Ex-UAW President Dennis Williams
A former United Auto Worker official alleges that her boss, United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams, directed subordinates to improperly use funds from Detroit’s automakers, funneled through training centers, to pay for union travel, meals and entertainment, Robert Snell of The Detroit News reports.
Former UAW official Nancy Adams Johnson, as part of a plea agreement Monday in federal court, tells investigators Williams made the directive to relieve pressure on the union’s budget. Williams, the union's president from 2014 until mid-June, and the UAW had no comment on the allegations made by Adams Johnson, the second-highest ranking official in the union’s Fiat Chrysler department.
The training funds have been at the center of a growing scandal. Some officials have been accused of using the money earmarked for training auto workers to support a lavish lifestile of first-class plane tickets, fancy shoes, spa treatments and expensive meals.
Snell writes:
Money filtered through the training centers for the benefit of UAW officials is at the center of a widening scandal that has led to seven convictions, a shakeup at the highest levels of the auto industry and raised questions about the sanctity of labor negotiations between the union and Detroit's automakers.
"Maybe this is what the senior levels of the UAW were used to, but at its core, this is a significant betrayal of trust," said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. "This is how a small fraud becomes a much bigger one."
Williams isn't charged with wrongdoing.
