The US federal corruption case against UAW officials and Fiat Chrysler executives continues to widen, and now the organizations themselves, the UAW and Fiat Chrysler, have been labeled co-conspirators. This backs up the original analysis by the Unifor Solidarity Network that “this is not the result of a few corrupt individuals – it is the inevitable consequence of decades of a culture of class collaboration”.

The latest revelations come from the Plea Agreement of Michael Brown, Director of Employee Relations at Fiat Chrysler from 2009 through 2016. In that position, “Michael Brown was personally involved in the negotiation and administration of the national collective bargaining agreements between” Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and the UAW, “and had authority to sign letters and agreements on behalf of FCA with the UAW. Michael Brown also represented FCA as a Co-Director of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC).”

UAW and Fiat Chrysler – Co-conspirators

The plea agreement points to a conspiracy between UAW officials, FCA executives and the UAW and FCA “to violate the Labor Management Relations Act.”

The UAW has been trying desperately to distance themselves from this scandal, by claiming it only involved some rogue officials. Their denials are shown to be self-serving lies by the fact that they allowed those “rogue” officials to retire and collect pensions instead of taking action against them. Now the UAW is named as a co-conspirator.

Greasing the Skids for Concessions

The UAW also claimed that the corruption did not have any effect on workers’ contracts. However, FCA executive Brown now admits in his plea agreement that:

Michael Brown knew that the purpose of the conspiracy to provide prohibited payments to UAW officials was to grease the skids in order to obtain benefits, advantages, and concessions in the negotiation, implementation, and administration of the collective bargaining agreements between FCA and the UAW. 

Sham Employment

Another new detail revealed in the plea agreement is that Fiat Chrysler allowed UAW officials to have friends and family members put on the payroll on sham jobs where they did no work.

From 2009 through 2015, FCA executives authorized UAW Vice President General Holiefiield, UAW Official UAW-3, and other UAW officials to offer sham employment status at the NTC to a number of their friends, family, and allies … numerous individuals were categorized as being on “special assignment” status to the NTC when, in fact, those individuals did little or no work on behalf of the NTC.

One of the UAW officials implicated is former Vice President Norwood Jewell. Jewell was allowed to retire – he announced his surprise retirement in November 2017, and remained on the job until January. NTC funds paid for a party for Jewell in 2014.

More than $30,000 was spent throwing a party in August 2014 for former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, The News has learned. The party included “ultra premium” liquor, strolling models who lit labor leaders’ cigars and a $3,000 tab for wine in bottles with custom labels that featured Jewell’s name.

The Detroit News also revealed that “two of Jewell’s sons are servicing representatives with the union, according to the UAW’s annual filings. Justin Jewell is paid $125,744 while Derik Jewell’s total compensation is $116,726.”

Corruption Probe Widens to Include GM

The NTC fund is the centre of the corruption scandal, because it was designed to serve as a slush fund. It was jointly administered by Al Iacobelli and General Holiefield – the key actors in the conspiracy – and was funded by Fiat Chrysler at between $13 million and $31 million per year. But the UAW has similar funds at Ford and GM as well, and at least the GM fund is also being investigated by the Feds. In November 2017, The Detroit News reported that federal agents were interested in retired UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who abruptly resigned from the board of General Motors Co. in December, and Cindy Estrada, his successor in charge of the union’s GM department, who was re-elected this week at the UAW Convention. Here is some more about the GM fund from the Detroit News:

Allegations of nepotism are not limited to the UAW-Chrysler training center. GM and the UAW operate the Center for Human Resources training center in Detroit. So many relatives of UAW officials have worked there that some dub the facility the “Center for Hidden Relatives.”

Details about nepotism within the UAW training centers emerged in 2015 when former Center for Human Resources receptionist Shannan McDonald, unsuccessfully sued the training center. McDonald claimed she was forced to resign after being discriminated against due to a disability.

Estrada was deposed in April 2016.

“Ms. Estrada, do you have a daughter or step-daughter named Tara?” McDonald’s lawyer Jeffrey Burg asked during the deposition.

“Tara White,” Estrada said.

“What is she to you?” the lawyer asked.

