In Federal Probe of GM-UAW Center, GM Says It's Not under Investigation

• The United Auto Workers has been under federal investigation for racketeering and fraud since 2017. Four former union officials are in prison.
• What began as a probe into the workings between Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and union officials has now broadened to the UAW-GM training center, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
• A GM spokesman has issued a statement, reproduced in full below, that “the convicted criminals who stole from UAW members and the [UAW-GM] Center for Human Resources did so without GM’s knowledge.”

UPDATE, 5/1/20: General Motors has sent Car and Driver a statement that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is not investigating the automaker. The statement reads: “Recent media reports suggested that General Motors may be a focus of a ‘newer front in the years long criminal investigation’ being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit. This is simply not true. GM is not a target of the government’s ongoing investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit officially confirmed this to GM.” We have reached out to the DOJ for confirmation and got confirmation that GM is not currently the subject of an investigation. In an email, the Wall Street Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, said it stands by its story.

GM Not Being Targeted in UAW Probe, Automaker Says

In the five months since General Motors attacked Fiat Chrysler in a fraud lawsuit based on charges that its rival was involved in racketeering with the United Auto Workers, it appears the feds have pointed their crosshairs straight back at GM. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department is looking at possible corruption schemes between the UAW and GM as the U.S. bolsters its unprecedented criminal probe into one of the country’s most powerful unions.

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The WSJ reports that federal investigators “have interviewed both current and former GM employees within the company’s labor relations department” and, in particular, have subpoenaed financial records from the UAW-GM joint employee training center (pictured above)—the very same jointly owned entity that at FCA has led to the indictments of 14 former FCA and UAW officials, the majority of whom have pleaded guilty. Four union reps are currently in prison. GM agreed to shut down its training center this year, according to the WSJ, as the UAW was on strike for five weeks. That plant shutdown cost GM more than $1 billion—and it helps to explain why GM filed the lawsuit against FCA shortly afterward.

But the WSJ says that “relatives of union leaders” may have been given jobs in return for unspecified bribes and that there could be more GM employees and UAW officials who may have orchestrated a “kickback scheme,” which led to last year’s arrest of former union vice president Joe Ashton. He pleaded guilty in December of having funneled a quarter-million dollars into his own pocket, according to federal prosecutors. At least one scheme involved 50,000 wristwatches that Ashton ordered from the UAW-GM Training Center for UAW members, who allegedly never received them.

GM claims that corruption between the UAW and FCA is the reason it lost “billions” on two labor contracts it signed with the UAW in 2011 and 2015. Yet that case will certainly lose merit if investigators find GM to be just as culpable as FCA in what appears to be a sordid game of bribes, shakedowns, and embezzlements.

A GM spokesman sent Car and Driver the following statement: “The government’s charges make clear that the convicted criminals who stole from UAW members and the CHR did so without GM’s knowledge. We are confident, based on our cooperation and discussions with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, that GM is not a target of their ongoing investigation into union corruption. We have been thoroughly and proactively sharing information with government investigators to help them root out corruption. As has been reported previously, we understand that federal investigators are examining many aspects of the auto industry to determine if corrupt union officials engaged in misconduct.”