UAW President Denies Collective Bargaining Deals Tainted by Scandal
January 26 2018 - 7:53PM
Dow Jones News
By Chester Dawson
DETROIT -- The head of the union representing thousands of auto
workers denied a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV executive who
pleaded guilty to violating labor laws unduly influenced the
outcome of negotiations between the union and his company.
Dennis Williams, the president of the United Auto Workers, said
in an open letter to union members Friday that collective
bargaining agreements reached in 2011 and 2015 were not tainted by
allegedly illegal payments made by the former executive to senior
UAW officials.
"The is simply no truth to the claim that this misconduct
compromised the negotiation of our collective bargaining agreement
or had any impact on union funds," Mr. Williams said in the
letter.
The UAW represents more than 100,000 factory workers employed by
Fiat Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. It negotiates
collective bargaining agreements with the three companies on a
quadrennial basis.
The scandal involving the allegedly illegal payments to senior
union officials comes at a time when the UAW has faced setbacks in
its attempts to organize workers in several foreign-owned
automotive plants in the U.S.
Mr. Williams' unusually public statement was issued just days
after Alphons Iacobelli, the former head of labor relations at Fiat
Chrysler, reached a deal with federal prosecutors. At a district
court hearing on Monday, Mr. Iacobelli said he "knowingly and
voluntarily joined an ongoing conspiracy" to authorize more than
$1.5 million in illegal payments to UAW leaders.
Mr. Iacobelli's lawyer could not be reached for immediate
comment on Friday.
A grand jury indicted Mr. Iacobelli in July for what the
government alleged was his role to funnel money from Fiat Chrysler
through a union training center to top union officials. He pleaded
guilty to making those payments and filing a false tax return to
hide some $840,000 siphoned from company coffers for his own use,
including buying a Ferrari and building a swimming pool at his
home.
Federal prosecutors allege the misconduct began in 2009, the
same year Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, and continued through
2014.
The UAW reached a four-year labor deal with the UAW in 2011.
Representatives for Fiat Chrysler could not be reached for
immediate comment late Friday, but they have previously referred to
a statement last year saying the alleged actions by the former
labor executive "were neither known to nor sanctioned" by the
company. CEO Sergio Marchionne echoed that position in a July email
to employees.
The payments were allegedly made to several union officials,
including a now-deceased UAW vice president, General Holiefield,
during a time when he was the union's top negotiator for bargaining
with Fiat Chrysler.
The union said previously it has removed a handful of officials
it believes to have been connected to the alleged conspiracy and
launched its own internal investigation into the matter led by an
outside counsel.
Write to Chester Dawson at chester.dawson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 26, 2018 19:38 ET (00:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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