While Congress Investigates, the UAW Is Gambling With Your Paycheck

On August 6, Congress sent formal letters demanding records on political spending, PAC contributions, and lobbying expenditures from the United Auto Workers (UAW). The committee’s message was simple: workers “should not be compelled to subsidize” advocacy that runs against their own beliefs.

Unfortunately, this has become par for the course for the UAW. Nearly $146 million in UAW funds — funds that came directly out of union workers’ paychecks — reportedly went toward hotels, conferences, travel, branded merchandise, food, and entertainment between 2017 and 2024

Then there’s the ongoing Justice Department grand jury investigation into UAW President Shawn Fain. According to internal union communications reviewed by Bloomberg News, the DOJ has subpoenaed the UAW’s own court-appointed monitor as part of a probe into whether Fain misused his office to secure a financial bonus for his fiancée and to support a workers’ compensation claim for her sister. UAW leadership’s priorities and the priorities of the people paying dues don’t look like the same thing.

The John Deere Contract Extension Is Exhibit A

You don’t have to take our word for it. Look at what’s happening right now with John Deere.

Last month, Deere offered the UAW a two-year extension of the existing contract, running through 2029 — offered in the middle of a serious downturn across the farm equipment industry, at a time when job security is genuinely on the line. Instead of grabbing a deal that protects workers through a rough stretch, UAW leadership is urging members to walk away from it.

Here’s what’s actually on the table:

  • Two 4% wage increases
  • A $3,000 ratification bonus
  • Quarterly cost-of-living adjustments — instead of the standard once-a-year COLA
  • Health coverage with $0 premiums and $0 deductibles
  • A protected pension plus 401(k) contributions
  • A retirement cash payout of up to $50,000 ($37,500 standard, $50,000 for members with 25+ years of service)

During a downturn, when the entire farm equipment sector is contracting and other manufacturers are cutting jobs outright, an offer like this is a welcome surprise. Yet, the UAW is again putting its self-serving interests above the interests of the workers it espouses to represent, trying to squeeze for more. This reopens the door to a prolonged strike at the exact moment the industry can least absorb one, over a contract members would otherwise be glad to have.

Union leadership isn’t the one who loses a paycheck if that happens. Members are.

AREAS IMPACTED

If UAW leadership pushes members into a strike over a deal like this, the workers in these towns are the ones who pay the price:

  • Coffeyville Area, Kansas — Coffeyville Works, serving Coffeyville and surrounding Montgomery County, producing cylinders and hydraulic components
  • Des Moines Area, Iowa — Des Moines Works, located in Ankeny and serving the greater Des Moines area including Urbandale, Johnston, Grimes, Waukee, and West Des Moines, producing sprayers, cotton pickers, and precision-ag equipment
  • Waterloo Area, Iowa — Waterloo Tractor Operations, Deere’s largest manufacturing complex globally, spanning multiple facilities across Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Evansdale, employing thousands of production and maintenance workers who build Deere’s row-crop tractors
  • Dubuque Area, Iowa — Dubuque Works, drawing workers from Dubuque, Asbury, and the surrounding Tri-State area (including parts of Illinois and Wisconsin across the river), producing construction and forestry equipment
  • Quad Cities, Iowa & Illinois — Five sister cities anchor this region: Davenport and Bettendorf on the Iowa side, and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline on the Illinois side. Deere runs three plants here: Davenport Works, a 2.2-million-square-foot facility employing over 1,000 workers that builds four-wheel-drive loaders, articulated dump trucks, motor graders, skidders, and feller bunchers; East Moline’s Harvester Works, which builds combines and harvesting equipment; and Moline’s Seeding and Cylinder operations, with roughly 625 employees. Deere has committed more than $250 million to upgrade these three plants — investment that a prolonged, avoidable strike puts at risk for the UAW members who work there
  • Ottumwa Area, Iowa — Ottumwa Works, serving Ottumwa and surrounding Wapello County, producing hay and forage equipment

Thousands of UAW jobs across these six communities sit downstream of one decision: whether union leadership accepts a strong contract extension or chooses to risk a strike that Deere workers didn’t ask for, over a deal most of them would be glad to sign.

The Bottom Line

Congress is right to keep following the money. Rank-and-file workers deserve union leadership that answers to them instead of the financial and political whims of fat-suit union brass. If the Deere extension is any indication, it’s worth asking whether that’s the union members currently have.

The Center for Freedom & Prosperity is a 501c3 nonprofit that advocates for policies to protect workers’ economic freedoms and hold institutions accountable to the people they represent.