“She’s my step-daughter,” Estrada said.

“And is Tara White working for (the training center) now?” the lawyer said.

“Yes, she is,” Estrada said.

“Is she working the receptionist job that Shannan had occupied before Shannan left?” the lawyer asked.

“Yes,” Estrada said.

Jerry Dias, Al Iacobelli and Steve Carlisle

When fraud charges were first laid against Al Iacobelli, Jerry Dias could only praise him:

“Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the union that negotiated with Iacobelli for Canadian autoworker contracts, said he always viewed him as a professional labor executive.

“I’ve probably known Al for 15 years. … This is right out of left field. I never would have expected it,” Dias said. “I’m in shock, to say the least.”

After Iacobelli left Fiat Chrysler, he was hired by GM and was put in charge of the 2016 negotiations with Unifor in Canada. Was there similar collusion here? Jerry has so far refused to say if that possibility was investigated. What is not in doubt, is that the 2016 pattern agreement with GM of Canada was the most unpopular in the union’s history, with two-tier wages and the elimination of defined benefit pensions for new hires.

Al Iacobelli is not the only corporate fat cat that Jerry Dias has a soft spot for. When Steve Carlisle left his position as President of GM of Canada, Jerry had only praise for him, including saying he considered him an “ally”!

“For me, it was imperative, during the 2016 contract negotiations, to have someone who I believed was an ally and who was looking for a solution,” Dias said in a telephone interview.  

In 2016, at a General Motors photo op announcement in Oshawa attended by Justin Trudeau and Kathleen Wynne, Jerry refused to sit with members of the union local (Unifor Local 222) because he wanted to be as close as possible to Steve Carlisle and Trudeau (see picture).

Team Concept and Class Collaboration Must Go

Does Unifor also have a “Center for Hidden Relatives”? Whether they practice nepotism or not, it is clear the top Unifor leadership has travelled too far down the road of “team concept” and class collaboration. Auto workers won’t be able to make progress until that losing strategy is discarded.

The Auto Workers Against Wynne held a ground-breaking rally at Queen’s Park last Sunday. A group of non-union workers from the Toyota plant showed more initiative, more organizing smarts, and more willingness to take on the Liberal government than the leadership of Unifor. One of the leaders of the rally, Doug Penner, was interviewed on the Taylor Report (89.5 fm) Monday, April 23, 2018.

The governing Liberals did some backroom calculating and decided they could get away with excluding autoworkers from legislation providing 10 days emergency leave for Ontario workers. Premier Wynne found out fast that autoworkers at Toyota are wide awake and they do not sit back. They rallied at Queen’s Park and NDP leaders were quick to bring support. Unifor President Jerry Dias, a Liberal Party friend, was absent.

Listen to the interview here:

There is growing opposition to undemocratic actions by Jerry Dias and other Unifor leaders, such as the unilateral disaffiliation from the Canadian Labour Congress. A new group called We Are Unifor has been gathering signatures of Unifor members for their Democracy Declaration. Over 100 Unifor members from over 40 different local unions have already signed this declaration which states:

• It’s time for a more democratic Unifor. It’s time for a Unifor where major decisions are made by the membership. It’s time for a Unifor where political debate is encouraged and where members can voice their opinions without fear of intimidation and retribution.
• It’s time for Unifor’s NEB to rescind the decision to disaffiliate from the CLC. Unilaterally disaffiliating, effective immediately, was a clear violation of the Constitution, a clear violation of our democratic rights as Unifor members.
• No consultation. No membership vote. No mandate.

Four Unifor Locals Appeal Undemocratic Disaffiliation

We Are Unifor has also been instrumental in encouraging Unifor Local unions to file appeals (called “review of decision” in the language of the Unifor Constitution). We Are Unifor reported on February 26:

Four locals are now challenging the decision. Locals 88 and 567 recently joined locals 222 and 2025 in beginning formal appeals of the decision, arguing that leaving the CLC without a membership vote violated the Unifor Constitution.  Stay tuned for updates as these challenges proceed.

