Former Labor Notes and UAW Staffer Chris Brooks at Jacobin. Union Members Are Better Off Without Him.

Source: Chattanooga Times

Richard Mellor

Affscme Local 444 retired
HEO/GED

2-12-26

I’m reading an article in Jacobin by Chris Brooks, the former Labor Notes Staffer who made it to where he wanted to be, a mover and shaker in the UAW before he was fired. Brooks and other former so-called labor experts like Jane MacAlvey have nothing but contempt for working people. Jacobin is full of experts on unions and workers struggles that have never spent more than a day or two on the job fighting in the workplace. There’s a few more of them. They have no shame at all these people as so many of us witnessed them kissing up to the union hierarchy in an effort to work their way in to the labor bureaucracy.

 

Brooks Jacobin article is titled: Unions Are Going to Die Unless Something Big Changes Soon. This is the title from a desperate aspiring bureaucrat who has no understanding about how workers or union members think and why we act in ways that we do.

This depressing article is enough to put you off your supper and shows how ignorant Brooks is about history and how little he understands working people. After all, he’s not now or never has been one. 

Brooks writes:
"Unfortunately, the vast majority of the 115.5 million nonunion private sector workers out there have little to no idea what the NLRB is, what their rights are, or the extreme hostility they will face from their employer once they start talking to their coworkers about why unionizing makes sense. "

This is standard arrogant garbage from people like Brooks and other Labor Notes types who think they were born to lead the working class as we are too stupid to recognize we’re opressed. Workers might not know what the NLRB is or their union leadership, but why would they? Neither produces the goods so they appear to play no role in the workplace or in members’ lives. Wages and benefits decline and union dues rise, go figure.

 

But we know very well how "hostile" the boss can be as we are in the workplace every day. That statement just confirms my point that people like Brooks have no right to lecture workers about any aspect of the workplace, him and others like him have been part of the problem; an obstacle to organising because to change the nature of our unions we will have to have an open confrontation with the present leadership and from Brooks et al, that has to be avoided at all costs; you might not get a staffers job.

 

I remember someone making the point about how workers just didn’t get it when they voted the union down at the Amazon factory in Bessemer Alabama twice. “What’s the matter with them” this very trendy lefty said to me. Well, those workers that don’t know how hostile the boss can be knew how hostile the boss can be. They knew very well that if they voted “yes” to unionization the boss would go on the offensive. They also had a good idea what the union leadership’s response would be; a letter writing campaign perhaps, or have an informational picket line or have Bernie Sanders stop by the town for a public photo op and they knew the boss, in this case Jeff Bezos, would not find that threatening at all. So they played safe. The worker knows that if you want us to stand up in the workplace, put our job and families welfare on the line, you better shut this bastard down. You’d better bring some real power to the table.

 

I am writing this very quickly as I have little time. But there is one other very important point to mention about Brook’s Jacobin article and I have made this point many times in general when Brooks was writing about the UAW organizing drive at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee. As far as I can see in the Jacobin article, Brooks never mentioned the labor leadership, leaders, or the word “leadership” with regards to the hierarchy and the policies of the organization. Brookes refers only to “the union” when he tells us how desperate and weak the union is and why union density is so low.  

 

This is not an accident. It is a deliberate tactic to avoid the inevitable conflict that will arise if he places the blame for the failure to organize more members and win major material gains where it belongs, the group that develops these policies, the trade union leadership.

 

I took this up with him a long time ago in a previous piece on the trade unions and groups like DSA and Labor Notes. One explained my view on  why the present leadership refuses to fight and that a new militant leadership will not be built by Labor Notes or DSA and their staffers or the academics that claim to be labor experts and are regularly sought out by the mass media during labor disputes.  

 

In response to Brooks explanation for why the “unions” organizing drive at the UAW plant failed I wrote:

“…in this latest report Brother brooks again, when raising failed tactics and strategies, refers to the UAW as opposed to the UAW leadership. But the tactics are not developed by the UAW; they are determined by the leadership of the UAW. The only way the unions will be made into democratic fighting organizations and the unorganized will be organized, is if we look at the policies of the union leadership as distinct from what is in the interests of the union membership.”

