FORT WORTH, Texas An annual financial report from the UAW was filed with the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday. In 2021, the UAW spent more money on legal fees for fewer officers than it did in 2020.
This is what the union said: It spent $36,069 on legal fees for President Ray Curry. Outgoing Vice President Cindy Estrada, who runs the union’s Stellantis department, spent $113,016 on legal fees for the last two years.
There were almost $30,000 in legal fees for four officers in 2020: Region 8 Director Mitchell Smith paid $10,888 in legal fees; Region 9A Director Beverley Brakeman paid $10,718 in legal fees; Curry paid $6,683; and Estrada paid $1,210 in legal fees.
It doesn’t matter how much money the UAW spent on Dennis Williams, who is now in prison for stealing money from the union. In 2019, the UAW paid $320,912 to defend Williams and $24,599 to defend Ex-President Gary Jones, who is in prison.
More than 16 people have been charged or pleaded guilty as part of the UAW investigation that the U.S. government has been running for six years now.
It says that in 2021, the UAW’s annual report says that Curry earned a total of $272,026 in total compensation, including expenses. He became president after his predecessor Rory Gamble stepped down early.
This is how Estrada’s total compensation came out: She made $319,321 including legal fees. Vice President Terry Dittes made $238,144; Secretary-Treasurer Frank Stuglin made $209,842; and vice president Charles “Chuck” Browning made $208,924.
In 2021, the UAW’s net assets went up a little bit, from about $1 billion in 2020 to about $1.1 billion in 2021. In 2019, the union’s strike fund, which was used to pay for a 40-day walkout at General Motors, went up a little, to $815 million from $790 million.
Before the report came out this week, Curry said that membership had dropped about 6% to 372,254 last year. He blamed the drop on the end-of-year timing of the report, because payroll and dues processing was pushed back because of the semiconductor shortage at the end of the year.