Please check out the We Are Unifor website at https://weareunifor.ca and their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WeAreUnifor/

The appeal from Unifor Local 222 was passed at the Local membership meeting on February 1.

Local 222 Request for Review

 

Jerry Dias has tried to justify his disaffiliation from the CLC and his failed attempted raid of hotel workers in UNITE HERE Local 75, by claiming he is defending workers from an “American Invasion”. Nothing punctures this false narrative more effectively than listening to the voices of actual rank-and-file hotel workers, the very workers who have organized their industry in Toronto and made impressive gains for their members.

The Taylor Report on CIUT-FM 89.5 interviewed Rick Hockley, a long-time Local 75 activist, on Monday, February 19, 2018.Everyone who is concerned with this current crisis in the Canadian labour movement should listen to this interview. Rick has been a server/bartender for 15 years. He was elected as a steward, then as chief steward for his property, then in 2008 was elected as a rank-and-file member of the UNITE HERE Local 75 executive board.

Some highlights:

Unifor raiding

The exact same day as they left the CLC … obviously it was premeditated for quite a while … at the least the last couple of months this has been their plan.

Dias’ raid is a flop – gets 5 out of 24 hotels

We weren’t expecting a majority of our union staff to leave our office and go to an opposing union, being able to have that access to our members … Of those 24 hotels that were attempted to be raided by Unifor – 17 of the hotels stuck together with UNITE HERE

… there were votes at some, 5 of which decided to leave us, unfortunately, and there are two hotels where the boxes are sealed by the labour board currently.

Local 75 is a diverse, grass-roots union

In Toronto we have workers from 80 to 90 countries, who come from all over the globe, the majority are immigrants, people of colour … We’re a grass roots organization, we’re led by the workers. Myself, as a worker, we are the leaders of the organization. This doesn’t come from the top down. We’re not a corporation. We have the ability to have a voice, to have a vote, and that’s a little bit unique to us, sadly, when really it should be like that all across unions, across the world – workers’ power – right?

Trusteeship was asked for by the Local leadership

This was not something that was a brash, quick decision by our International. This was a long time coming. The executive board asked back in December 2016 to invoke the trusteeship because at that point our former president was just constantly making decisions unilaterally without respecting the democratic voice of the governing body, which is the elected executive board members – all rank-and-file members from within our hotels and food service … Three quarters of the executive asked for trusteeship in December 2016, we asked again in April 2017, it was imposed in January 2018.

Complaints of racism against former leaders

There was a lot of racism structurally within our local office in regards to demotions, promotions, hiring people, suspensions … when complaints or allegations were brought up it wasn’t investigated properly …Our leaders, our organizers who had really built our union, a lot of rank-and-file organizers who had come up to be a part of the labour movement and better peoples’ lives in the last couple of decades … they were being treated like criminals.

Listen to the complete interview:

 

One of Unifor’s Key Auto Locals Stands in Opposition to Dias

The membership of Unifor Local 222 has issued a stunning rebuke to Unifor National President Jerry Dias.

At the Local 222 general membership meeting on February 1, two motions were passed that opposed the sudden, destructive action taken by Dias on January 16, to pull Unifor out of the house of labour. The Canadian labour movement has been in turmoil since, with the Unifor staff trying desperately to raid hotel workers belonging to UNITE HERE Local 75 (with limited success). The incredible momentum that had been built in support of Tim Hortons workers has suffered a setback. Meanwhile, a few top union officials have given up any pretence of principle and are scrambling to hold on to their 6 figure salaries.

The Local 222 motions are based on solid, working class principles. The first motion called on Dias to reverse the disaffiliation.

As members of Unifor Local 222 we are disappointed that you have taken the action of disaffiliating our union from Canada’s central labour body, the Canadian Labour Congress. While you obtained the endorsement of the National Executive Board for this drastic step, there was no advance notice to the broader members or local leaders of Unifor. As a result, the NEB endorsed your request before they had a chance to hear any of the views of our members.

The second motion endorsed an appeal (in the terminology of the Unifor Constitution, a ‘request for review’) of the NEB decision, because Dias had “violated the democratic rights of Unifor members in several ways”.