Jane McAlvey has the same approach when she mentions the VW defeat writing that in “…. Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the United Auto Workers were out-organized in 2014 during the Volkswagen campaign…”

 

I have the same response to this, “Again, the “workers” in the UAW, the rank and file of the UAW, were not “out-organized”. It was the leadership of the UAW that developed the disastrous strategy that led to three defeats at the Chattanooga plant, the UAW leadership is responsible for that defeat, not the membership.

 

To point to the real cause of the defeats and the present state of the unions would ruin any chance of these characters from making any headway at all in the ranks of the labor hierarchy which is their goal. So they blame the “union” which means the members and the real culprits are off the hot seat. They are a left cover for a right wing class collaborationist bureaucracy to which they all aspire to penetrate.

 

Brooks is a labor faker and unfortunately the left, in many of its forms is full of them

 

Here’s a couple of pieces relating to this subject.

A Fighting Union Leadership Will be Built by Rank and File Activists

14 million Union Members: Why Their Leadership Won't Fight

A Payday Report article about Brooks firing at the UAW 

Payday Report: UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks Forced Out Amid Corruption Charges

Reprinted from Payday Report at PaydayReport.com

UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks Forced Out Amid Corruption Charges

 Mike Elk  Dec 18, 2025  0 Comments

Payday Report has learned that UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks has been forced out of the union amid a major corruption scandal. Multiple UAW staffers informed Payday Report that Brooks’ office at UAW’s Solidarity House had been cleared out and staff had been informed that he had left the union. 

The departure of Brooks came as UAW President Shawn Fain was preparing to face re-election next year, and the scandals involving Brooks were seen by many as a liability for Fain’s re-election prospects. It also comes just days before UAW Federal Monitor Neil Barofsky is expected to release a new report into a series of troubling purges of dissident union leaders. 

In addition to the removal of Brooks, Payday Report has learned that Fain has reinstated Rich Boyers as UAW Vice President for Stellantis. 

Brooks’ push to remove Boyers as UAW Vice President and the demotion of UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock precipitated a massive scandal that led the UAW’s federal monitor to accuse the union of breaking the law. 

Brooks had been a rising star within the labor movement, coming to prominence as a staffer for the Brooklyn-based publication Labor Notes. As a staffer at Labor Notes, Brook was a leading player in helping to elect Fain as president of the UAW in 2023. 

Purges of Dissident Union Staffers Backfire

After Fain took office, Brooks became Fain’s right-hand man and drew criticism from staff for instituting a series of controversial, loyalty purges. 

“ID those we can work with, move the program, ID those who need to be purged,”Brooks wrote in an email obtained by the Detroit Free Press in 2023. 

In the union, Brooks gained a reputation for ruthlessly purging anyone seen as dissenting from Fain’s agenda. A court-ordered, confidential survey of several hundred UAW staffers in November showed that 51% of UAW staffers feared retaliation if they spoke about problems within the UAW.

In April, UAW’s Assistant Director of Communications Rachel Gumpert, a well-known communications professional, resigned from the union, citing a culture of top-down retaliation within the UAW. 

“I cannot lose my integrity by continuing to work in a place where dissent is a termination worthy event,” wrote Gumpert in a facebook post published in late April. 

Gumpert went on to denounce UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks and UAW Communications Director Jonah Furman. Prior to their appointments to UAW top positions, neither of them had held any top leadership positions in any union. (See Payday’s 2023 piece “UAW Challenger Fain Purges Top Allies in Favor of Brooklyn Consultants”)

Brooks and Furman have become larger-than-life influencers in the labor media world due to their connections, made while working at the Brooklyn-based Labor Notes. (In a sign of their influence, even The Wall Street Journal did a profile of the duo and their close associate, labor lawyer Benjamin Dictor, titled “Three Young Activists Who Never Worked in an Auto Factory Helped Deliver Huge Win for the UAW”)

“There are 2 primary sycophants - outsiders there for 2 years, who never were members and never held leadership roles at any union in their lives prior - who have taken the keys to the car from the elected President and hijacked this amazing union for personal gain, attention and ego,” wrote Gumpert about Brooks and Furman. “Now, they’ve driven it straight off a cliff.” 

