Bloomberg: Marick Masters on dissatisfaction with UAW leadership
United Auto Workers President Ray Curry failed to secure a new four-year term in the union’s first ever direct election, setting up a runoff to lead union members in contract talks with Detroit automakers next year. The vote underscores a deep divide at the union, which hasn’t seen a serious leadership challenge since Walter Reuther consolidated power in the late 1940s. The UAW is trying to regain the confidence of its members after a five-year U.S. investigation into embezzlement and illegal payoffs to union executives netted more than a dozen convictions, including two former presidents. “There’s dissatisfaction, and I’m not surprised,” said Marick Masters, a professor at Wayne State University who studies the UAW. “There certainly were ample grounds to be dissatisfied with leadership.”