The two motions can be read in full here:

Local 222 letter to Jerry Dias against disaffiliation

Local 222 Request for Review of Decision (Appeal against Disaffiliation)

Local 222 has great historical importance. The April 1937 strike by GM workers in Oshawa was the impetus for the establishment of industrial unionism in Canada. In 1970, the Local 222 Women’s Committee led the fight against separate seniority rights for men and women workers that resulted in major improvements in the Ontario Human Rights Code, and the banning of such discrimination. Local 222 has now taken a courageous stand against the undemocratic actions of Jerry Dias and his entourage. Other Unifor locals should follow this lead.

Union Principles or Self-interest?

When Unifor announced they were no longer affiliated to the CLC and would no longer be paying their dues, it called into question the status of Unifor members who had been elected to leadership positions on the CLC Executive, on provincial Federations of Labour, and on local Labour Councils. Hassan Yussuff, for example, had been elected President of the CLC as a Unifor member – in fact Jerry Dias probably spent a million dollars bussing in people to vote for him. Under the CLC Constitution, Hassan Yussuff has no legitimacy to hold office and should step down immediately. He has been sending letters to other Unifor members holding office – such as this one sent to CLC Vice-President Dan Browne, who was elected to represent young workers:

“Dear Brother Browne: Due to the decision of your national union, Unifor, to disaffiliate from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), we regret to inform you that you cannot continue to serve as a Vice-President on the CLC Canadian Council.”

And then, reaching new depths of hypocrisy, Yussuff announced that he could continue collecting his President’s salary because he had obtained a membership card from the PSAC. Ordinary workers, whose dues fund the offices and 6 figure salaries of Hassan Yussuff and Jerry Dias, must be furious. The average wage of a Unifor member is $23.78 an hour, or under $50,000 a year. We can no longer tolerate union executives who are more focussed on enriching themselves than on working to improve the lives of workers.

1. Why are we devoting so much of our union’s resources on raiding instead of organizing un-organized workers? Isn’t this causing division and animosity between unions when we should be working together to help organize precarious workers like those at Tim Horton’s?
2. Is your emphasis on getting workers from other unions into Unifor due to the lack of success by Unifor’s organizing strategy? Don’t you have 18 full-time National Reps in the Organizing Department with an annual budget of $10 million? How is it that the total number of new members organized in 2017 (up to the date of the Ontario Council meeting December 1, 2017) was only 3,279?

   

3. There are 12 Unifor National Representatives in this picture, including three of your Assistants and two Department Directors, all of whom earn more than $125,000 per year. Why did you assign them to stand in front of the Hilton Hotel waving Unifor flags? Is that the best use of their time? Is that the best use of our dues money? I don’t see a lot of hotel workers in that picture – it seems you have more generals than soldiers.
4. You claim you think all workers should have the right to vote on their choice of union – why have you blocked the efforts of fish harvesters in Newfoundland to have a vote for more than a year?
5. How many former UNITE HERE Local 75 staff are now on the Unifor payroll? How much are we paying them? The former president of Local 75 was the subject of allegations of racism against her, and an independent investigation was under way. Why did you put her on the Unifor payroll before the issue was decided? Is that action in accordance with Unifor’s committment to oppose racism?
6. You claim to uphold the principle of the Rand Formula – that everybody should pay their dues. Why doesn’t that principle apply to Unifor paying their dues to the CLC, the central labour body in Canada? Is it right for Unifor to withdraw its financial contribution, thereby hurting the ongoing work of the CLC on behalf of workers in Canada? Shouldn’t you stay and argue for the changes you want?
7. What proposals for change did Unifor put forward at the last CLC Convention in May, 2017? Oh – you didn’t put forward any – why not?
8. You claim that putting a local union under trusteeship is undemocratic. Doesn’t the Unifor Constitution allow the National Executive Board “on its own motion” to “supervise, reorganize or disband a Local Union”? Are you planning to remove this section of the Unifor Constitution (Article 15 M)? Why did you remove the charters of five Unifor locals in BC without a hearing? Was that democratic?
9. When we need support from the rest of the labour movement in upcoming battles with employers, how will your division of the labour movement help us? How can we achieve equality in pay and benefits and the elimination of two-tier contracts without a broader movement, or do you not believe in those goals?
10. The hotel workers in UNITE HERE Local 75 fought to have Toronto City Council impose tougher restrictions on Airbnb – why did you send a letter to Toronto City Council praising Airbnb and stating that “Because of Airbnb’s progressive approach, Unifor is exploring ways to work together with them. We will continue to explore areas of mutual interest to improve the public good, and if possible work towards a national partnership.”?
11. If you believe in democracy – why did you fight so hard against the democratic decision of delegates to the Ontario Federation of Labour Convention to support the NDP in this year’s Ontario election? Do you put your support of Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau ahead of the democratic, progressive decision of the OFL convention?

