By One of Joe Biden’s biggest allies has come under investigation by a federal watchdog.
Elected in 2023, Shawn Fain the president of the United Auto Workers union, has served as a leftwing apparatchik the Joe Biden, trying to help him undermine Donald Trump’s growing appeal with union workers.
Now Fain is facing in investigation for abusing his power, according to The Detroit News.
The watchdog, monitor Neil Barofsky, revealed the probe Monday while accusing union leaders of obstructing and interfering with attempts to access information, actions that could serve as an apparent violation of the 2020 consent decree that averted a full-scale takeover of the UAW by the Justice Department.
In a federal court filing, Barofsky described an erosion of cooperation by union leaders in February after he revealed investigations targeting members of the UAW’s governing International Executive Board, including Fain, Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock and one of the union’s regional directors who is not named in the documents.
Barofsky said he is investigating a fight between Fain and Mock, who accused the union president of removing her authority in retaliation for her refusal or reluctance to authorize spending money for Fain’s office, according to the filing.
The monitor also revealed he is investigating whether Fain retaliated against one of the UAW’s vice presidents. Separately, Barofsky said he opened an unrelated investigation in April into a regional director after receiving allegations of potential embezzlement.
“With more than three months having passed since the inception of the Monitor’s investigation, and only a small fraction of the requested documents produced, the Monitor’s assessment is that the Union’s delay of relevant documents is obstructing and interfering with his access to information needed for his investigative work, and, if left unaddressed, is an apparent violation of the Consent Decree,” Barofsky wrote in the Monday filing.
While the Teamsters have expressed an opening to backing Trump, Fain has used his leadership position to temper criticisms of Joe Biden’s obsession with electric vehicles, which has been disastrous for autoworkers.
“UAW members feel abandoned by the Democratic Party,” former UAW President Bob King said in an interview with Politico, citing President Bill Clinton’s signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the failure of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to ensure that clean energy funds flow to union workers. “I think there’s a segment of the Democratic Party that sees itself as serving corporations rather than the common good. … We’ve had a lot of disappointments.”
The outlet noted that “Biden has touted the climate incentives in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and his 2021 infrastructure law as critical to driving a U.S. manufacturing revival. Those laws have already drawn more than $200 billion in new investments from the private sector for plants to make clean energy products such as electric vehicle batteries and solar panels, aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.
But those clean energy investments are mostly flowing to Republican-led states and congressional districts, including in states with low levels of union membership and laws that make labor organizing difficult. The UAW could also see a long-term erosion of members from the switch to electric vehicles, which generally have fewer parts than gasoline-powered models — especially if workers making the EVs’ crucial batteries aren’t covered by the same protections as traditional autoworkers.”
In January, without reservations for how union workers will suffer under Biden’s push for a Green New Deal, Fain pushed UAW into an endorsement of Joe Biden for president.
“This election’s about who will stand up with us and who will stand in our way,” UAW President Shawn Fain said at a rowdy event where he was frequently interrupted by chants of “UAW” and “Joe.” “The choice is clear: Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American worker.”
Trump responded to Fain’s endorsement of Biden in typical Trump fashion. “He is a real ‘STIFF’ who is selling the Automobile Industry right into the big, powerful, hands of China,” Trump wrote on Truth Social his social media network, adding the autoworkers should “get rid of this dope” and vote for him instead.
The news of Fain’s corruption probe comes as the Teamsters president has asked to speak at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
“The move by Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, underscores the fact that his group, unlike other influential umbrella unions that have backed Mr. Biden in the 2024 election, has yet to endorse in the presidential race. Mr. O’Brien has made clear he is delaying a decision until later this year,” explained The New York Times.
“Over the course of the year, Mr. O’Brien has invited several presidential candidates, including Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump and independent candidates like Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to speak before his group. But Mr. O’Brien has what people close to Mr. Trump believe is a developing relationship with the former president.
The Teamsters is one of the country’s largest labor unions, with 1.3 million members in sectors like trucking and manufacturing. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the United Automobile Workers have backed Mr. Biden, and Shawn Fain, the president of the U.A.W., has been harshly critical of Mr. Trump.
Mr. O’Brien, however, has appeared more open to the former president.”
Trump has been very open about his willingness to support blue collar workers throughout much of his career.
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