Dylan Kresak, DCNF
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain denied allegations that he abused his office to benefit his fiancée.
A federal grand jury is investigating claims that Fain pushed another top union official to secure a bonus for his fiancée and a workers’ compensation claim for her sister, according to internal UAW communications, Bloomberg reported Sunday. The jury subpoenaed the court-appointed federal monitor Neil Barofsky, who oversees the union as part of the probe.
“This is what happens when you go against corporate America and their allies, and I’m not going to be intimidated or harassed out of serving our membership,” Fain said, according to the New York Times.
“[T]he Monitor has concluded that none of the seven stated reasons offered by Fain justified the removal of Boyer’s Stellantis oversight and that, instead, Fain’s actions were improper and fit into what has become a recurring pattern of retaliation,” the report stated.
Fain, who is running for reelection as UAW president this year against Boyer, revoked Boyer’s role as lead negotiator with Stellantis, The Detroit News reported in May 2024.
Fain claimed he is the victim of “bogus allegations,” the New York Times reported. He hired legal representation to fight the “trumped-up claims against me,” according to Bloomberg.
“Let’s be clear about what’s going on here: Rich Boyer has fed the monitor false allegations about me and is now trying to weaponize these bogus allegations to steal the upcoming UAW election. He knows he can’t win a fair fight because he has no real platform to run on,” Fain said via a Sunday statement.
“Now, more than two years after becoming aware of Vice President Boyer’s allegations, and on the eve of our election, Mr. Barofsky has chosen to publicly release a politically charged and false report about me. The most reasonable conclusion is that he is playing political games and abusing his power,” Fain wrote in a statement, CNBC reported.
The Department of Justice and the UAW each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Fain further claimed Barofsky holds a “political grudge” due to the UAW’s anti-war position on the Gaza conflict, Bloomberg reported. Barofsky personally called Fain after the union backed a Gaza ceasefire in December 2023, and he forwarded the board a letter from the Anti-Defamation League condemning a local UAW’s statement on the conflict, according to The Detroit News.
“[The monitor report] substantiated the claim that President Fain acted improperly to obtain financial benefits for his fiancée, and that Vice President Boyer’s failure to approve the bonus may have contributed to Fain’s retaliatory action against him,” Barofsky’s monitor report stated.
Fain became one of organized labor’s most prominent Democratic allies during the 2024 presidential election, endorsing then-Vice President Kamala Harris and speaking at the Democratic National Convention. Meanwhile, Teamsters, another major union, chose not to endorse a presidential candidate in 2024, and its president, Sean O’Brien, spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Under Fain’s leadership, the UAW endorsed socialist Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor in June 2025.
Fain previously called President Donald Trump a “scab” and simultaneously praised the president’s tariff policies, the New York Times reported.
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