This timeline shows key moments in the corruption scandal involving the United Auto Workers union and Chrysler, and how Jeep workers in Toledo say they were hurt by it.
2006: The Toledo Supplier Park opens
Designed to save Chrysler money, the project utilizes independent suppliers that construct the body, assemble the chassis, and paint the Jeep Wrangler. Chrysler convinces veteran Jeep workers to help start these new facilities, explaining they can retire, begin collecting their pensions, and then go to work for the third-party suppliers. Additional staff are hired from the outside.
2012: Chrysler takes full control of the paint shop
The automaker decides to formally "insource" the facility following a revolving door of suppliers. Senior UAW officials inform the paint shop's 174 union workers that they've struck a non-negotiable deal with Chrysler: The Jeep retirees who'd been recruited to open the plant will be laid off, and everyone else will have their seniority stripped, resulting in major benefit cuts. The workers say senior union leaders from Detroit essentially force them to accept the arrangement.
2013: Workers learn of "job selling" and are interviewed by the FBI
The paint shop workers learn that many of the facility's replacement employees live in Detroit, which seems odd. Some of these new workers acknowledge they "bought" their jobs by making cash payments to a UAW official. Around this time, FBI investigators start interviewing former paint shop employees and others about the job-selling issue. Meanwhile, the workers seek internal remedies through the union to regain their jobs or seniority, but their appeals are rejected.
2015: Former UAW Vice President General Holifield dies
The UAW International executive, who died of pancreatic cancer, had been involved in bargaining over the paint shop workers' status while Toledo's UAW Local 12 was cut out of the process. Mr. Holifield would soon become a central figure in the larger bribery scandal after charges were announced in 2017. His widow would be sentenced to prison.
2017: The federal corruption investigation goes public
The first charges are filed in what ultimately becomes a sprawling bribery and embezzlement probe into Chrysler and the UAW. It results in multiple convictions of former UAW officials — including two past presidents — plus Chrysler executives.
2018: Toledo's paint shop workers file lawsuits
A pair of class-action lawsuits are filed against Fiat Chrysler and the UAW. The laid-off workers say union officials bargained away their jobs for bribes, while the paint shop workers who lost their seniority argue they were also injured by the corruption, which they did not learn about until charges were filed in 2017. A federal judge expresses sympathy with the workers, but dismisses the cases, saying they were filed too late.
2020: UAW agrees to major reforms
The union agrees to a civil settlement with the U.S. government designed to clean up the organization. It says an independent monitor must oversee the UAW for six years, and it requires a union-wide vote on whether the UAW's future international leaders should be picked via the direct election model, rather than the current delegate system, which critics said helped the corruption flourish.
2021: Union members approve direct elections
Union members overwhelmingly approve the direct election model, which supporters say will allow for more accountability of the UAW's senior leaders going forward.
2022: UAW convention and its first election are coming soon
At the UAW's annual convention in Detroit starting Monday, attended by hundreds of delegates from around the country, the union's constitution must be amended to allow for direct elections. Then, ballots for the union's first direct election will be sent to its 400,000 active members and almost 600,000 retirees later this year as the union tries to regain trust in its membership.
First Published July 24, 2022, 11:00 a.m.