“The reason is inexperience, lack of intelligence, arrogance, and hubris,” wrote Gumpert. “It’s heartbreaking to see a righteous union with 100 years of righteous struggle be co-opted by two egomaniacs, who aren’t from it and have no real relationship to it or its membership.” 

Brooks also engineered the demotion of UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock after she raised questions about a $500,000 no-bid contract being given to a DC firm with little experience in union campaigns. 

However, her delays angered Furman and UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks, a native of Chattanooga, who had taken a lead role on the Volkswagen Campaign. 

Brooks, who made $187,000-a-year as the UAW’s Chief of Staff according to federal records, had been angered that Mock refused to reimburse him for purchasing pizzas for Volkswagen workers since Brooks could not present a receipt. 

Brooks was also upset that he was not approved by Mock for an enhanced corporate credit card that would have allowed him to charge up to $12,000 a month without union pre-approval. However, Brook’s position was not listed in federal guidelines as one of the positions eligible for the enhanced corporate credit card. 

Both Brooks and Furman had garnered a reputation as “hatchet men” in the labor movement, willing to smear union dissidents. Court documents filed in Pittsburgh revealed that Brooks had been involved in an attempt to smear sexual assault whistleblowers while employed by the NewsGuild in 2020. 

Emails, text messages, and sworn statements obtained by the federal monitor show that Furman and Brooks took a lead role in drafting the Special Compliance Report to oust Mock, who is Black. However, given the controversial nature of both Brooks and Furman, who are white, Fain got Region 1A Director Laura Dickerson, a Black woman, to present the report at the International Executive Board meeting as if it was an investigation that she personally undertook. 

The UAW’s federal monitor, Neil Barofsky, found that the UAW President, Shawn Fain, intentionally misled the UAW’s rank-and-file about who authored the report. 

“As further evidence of retaliatory intent, Fain made statements to the Monitor that confirmed his intent to deliberately conceal his commanding role in the effort to remove Mock’s departmental responsibilities,” wrote UAW’s federal monitor Neil Barofsky in court documents filed in federal court in Michigan yesterday. 

Further attempting to conceal what occurred, the UAW refused to release the minutes of the executive board meeting to the rank-and-file as required by the UAW’s constitution. 

In addition, for more than a year, the UAW refused to release documents to the federal monitor relating to Mock’s dismissal. After finally winning a court battle for more documents, Barofsky ordered the union to reinstate Mock with full responsibility for the departments that she previously oversaw. 

In a report expected to be released tomorrow, Barofsky is also expected to order the UAW to reinstate Vice President for Stellantis RIch Boyers. 

Following the release of documents that raised questions about the demotion of Mock in September, Marni Schrader resigned as UAW Compliance Director. The resignation came after UAW Federal Monitor Neil Barofsky accused Schrader of propping up false charges in retaliation against UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock in a successful effort to demote her. 

Now, Brooks is the second top UAW staffer to take the fall for purges and punishment of dissidents within the UAW. 

The moves to reinstate Boyers as UAW VP and dismiss Brooks as UAW Chief of Staff come as Fain prepares to run for re-election. The scandals around the demotion of Mock in her role as Secretary-Treasurer and removal of Boyer had hurt Fain. 

Brooks has also overseen a series of dramatic and unexpected defeats of the organizing department of the UAW. 

Two years ago, the UAW announced a massive effort to unionize non-union employers following the publicity it generated during the “Stand Up Strike.” So far, though, the UAW has failed to come up with much tanticipated victories after winning at Chattanooga Volkswagen in 2024, with 72% of workers voting in favor of the union. 

In May of 2024, after filing for a union election with more than 70% of workers signed up at Mercedes in Alabama, the UAW lost the election by a margin of 44%-56%. In August, the UAW won a narrow vote at BlueOval Kentucky by a margin of 526-515, with 41 ballots still currently being challenged, a margin that many union organizers said was too narrow at a time when other unions are winning at similar manufacturing plants by much larger margins. 

The recent lopsided, more than 2-1, defeat of the UAW at a Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, an employer where two other unions won easily earlier in the year, raises troubling questions about what is happening inside the UAW. The union has faced massive turmoil and infighting, leading many veteran organizers to leave, to be replaced by much younger, inexperienced organizers. 

