AUTO WORKERS (UAW) / LABOR LAW REFORM
Michigan Dissidents Seek Congressional Probe
In an effort to spark a congressional hearing or broad-based federal
probe into the United Auto Workers, members of a dissident group, UAW
Concern, traveled to D.C. Feb. 20 to talk with Senate staff and drop
off materials they say show a pattern of corruption. A half-dozen members
of the Kalamazoo-based group met with the staff director of the Senate
Commerce Committee, Mark Buse, as well as an aide to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.),
to urge them to get the Senate to investigate UAW.
"Our priority is to tell the Commerce Committee that we can show the UAW corruption and the collusion between the UAW and the companies. We've got 20 people or more who will come and testify about the UAW's lack of representation," said Pat Meyer, UAW Concern founder. Previously, Meyer helped members from UAW Local 594 in Pontiac meet with the Dep't of Labor and FBI investigators in Detroit. That criminal investigation recently proceeded onto the grand jury phase.
Meyer's group brought up the Detroit probe in its meeting with Buse. He said Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been trying to get UAW and other union bosses to agree to some funding disclosure so members would know how much of their money is used for political activities or other ventures. Unions have resisted, and the AFL-CIO recently opposed McCain's package. "It's difficult, extremely difficult to get the unions to agree to some kind of disclosure," Buse said. "They believe their internal communications are sacrosanct. They won't agree to it unless we make corporations do it, but corporations aren't the same type of a group." [Det. Free Press 2/21/01]
Union Corruption Update is made possible by the generous contributions from readers like you. NLPC, P.O. Box 6273, McLean, VA 22106-6273. Thank you.
In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update, readers can look forward to news and information on other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
All back issues of the Union Corruption Update can be viewed at NLPC's website (www.nlpc.org). Also available is a union-by-union and state-by-state index of all Union Corruption Update articles.
If you have story ideas or suggestions for future editions of Union Corruption Update, please email NLPC at nlpc@nlpc.org. Thank you.
Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project which is investigating and exposing corruption and extremism in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and many other union organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
Union Corruption Update Article Index (by Union)
Union Corruption Update Article Index (by State)
Organized Labor Accountability Project