A newly surfaced recording of a personal phone call between United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and the union’s court-appointed monitor discussing the Israel-Hamas war sheds new light on the fraught relationship between the two men that Fain claims fueled the watchdog’s investigations into him.
The 11-minute recording obtained by The Detroit News is a snippet of a December 2023 conversation between Fain and the monitor, attorney Neil Barofsky.
In the recording, Barofsky suggests Fain’s statement on the UAW International Executive Board’s call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war could “potentially cross the line into the area of antisemitism” by mentioning the UAW’s previous efforts against fascism during World War II and apartheid in South Africa.
Barofsky, who is Jewish, warned the allusion to the UAW’s past social justice work could appear to create a comparison between the modern conflict and the previous ones that Fain referenced.
“In the statement, when you made comparisons to the UAW’s prior statements against fascism, World War II, against apartheid in South Africa,” Barofsky said in the recording, “and the CONTRAs, it unintentionally, I believe unintentionally, drew a parallel between the actions of Israel after it was attacked by Hamas.”