Raids launched this week by federal authorities at the homes of former and current presidents of the United Auto Workers union suggest the government’s wide-ranging investigation into financial misconduct by union officials and auto executives could be ratcheting up and expanding.
The FBI on Wednesday raided the Michigan residence of UAW President Gary Jones and the California home of former UAW President Dennis Williams. Federal agents also executed search warrants at the union’s resort in Onaway, Michigan, which spans 1,000 acres, and at other locations. Neither Jones nor Williams has been charged with a crime.
The raids come amid a yearslong corruption investigation, which broke into public view in 2017, into possible wrongdoing by union leaders and auto executives, including illegal payoffs to union figures and bribes from auto officials to union executives.
The investigation thus far has led to charges against nine people, eight of whom have been convicted.
The UAW said in a statement Wednesday that it and Jones, who was elected to lead the union last year, “have always fully cooperated with the government investigators in this matter” and said it was unnecessary for the search warrants to be used.
The union, it said, “has voluntarily responded to every request the government has made throughout the course of its investigation, produced literally hundreds of thousands of documents and other materials to the government, and most importantly, when wrongdoing has been discovered, we have taken strong action to address it.”
“The UAW will continue to cooperate with the government in its investigation, as we have been doing throughout,” the union added.
The raids come at a critical time for the UAW and auto workers, as the union is in the midst of contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler. The current four-year labor agreements expire Sept. 14.
In addition to the ongoing contract talks, the auto industry has been buffeted by slumping sales, layoffs, and plant closures, and faces an ever-looming threat of tariffs.
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The raids indicate the government’s investigation could be widening and escalating, raising questions of whether it could lead to the filing of a civil racketeering lawsuit and federal oversight of the UAW.
Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor, and economics at the Center for Automotive Research, said that to make a case for government oversight or violations of anti-racketeering laws, the government “is going to have to have evidence of criminal activity of several current UAW leaders.”
If the federal government were to assume oversight of the UAW, it wouldn’t be the first time such a move has taken place. In the late 1980s, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was placed under federal control after the Justice Department filed a civil racketeering lawsuit that aimed to rid the union of mob influence.
The federal government oversaw the Teamsters for 25 years under a consent decree governing the union’s affairs. In 2015, the Justice Department and the Teamsters reached a new agreement under which government oversight would be phased out over five years.