Cory Weir talks to The Taylor Report, CIUT-FM, about Unifor’s disaffiliation from the Canadian Labour Congress, which has divided and weakened the workers’ movement in Canada.

“This exit from the CLC is absolutely destructive for the Canadian labour movement. We’re at a watershed moment where we have massive public outrage against bad bosses and employers who are pushing back against the minimum wage increase … We’re at this great moment to be out organizing workers, to be building our movement, building capacity of some of the most marginalized workers in the country – instead we’re in this massive public battle”

Listen to Cory Weir

Divisive Action Driven by Liberal Party Politics

On January 17^th, 2018 Jerry Dias, National President of Unifor, announced that he was disaffiliating our union from the 3.5 million member Canadian Labour Congress “effective immediately”. This division of Canada’s labour movement will be a huge blow to the struggles of workers across the country. The decision was ratified by Jerry’s hand-picked Unifor National Executive Board, who have never been known to stand up to him on any issue. But why weren’t we consulted as Unifor members? Why didn’t Unifor members get to vote? Supposedly this destructive move was taken in the name of “union democracy” – what a joke! The dues-paying members of Unifor never even knew disaffiliation was being discussed or voted on.

Unifor Exits In Order to Raid

What has motivated this undemocratic action? As many people have pointed out, part of the reason is Jerry’s desire to continue raiding other unions, instead of organizing unorganized workers. His efforts to engineer a takeover of the TTC workers of ATU Local 113 blew up in his face, even though Hassan Yussuff, CLC President, bent over backwards to try to help him. Yussuff unilaterally suspended part of the CLC Constitution to allow the raid, but was eventually forced by other CLC affiliates to reverse his position. (It has been pointed out by some, that Jerry Dias spent some $1 million of Unifor’s funds to get Hassan Yussuff elected as CLC President.) Jerry struck a deal with Bob Kinnear, ATU Local 113 President, to bring his members into Unifor, which one of Kinnear’s supporters referred to as “the big white shark”. At that time, Jerry also promised there would be support from Justin Trudeau and Kathleen Wynne. But none of that translated into support from TTC workers, so the attempted raid fizzled out. Now the “big white shark” has another victim in its sights – the 8,000 Toronto hotel workers who are members of UNITE HERE Local 75. Knowing that he is unlikely to get the CLC to acquiesce to more raiding, Dias has decided to pre-emptively leave the CLC so that he can raid with impunity. The day after the disaffiliation Unifor was already trying to get hotel workers to sign Unifor cards.

Liberal Politics is the “Bigger Picture”

However, raiding is not the only motivation here. To fully understand what is going on, we have to pull aside the curtain and see who is really operating the levers. Jerry Dias, as President of Unifor, and his predecessor Buzz

Hargrove, President of the CAW, have been instrumental over the last few years in helping the Liberal Party capture a large chunk of the Canadian labour movement. They call their policy “strategic voting” but it is clearly designed to benefit the Liberals. In recent elections unions have contributed more money to the Liberal Party than to their traditional political partner, the NDP. In the 2011 Ontario provincial election, unions contributed a total of $1,019,876 to the Liberal Party, and a strategic voting front group, the Working Families Coalition, also primarily funded by unions, spent an additional $2.1 million on advertising against the Conservatives. Union contributions to the NDP were $836,956.

