House Democrats who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United Auto Workers are now ignoring Republican calls to investigate the union in the midst of a federal probe.
Reps. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) and Tim Walberg (R., Mich.), top Republicans on the House Committee on Education and Labor, sent a letter nearly two months ago to Chairman Bobby Scott (D., Va.) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee chairwoman Frederica Wilson (D., Fla.) urging a hearing to examine the ongoing UAW corruption scandal. The Democrats did not respond, despite numerous guilty pleas from union officials charged with corruption. Scott has received $66,000 in UAW campaign contributions since 1992, while Wilson took in $40,000 since 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In total, Democrats on the committee have accepted more than $300,000 in UAW money over the course of their careers.
Foxx and Walberg on Thursday reiterated their request to examine the UAW probe, writing that union leaders have committed an “outrageous breach of workers’ trust.” A federal probe into allegations of UAW corruption has already led to 13 people being charged—10 have admitted guilt in connection to the scandal. Foxx criticized committee Democrats for disregarding the allegations, saying that “American workers deserve better.”
“Committee Democrats seem intent on completely ignoring this growing scandal in order to shield UAW union bosses from transparency and accountability, while at the same time pushing H.R. 2474, the PRO Act, which further worsens union coercion and makes union bosses even less accountable to the workers they claim to represent,” Foxx told the Washington Free Beacon. – READ MORE