“They value loyalty above all else, and that’s why they are losing,” one UAW organizer told Payday Report.  

With the dismissal of Brooks as UAW Chief of Staff, Fain can claim that he’s heard the complaints of UAW staffers and members and changed things. 

“Brooks was a liability for Fain,” one long-time UAW staffer told Payday Report on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “Now, Fain can go out and pick someone as Chief of Staff, who’s more politically popular and can help with his re-election bid. Brooks thought he could purge everyone, but, in the end, he got purged himself.” 

Photo Credit: UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks (Chattanooga Times-Free Press) 

The Assassination of Walter Reuther: Why They Did It, How We Know,

There will be a launch of Rob McKenzie’s latest book, The Assassination of Walter Reuther: Why They Did It, How We Know, in Detroit on August 28^th. Brother McKenzie gives more details below on how to pre-order the book and there is also information at this Facebook page. Rob is also the author of El Golpe: U.S. Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford in Mexico

My new book, The Assassination of Walter Reuther: Why They Did It, How We Know, is available for pre-order at https://algora.com/product/the-assassination-of-walter-reuther/. It will be the subject of an in-person and virtual book launch on August 28 in Detroit. Here is the information: 

  

Thursday, August 28, from 5:00-9:00 pm 

  

The Marriott Westin Airport Hotel 

  

30559 Flynn Dr, Romulus, MI 48174 Columbus room 

  

The UAW’s Walter Reuther was killed. The FBI wouldn’t investigate; the NTSB suppressed critical information. Author Rob McKenzie will talk about it all at a book-signing event on August 28, 2025, and you’re invited! 

  

The Assassination of Walter Reuther:

Why They Did It, How We Know

  

When UAW President Walter Reuther died in a plane crash in 1970, American labor unions lost perhaps the most powerful voice of workers' advocacy. Rob McKenzie’s original research spells out who had the motive, the means and the opportunity to take out Reuther, reversing the rights he won for workers. 

  

Bruce Dickmeyer will briefly detail the tumultuous last two years of Walter Reuther's life, leading up to the plane crash. Bruce has been married to Walter's youngest daughter, Elisabeth, since 1976. 

  

Scott Houldieson will review how the lack of democracy in the UAW weakened its ability to support workers’ rights, especially since Reuther’s tragic death, and how the resurgence of the working-class focus in the UAW can be attributed to greater democracy. [Scott is a second-generation UAW member and was a founding member of Unite All Workers for Democracy.] 

  

Author Rob McKenzie will detail the incriminating facts he has unearthed surrounding the crash at the Pellston airport, as well as the obstruction put up by the FBI, the NTSB and others who hold the evidence of the crime. Rob’s earlier book, El Golpe: U.S. Labor the CIA and the Coup at Ford in Mexico, was published in 2022. 

  

ZOOM INFO HERE: You can also attend the Book Launch via ZOOM. Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/XyRdEfrkTpG_WfFymmGB3A 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

  

For information about the event, CONTACT: (734) 497-1265 (After August 8) 

  

Pre-Pub Endorsements for The Assassination of Walter Reuther: Why They Did It, How We Know:

  

“Very illuminating...you make a strong case for foul play.” 

—Jeremy Kuzmarov, CovertAction Magazine 

  

“Rob McKenzie uncovers the smoking gun, revealing the hidden secret behind father’s assassination, and the deaths of mother and four others in the fatal crash of the sabotaged plane.” 

—Elisabeth Reuther Dickmeyer

  

“...raises the most serious questions that [this] was not an accident, but an act of sabotage.” 

—James DiEugenio, Author, JFK Revisited 

  

“An extremely well-researched, well-written, fast-paced book about an American labor leader who accomplished as much as Jimmy Hoffa and whose death was just as mysterious.” 

— Louis Ferrante, author of the Borgata Trilogy 

  

"Speculation has long swirled around the 1970 plane crash that killed UAW president Walter Reuther and five others. In this fascinating study, veteran UAW member and elected officer Rob McKenzie unearths new documents revealing previously hidden details and glaring inconsistencies in the official crash reports, demonstrating why it is long past time for full transparency and a thorough investigation into the untimely death of one of the most prominent labor leaders of the twentieth century." 

