Top aide to former UAW vice
president makes plea deal
By
Shannon Jones
25 July 2018
Nancy Johnson, the top aide to former United Auto Workers Vice
President for Fiat Chrysler Norwood Jewell, pleaded guilty Monday to charges
related to ongoing investigation into illegal payments by Fiat Chrysler
management to UAW officials, aimed at securing favorable contract terms.
The guilty plea by Johnson was part of a deal with prosecutors
based on her agreement to cooperate in the federal corruption investigation.
She is the seventh person to plead guilty in the case, which involves the
siphoning off of at least $1.5 million in funds from the UAW-Chrysler National
Training Center (NTC) into the pockets of union officials.
For her part Johnson admitted to receiving illegal funds transfers
that she used for lavish parties, trips to California resorts and expensive
personal purchases including jewelry and clothing. She could face up to five
years in jail and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for November 19.
Following the plea agreement, the UAW again claimed that the
payoffs from Fiat Chrysler management had no impact on contract negotiations.
In a statement released Monday the union asserted, “The UAW has taken strong
measures to prevent a reoccurrence of this type of misconduct and our new
leadership team continues to oversee improvements in our operations and
financial controls.”
Johnson played a leading role in the 2015 contract negotiations
with Fiat Chrysler. So far, four of the eight members of the UAW negotiating
team have either been indicted or implicated in the illegal payouts, which were
intended to keep the UAW “fat, dumb and happy.” The sellout deal provoked a
rebellion by Chrysler workers, who voted down the contract by a 2-1 margin. The
contract was then repackaged and forced through using threats and intimidation.
The plea deal by Johnson follows by two weeks the sentencing of
Monica Morgan, the widow of General Holiefield, the late UAW vice president for
Fiat Chrysler. Morgan received a token 18-month prison sentence on tax evasion
charges for failing to report $201,000 in money skimmed from the NTC on her
2011 taxes. That represented only a fraction of the money stolen by Morgan, a
well-connected Detroit photographer, and her late husband. Misappropriated
money was used to pay off the $262,219 mortgage on their home and to buy tens
of thousands of dollars in luxury items. Morgan helped funnel some $350,000 in
NTC money into a fake hospice and pocketed another $80,000 for her photography
business by invoicing for bogus courses.
Johnson is the third UAW official to plead guilty in the case. Two
other assistants to Jewell, Keith Mickens and Virdell King, have also agreed to
cooperate with prosecutors. Jewell took early retirement in January, but has so
far escaped indictment. Johnson reportedly told King to buy a $2,180 shotgun
for Jewell as a birthday present through the improper use of an NTC-issued
credit card.
The federal investigation points to a far broader conspiracy
reaching to the top levels of the UAW. As part of the plea agreement for former
Fiat Chrysler executive Michael Brown, who helped administer the NTC, the
government charged that Fiat Chrysler conspired with officials at the UAW and
with the UAW itself to violate the Labor Management Relations Act. As part of
the conspiracy, the UAW allegedly presented padded invoices to FCA for
reimbursement of expenses connected to the NTC on behalf of UAW officials who
did little or no actual work.
FCA management also authorized Holiefield and others to “offer
sham employment status at the NTC to a number of their friends, family and
allies” who were hired by the NTC under a “special assignment” status.
The crisis in the UAW takes place amid turmoil in Fiat Chrysler
management, with the sudden incapacitation of CEO Sergio Marchionne, as well as
signs of increasing militancy among rank-and-file workers.
Workers at three Kokomo-area Fiat Chrysler transmission plants,
members of UAW Local 685, have voted overwhelmingly for strike authorization
over local grievances. The workers build transmissions for virtually all the
Chrysler vehicles built in North America. A strike at these facilities would
quickly bring FCA production to a halt. While the UAW is absolutely hostile to
a genuine struggle, intending to use the strike vote to merely adopt a militant
pose, workers’ anger is simmering over the abusive treatment of temporary
part-timers, who are being forced to work overtime in violation of contract
provisions.
The newly appointed head of the UAW Chrysler department, Cindy
Estrada, is herself deeply discredited. Estrada, who formerly headed the union’s
General Motors department, earned the hatred of workers for imposing contract
changes at the Lake Orion and Lordstown assembly plants allowing management to
hire lower-paid contract workers to take jobs previously performed by regular
GM employees.
Estrada is currently under investigation by federal authorities
regarding the operation of a charity she heads. The Estrada Charity Fund
received $139,032 from the UAW. One banquet in 2015 raised $357,506, including
$322,206 in contributions from unspecified sources.
Phony charities run by Holiefield were used as a conduit for
illegal payments from joint training funds. A charity run by Jewell, the Making
our Children Smile Foundation, has also been labeled by prosecutors a conduit
for misappropriated funds.
Seven top UAW officials who headed private charity funds,
including Estrada, quietly allowed their state registrations to expire a year
before the first indictment in the UAW corruption scandal.
The corruption in the UAW expresses the anti-worker essence of this
organization. It is not the result of a few “bad actors” but illustrates the
actual relationship between the auto corporations and the unions on one hand
and the working class on the other. In the face of this reality workers have no
alternative but to build their own organizations of struggle to take over the
functions long abandoned by the unions.
The World
Socialist Web Site Autoworkers
Newsletter calls for the building of rank-and-file factory
committees independent of the UAW to spearhead the defense of jobs, wages,
working conditions and safety. These committees should fight for the
nullification of all the contracts signed by the UAW and the restoration of all
concessions, as well as workers’ control over line speed and safety issues.
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