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UAW members to vote in fall on direct election of leaders

FILE - In this April 22, 2010 file photo, Neil Barofsky, Then-Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the Financial Crisis and TARP program on Capitol Hill in Washington. The United Auto Workers union's 397,000 members will vote by mail this fall on whether they want to pick their leaders in direct elections. In a posting on his website, union monitor Neil Barofsky says ballots will be mailed by an election vendor starting Oct. 12. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File) FILE - In this April 22, 2010 file photo, Neil Barofsky, Then-Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the Financial Crisis and TARP program on Capitol Hill in Washington. The United Auto Workers union's 397,000 members will vote by mail this fall on whether they want to pick their leaders in direct elections. In a posting on his website, union monitor Neil Barofsky says ballots will be mailed by an election vendor starting Oct. 12. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

By TOM KRISHER / AP Auto Writer August 13, 2021 3 min read

DETROIT (AP) – The United Auto Workers union’s 397,000 members will vote by mail this fall on whether they want to pick their leaders in direct elections.

In a posting on his website, union monitor Neil Barofsky says ballots will be mailed by an election vendor starting at 10 a.m. Oct. 12. They must be returned by 5 p.m. Nov. 12.

They’ll be counted as soon as possible, and Barofsky will announce the results. The monitor laid out rules for the election, and the results must be approved by the Labor Department and a U.S. District Court Judge.

Barofsky was appointed by a federal judge earlier this year as part of a settlement that avoided a government takeover of the union after a wide-ranging corruption scandal. The vote on direct election of leaders also was part of the settlement.

Currently, union leaders are chosen every four years at a convention, with the delegates picked by local union offices. But the new slate of leaders is picked by the outgoing president, and seldom is there serious opposition.