—Jeff Schuhrke, author of No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine 

  

On Facebook "Labor, Power and History" https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578100289663

  

Regards, 

Rob 

Ex-UAW President Ray Curry calls on Reuther Administration

   Shawn Fain and the guy that broke a rail strike

Comrades, I am posting this from my phone which I’ve never done before but I don’t have access to the computer at the moment. When I get back I would like to comment on this more but I do want to say this. This situation and the fractious developments in the United Workers For Democracy Caucus that backed Shawn should come as no surprise. I have on more than one occasion shared my views on opposition caucuses within the trade union movement that focus on union democracy as the core demand of the caucus. This does not mean the caucuse’s  victory in winning one person one vote was a bad thing. 

Firstly, unions tend to be among the more democratic institutions in society, but more importantly, a caucus has to have a program and slogans around that program other that democracy in the abstract I call it. Who can oppose the call for democracy? The bureaucracy believes in democracy too. They just have all the votes. The program is what unites us and must speak to more than simply higher wages and the obvious—opposition to racism, sexism discrimination in all its forms. Example:

Oppose the team concept in all its forms 

A shorter workweek to create jobs

Organize the unnorganized

On site childcare

All paid union staff and leaders to be paid no more than the average wage of the workers they represent. 

No support for either big business party; build a working class alternative.

In the case of major industries like transportation of which auto production is a part, we demand the public ownership and a retooling of this industry for the production of mass transit, wean ourselves from fossil fuels that are the cause of the  lunar crisis that threatens human life on this planet. 

A strong united opposition caucus cannot be built around the call for democracy. You’d have to be a Nazi to oppose it. Thanks to Teri Crial Norris for sharing the article RM

Ex-UAW President Ray Curry calls on Reuther Administration Caucus, criticizes current leaders

Breana Noble

Robert Snell

The Detroit News

Former United Auto Workers President Ray Curry accused the current union's leadership of "fear, intimidation and retaliation" in a letter sent to retired officers and regional directors seeking interest in a video call on the future of the Reuther Administration Caucus a year out from the next Constitutional Convention.

The letter obtained by The Detroit News is another sign of a potential challenge to UAW President Shawn Fain, who already has shared his intentions to run for reelection. Fain won attention during the Detroit-based union's "Stand Up" strike in the fall of 2023, propelling the union into national discourse, negotiating record contracts with the Detroit Three automakers and successfully organizing Volkswagen AG autoworkers in Tennessee.

Former United Auto Workers President Ray Curry in a letter to former UAW officers and regional directors criticized the union's current leadership and called for plans ahead of the next officer election in 2026.

But commitments around transparency and ridding the union of corruption have come under scrutiny amid investigations by the union's court-appointed monitor, including one that concluded Fain retaliated against second-in-charge Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock. The watchdog was installed by a first-in-UAW-history consent decree to oversee the union in 2021 for at least six years following a years-long corruption scandal that entangled former UAW presidents Dennis Williams and Gary Jones and several others in criminal charges.

Fain in 2023 beat Curry by 483 votes — 50.2% to 49.8% — in a narrow run-off election in the union's first directly elected vote for its top officers. Fain was the first UAW president not to be backed by the Reuther Caucus, later called the Administration Caucus, since Walter Reuther was elected president in 1946. Fain, Mock and others were backed by the Unite All Workers for Democracy Caucus, which started from a movement within the union led by frustrated members wanting to see reforms. UAWD in April dissolved over "ongoing disagreements," according to a statement on its website.

Curry said in a phone interview with The News that the letter was sent in mid-June following discussions with former UAW presidents Rory Gamble and Ron Gettelfinger and former Region 2B Director Ken Lortz, in recognition that the 39th Constitutional Convention where candidates for the International Executive Board, including president, will be nominated by delegates is less than a year away on June 15-18, 2026.

"Our Membership, Staff, IEB members and all of us personally have benefited tremendously from the (Reuther Administration) Caucus over the years and it's important to hear your thoughts as we move forward," Curry wrote. "It is imperative that we be prepared and have a plan to support the election process that follows" the convention.

