Anonymous ID: e29d28 April 2, 2019, 3:18 p.m. No.6022487   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>2661 >>2676

Former UAW official pleads guilty in U.S. corruption case

 

DETROIT (Reuters) - A former top United Auto Workers official in charge of the union’s relations with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a U.S. federal court in Detroit to misusing the automaker’s funds for lavish spending on UAW officials.

As part of a plea agreement, Norwood Jewell, who headed the UAW’s FCA department from 2014 until his retirement in January 2018, pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to violate the Labor Relations Management Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.

 

Jewell is the highest-ranking former UAW official charged so far in a wide-ranging investigation into illegal payoffs to UAW officials by FCA. To date, seven people linked to the union and the automaker have been sentenced in the government’s corruption investigation.

 

Jewell’s court appearance comes at a sensitive time for the UAW, which faces contract talks later this year with FCA, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.

 

Prosecutors say FCA officials conspired to divert to UAW officials more than $4.5 million in training center funds intended to pay for training for union members.

 

Both the UAW and FCA have repeatedly said that only a few individuals were involved and that this did not affect contract talks between the two in 2015.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fiat-chrysler-corruption-labor/former-uaw-official-pleads-guilty-in-u-s-corruption-case-idUSKCN1RE2FC