and others to embezzle UAW dues money between 2010 and September 2019. Prior to serving as UAW president, Williams was the union’s secretary-treasurer from June 2010 through June 2014.

The charges against Williams increase the pressure on the UAW’s leadership to accept a major revision to the UAW’s constitution that would lead to the direct election of top officers – a step the union has long resisted and is opposed by current President Rory Gamble and the union’s executive board.

Schneider has said he wants to see reforms that will end the corruption and notes direct election of top officers helped clean up the Teamsters union.

UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg says the union’s discussions with Schneider are continuing but nothing has been locked down yet. Sweeping changes, such as the direct election of officers, would require constitutional convention approval, he says.

One of the issues facing the union and prosecutors is that the election of convention delegates has been tightly controlled by the UAW’s administrative caucus, which has run the union for more than 70 years and is deeply enmeshed in the corruption scandal.

UAW President Gary Jones (2)_5

“Our executive board continue to focus on comprehensively reviewing and strengthening our union’s financial and ethical policies and controls, and the UAW will continue to take the strong actions necessary to restore the full faith and trust of our members,” the union says in a statement.

“When the UAW finds there has been wrongdoing, we will take all available actions to hold that person accountable, no matter how high the office they hold. Let us begin to turn the page to a better union – but let us never forget the painful lessons of the past,” it says.

Williams is the 11th UAW officer or official charged in a federal corruption investigation that has sent one former UAW vice president to prison. Jones, Williams’ successor as UAW president, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to federal embezzlement charges. Joe Ashton, another union vice president and a former member of General Motors’ board of directors, is awaiting sentencing on wire fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors in Detroit accuse Williams of conspiring with at least six other senior UAW officials in a multi-year conspiracy to embezzle union money for their personal benefit. UAW officials concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenditures within the cost of UAW conferences held in Palm Springs, CA; Coronado, CA; and Missouri, the government alleges.

Between 2010 and 2018, Jones and other UAW officials submitted fraudulent expense forms seeking reimbursement from the union’s Detroit headquarters for expenditures supposedly incurred in connection with UAW leadership and training conferences, according to prosecutors.

Williams and his co-conspirators used the conferences to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in UAW funds spent on lavish entertainment and personal spending, prosecutors maintain.

Williams and other senior UAW officials allegedly used union money to pay for personal expenses, including multi-month stays at private Palm Springs villas, cigars, golfing apparel, golf course greens fees, high-end liquor and meals.

Norwood Jewell, a former UAW vice president who was sentenced to 15 months in prison, says the lavish entertainment was, in part, an effort to secure political support among the small group of officers that ran the union.

Jones, according to evidence assembled by federal investigators, used the entertainment to secure the union’s top post.

Much of the information being used against Williams appears to have come from Jones, who succeeded Williams as UAW president in 2018.

Jones pleaded guilty to siphoning over $1 million in dues money and political funds for personal use in a long-running conspiracy centered on UAW Region 5, where Jones once served as assistant and then regional director before becoming UAW president, thanks in large part to Williams’ endorsement.

Jones resigned the presidency in December. Legal experts note one way convicted defendants can avoid stiff sentences is by providing federal authorities with information about other potential defendants.