As a retired UAW member, Curry said he isn't eligible to run for an IEB position under the rules in the UAW constitution. Members, however, could seek to change those rules by submitting a resolution for the convention, or a delegate can raise one from the floor of the convention.

"That's not anything I’m seeking or asking," said Curry, who said he's been enjoying retirement after returning to the South from Michigan, including volunteering and helping members when they reach out.

Curry deferred questions regarding UAW leaders and the state of the union to his comments in the letter. It said "outsiders" who supported Fain's campaign are in leadership positions without having worked in a UAW facility or paid dues.

"Their leadership style is based on fear, intimidation and retaliation," Curry wrote.

A request for comment with Fain's staff didn't receive immediate response.

Curry noted after 10 international staff terminations over the past two years, they are "employees-at-will subject to termination without explanation and without recourse." Curry also criticized Fain — without ever naming him explicitly — for having "resisted compliance and withheld documentation from investigations" by the monitor — who previously had complained of delays in response to document requests when Curry was in charge as well.

Curry also noted 24-hour security protection for Fain, including at his home which received a "$30,000 + security system."

"Spending is out of control and infighting with his UAWD board members is beyond belief," Curry wrote.

Curry also wrote that the Detroit Three contracts left money on the table, noting General Motors Co. announced stock buybacks following the talks; Chrysler parent Stellantis NV eliminated temporary employee positions instead of converting them; and Ford Motor Co. planned to expand Super Duty pickup production to Canada. He added that other sectors of the union are being ignored.

Curry in the letter described the situation of Reuther Administration members as "fluid" with Laura Dickerson taking over Chuck Browning's vice president role at the start of July following his retirement.

"It would be nice to be able to sit back and ignore what is happening," Curry said, "but I am always reminded of our constitutional oath which is the key (tenet) to support our UAW."

Curry wrote he would send a follow-up invitation to the former union leaders with information for a Zoom video call. He declined to specify whether that has been held.

"There’s been a lot of response," Curry told The News. "That’s where we are with it. I think there could be some future conversations that we have about this."

The letter appears to be an effort by the former upper echelon of the union to explore their options and to see if there is a viable candidate to run, said Marick Masters, professor emeritus of business at Wayne State University.

"They've got baggage, but I think it's important to remember the people involved in the wrongdoing have been identified and punished and purged from the union," Masters said. "A lot of people came from the ranks of the administrative caucus. That's probably where there's still a lot of talent."

The 12th report from Neil Barofsky, the union's monitor, filed last month in the U.S. Eastern District Court of Michigan painted Fain, the UAW president, as a retaliatory, foul-mouthed labor leader who coordinated with underlings to remove Mock in February 2024 from oversight of 11 union departments and two external board positions. Barofsky recommended that Mock be returned to her leadership roles, to which the union has responded in court by accusing Barofsky of overstepping his role.

The monitor stopped short of filing any charges against Fain amid ongoing investigations focused on "allegations concerning a retaliatory pattern of conduct" involving the union president. Barofsky's investigation into Fain doesn't appear to involve criminal allegations. However, Barofsky can try to discipline, remove, suspend, expel and fine UAW officers and members.

Mock in an interview with The News didn't specify if she will run for reelection or a different role next year, only that she must be nominated at the Constitutional Convention to run for any role.

"A lot of it depends on what can happen with respect to Shawn Fain in regard to what the monitor does in his investigation, which will determine the viability of his candidacy," Masters said. "If as a result of that investigation, he becomes a less-viable candidate, and the dissident faction may want to continue leading, then they'll have to find another candidate. It's setting itself up to be a confused-looking situation going forward.

"It's unclear whether the faction that really led the opposition to the Reuther Caucus has any legs to stand on at the current time beyond the current appointees on staff." 

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2025/07/21/uaw-ray-curry-reuther-administration-caucus-shawn-fain/85311754007/

Payday Report: UAW Top Communications Staffer Denounces Union’s Chief of Staff

UAW Top Communications Staffer Denounces Union’s Chief of Staff

 Mike Elk  May 15, 2025  0 Comments

When UAW President Shawn Fain took office in 2023, he promised to make the union more democratic and responsive. However, evidence has increasingly mounted that Fain has instituted another top-down regime to run the union. 