Part of cementing this Liberal ideological takeover of the labour movement has been installing Hassan Yussuff, a Unifor staffer, whose partner is an assistant to Jerry Dias, as President of the CLC; and displacing Sid Ryan with Chris Buckley, another Unifor staffer, as President of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

The disastrous results of this growing hegemony of Liberalism in the major bodies of the labour movement, is that there is no effective opposition to the anti-worker policies of the Trudeau and Wynne governments. Trudeau’s government embraces capitalist trade deals (CETA, TPP, NAFTA), he endorses climate-killing pipelines, he introduces bill C-27 to undermine defined benefit pensions – and the CLC is mute. Meanwhile Kathleen Wynne’s government legislates teachers back to work, privatizes Hydro and installs the leading privatization advocate, Ed Clark, as head of the LCBO – and the OFL provides no meaningful opposition leadership or mobilization. All because Unifor is determined to get Wynne and Trudeau re-elected. However, there is growing opposition in the labour movement to this policy of being in bed with Liberal governments.

Dias Infuriated by OFL Endorsement of NDP

The decision by Jerry Dias to ‘take his ball and go home’ and pull Unifor out of the CLC comes only 2 months after his embarrassing defeat at last fall’s OFL convention. Despite desperate maneuvering by Unifor operatives, the Convention adopted a policy to support the NDP in the 2018 Ontario election. Dias was furious, and threatened at the time that he would pull funding from the OFL. It seems clear that Dias wants to bully the CLC and Provincial Federations of Labour into supporting the Liberal Party – or else he will work to divide and undermine those bodies.

Dias’ Hypocrisy

In his statement on the disaffiliation, Dias claimed:

“Unifor stands in support of union democracy and the rights of workers. Our union is opposed to any union that threatens, harasses, intimidates, or silences workers for simply asserting their democratic rights to choose a union or for the purpose of quelling dissent within the local.”

If you look up ‘hypocrisy’ in the dictionary, you’ll find a gallery of pictures of Jerry Dias.

Was Jerry Dias defending democracy when he booted 5 BC Unifor locals out of the union without a hearing – a blatant violation of the Unifor constitution?

Is Dias defending the right of workers to choose a union when he uses legal maneuvering for over a year to prevent fish harvesters from voting on which union they want to belong to? This is from The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) Facebook page:

Good morning NL and all ships at sea. 
Let’s see if I have this straight: Unifor Canada has broken away from the Canadian Labour Congress over a disagreement about the rights of workers to choose what union should represent them, even as FFAW/Unifor blocks inshore harvesters in NL from choosing their union fate. Gerrydiaz Lana Payne et al are full of sh-t.

NAFTA

Jerry Dias has allied himself with the Bay Street Liberal Party and turned himself into a shill for their policies. There is no better example of this than Jerry’s grandstanding as the supposed ‘voice of labour’ at the NAFTA negotiations. He is serving as the lap dog of Federal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland (who continues to praise her Nazi-collaborator grandfather) and has made clear that he wants the Canadian and US governments to work together against the “real enemy” – Mexico. Instead of trying to build ties between US, Canadian and Mexican workers – which would be real solidarity, Dias disparages unions in Mexico. He calls them “protection” unions and claims they are in bed with companies and government. Instead of trying to work with the unions that actually represent auto workers in Mexico, Dias has made ties with a few dissident organizations. But if being in bed with corporations and their political parties is wrong – Dias and the UAW are as guilty as any union in Mexico. Here’s the kicker – in the joint UAW and Unifor NAFTA position paper from last summer, the source for information about Mexico – is the U.S. State Department!

Impeach Dias

Unifor members and locals should demand the immediate reversal of Jerry Dias’ undemocratic decision to pull out of the CLC. This action hurts the labour movement of Canada, which means it hurts all Canadian workers including Unifor members. This is happening at exactly the moment when there were strong grass-roots efforts to fight bad-boss Tim Hortons franchisees. Instead of raiding and division, we need all unions to work together to unionize low-wage workers.

The autocratic, egotistical actions by Jerry Dias are dangerous and destructive. It’s time Jerry – time for you to go. If Jerry does not do the honourable thing and resign, we need to do the honourable thing and impeach him.