Granted, the UAW is using its union members’ dues to pay for Dennis Williams’ retirement cottage but, by building it using non-union labor, it leaves the union little room to complain when employers prefer to use non-union labor as well.
This is just stunning from the Detroit News:
The United Auto Workers is using nonunion labor to build a lakefront home for retired President Dennis Williams, a money-saving move prompted by bids showing the project would have cost more than $1.3 million.
Interviews with contractors and bid documents help pinpoint the original cost of a construction project being built amid an FBI investigation into whether union leaders’ have spent membership dues and money from Detroit’s automakers on personal luxuries.
Instead of using more expensive union laborers, the UAW has hired a nonunion electrician, a nonunion excavation company and is in talks to hire a nonunion plumber to work on the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath, 1,885-square-foot stone home at the UAW Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center in Onaway. The 1,000-acre retreat in northern Michigan is financed with interest from the union’s $721 million strike fund, which is bankrolled by worker dues.
“This changes it from a story of suspected misuse of union funds, which some union members have a surprising tolerance of, to a story of hypocrisy,” Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor, said. “A union that is in favor of union labor until it costs more is the same as any company that fights against union labor.” [Emphasis added.]
Read the rest here.
Related:
— Cabin for retired leader rises as feds question UAW spending
— Ex-UAW boss Dennis Williams OK’d using training center funds, aide says
–More UAW corruption articles here