Last year, Fain demoted Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock, who ran with him on a union democracy slate, from many of her duties after she dissented over spending within the union. 

For more than two years, the Fain Administration also blocked the release of UAW executive board meeting minutes as legally required under the UAW’s constitution. 

Last month, Fain even pushed to dismantle the Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), a reform caucus within the union that he once championed while running for office.

Now, the UAW’s Assistant Director of Communications Rachel Gumpert, a well-known communications professional, has resigned from the union, citing a culture of top-down retaliation within the UAW. 

“I cannot lose my integrity by continuing to work in a place where dissent is a termination worthy event,” wrote Gumpert in a facebook post published in late April. 

Gumpert went on to denounce UAW Chief of Staff Chris Brooks and UAW Communications Director Jonah Furman. Prior to their appointment to UAW top positions, neither of them had held any top labor leadership positions within the union. (See Payday’s 2023 piece “UAW Challenger Fain Purges Top Allies in Favor of Brooklyn Consultants)

Brooks and Furman have become larger-than-life influencers in the labor media world due to their connections, made while working at the Brooklyn-based Labor Notes. (In a sign of their influence, even The Wall Street Journal did a profile of the duo and their close associate, labor lawyer Benjamin Dictor, titled “Three Young Activists Who Never Worked in an Auto Factory Helped Deliver Huge Win for the UAW”)

“There are 2 primary sycophants - outsiders there for 2 years, who never were members and never held leadership roles at any union in their lives prior - who have taken the keys to the car from the elected President and hijacked this amazing union for personal gain, attention and ego,” wrote Gumpert about Brooks and Furman. “Now, they’ve driven it straight off a cliff”. 

“The reason is inexperience, lack of intelligence, arrogance, and hubris,” wrote Gumpert. “It’s heartbreaking to see a righteous union with 100 years of righteous struggle be co-opted by two egomaniacs, who aren’t from it and have no real relationship to it or its membership.” 

Gumpert wrote that while she was leaving the union, she hoped that UAW President Shawn Fain would take steps to make the union more democratic. 

“Love to everyone still there watching their union fall apart in real time. President Fain is one of the most incredible and high integrity people I’ve ever eet, I’ll always root for him and the union, and hope he removes the outside cancer that has infected their union before they’ve fully destroyed what’s left of the union’s inspiring civil rights & social justice legacy.”

Gumpert did not respond to repeated requests for comments about her public statements on Facebook. 

It remains to be seen what Fain will do about the staffers. Others have complained about the staffers and the union's anti-democratic tendencies, but Fain has not received much pressure to change things within the union. 

The labor media has been largely quiet on the multiple union democracy scandals that have rocked the UAW. However, given Gumpert's denunciation, it will remain interesting to see if labor reporters start to pick up on the scandals.  

Where Black History Month intersects with the UAW Flint Sitdown Strike of 1936-37

By Frank Hammer *

February 11, 2025 marks the 88th Anniversary of one of the most profound labor struggles in the US - the 44-day occupation of multiple GM factories by militant auto workers in Flint, Michigan.  Referred to around the world as the Great Flint Sitdown Strike, it culminated in General Motors recognizing the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the sole bargaining agent at GM plants across the country, and agreeing to a first contract, which was all of one page.  

The role that Black workers played in that strike is very rarely mentioned, if at all.  There was Roscoe Van Zant, pictured above with some of the leaders of the successful occupation at Chevy Plant 4, the only Black worker who was actually part of the Sitdown.   Martha Grevatt, retired Chrysler Tool & Die Maker and former Trustee of UAW Chrysler Local 869, told about him in The Occupy that won the union published in Workers World (Feb 13, 2012). She wrote:

    

“One of the heroes inside Chevy 4 was Roscoe Van Zandt, an African-American worker. He stayed inside the plant from beginning to end. This was dangerous for a Black worker…At first, he kept to himself, but Socialists like Johnson and Howard Foster educated the white workers on the need for solidarity. There was one bed in the plant, and they gave it to Van Zandt.” A Sitdowner who knew him told Martha that he was “a natural leader.”

Martha, a member of Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), mentioned other African American workers:

“GM was a Jim Crow operation then. In most plants Black workers were only employed as janitors. The exception was the Buick foundry, where conditions were the worst, and Black workers’ jobs were the worst of the worst. The Buick plant was not on strike, but was idled, and Henry Clark and Prince Combs, in whose homes the dimly-lit organizing meetings had occurred, built support for the union. J.D. Dotson was a Black Communist who carried messages from one picket line to another and in and out of the occupied plants.”

I met J.D. Dotson in 1982 during one of the many Sitdowners’ “Pioneer Reunions,'' held during the summer in Flushing Park in Flint. I would go up with other Detroit auto workers to be part of the wonderful picnics attended then by a couple of hundred Sitdowners and their families.  Here’s my interview which appeared in the underground newsletter, Straight Talk published by rank and file members of UAW Local 909 at what was then the Chevrolet Motors plant in Warren, MI. 

We urged fellow workers to “read his remarks on the company’s tactics for keeping workers down and divided, and how the autoworkers overcame them.”  He was memorialized many years later in this artist’s graphite drawing: 

J.D. Dotson, in his own words

“For years the Black man was kept out of work in the factory.  The only time he worked was when the white man didn’t want to work.  There was no union, so when the white man would stop work and strike, the boss would go out and bring the Black man into the shop in box cars.  They had cots and we would sleep, eat, and work right there in the shop.  When the whites got hungry, they would come back and we would be turned back into the street like we were sheep.

At Chevrolet the only thing a Black could get was a mop and a broom.  At Buick we had some shake out job in the foundry that nobody did want.

You didn’t get water

You didn’t know from day to day whether you were going to work.  When we did, we worked from six in the morning to six or seven in the evening.

You didn’t get water.  They had one man who would come around with one of them old pint milk bottles, rinse it out and give you water.  We could drink water with one hand, watch for the boss, and keep working with the other hand. You had to eat right on the job with dust, oil and everything in the foundry.  You didn’t wash your hands because if you did, you didn’t have a job. This was not one day - this was everyday.

I remember a white man who was made superintendent and then he hired his brother. They would go around with old gloves and get them real dirty and nasty. If you said you needed a pair of gloves and your gloves were no good, he would give you a pair of the gloves he carried around with him. If you said you wanted a clean pair he would fire you. Some days you could take a toothpick and push it through the blisters on your hands - it would be so hot while you were trying to work. 

We hid in basements 

John L Lewis told us as long as the boss could keep white and Black separated, they were going to use both of us.  He said the only way we could get anywhere is to get organized.  There should be no discrimination. The Black man wouldn’t be offended by the white man because he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere without him.

In 1929 we started to organize in secret - five Blacks and two whites. We would go from place to place in open cars in zero weather to get a union started. We hid in basements. We couldn’t let nobody know what was going on, or they would go back in the shop and tell the boss.  

We were called “reds, commies” and were called “goons.” The big manufacturer owners called us this. If you were weak minded they would tell you, “don’t have anything to do with that man because he’s a “goon.” Anytime you were a labor leader and fighting to get the union started they would call you a “goon” or a “rebel rouser.” They couldn’t put us any lower, even though a lot of people didn’t know what the meaning of a “goon” was. 

We started under the AFL [American Federation of Labor]. Later on we got two unions in the shop, the AFof L and the CIO [Congress of Industrial Organizations]. We held an election to see which one we would use for our bargainers, and we accepted the CIO.

The AFof L, you see, was all white, and for years was skilled trades. The Black man couldn’t get into the unions until we brung in the CIO. The only way we got anything was when the union came into existence. That’s when we came into power.”

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You won’t find any information on the UAW’s website or facebook page about J.D. Dotson. He was a member of the Communist Party, USA, as were many of the other leaders of the Flint Sitdown strike.  Their history fell victim to the MCarthy-era witch hunts in the 1950s and a whitewashing of our UAW history by the Administration (Reuther) Caucus.*   It’s time J.D. Dotson and the others - men and women - were placed in a position of honor for having risked their lives for the UAW. 

 See “Sore Arm Blues” Flint Sit-down Strike 1937  

* Frank Hammer is Former President & Chairman at UAW Local 909, Detroit MI.