Autoworker union president who donned 'eat the rich' shirt is in top 5% of earners
UAW president is racking in hundreds of thousands of dollars while his union's striking members are making $500 a week
UAW president Shawn Fain has been 'nothing but surprising' throughout process: Jamie Butters
Automotive News executive editor Jamie Butters discusses the expansion of the UAW strikes and its impact on car buyers.
The president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union leading the ongoing strike against the largest three U.S. automakers earned hundreds of thousands of dollars last year, placing him squarely in a top earning percentile in his home state, according to financial filings reviewed by FOX Business.
Shawn Fain — who was elected to lead UAW in March and has been a firebrand proponent of autoworkers — has at least two significant streams of revenue, the filings showed, earning $187,259 a year leading a UAW non-profit training program and another $160,130 per year in his previous role of administrative assistant at the union. Fain's UAW salary likely jumped well above $200,000 per year upon taking over as the union's president earlier this year.
"The Big Three want you to believe that what we are asking for is dangerous and unrealistic," Fain remarked in a UAW video released this week. "What is truly unrealistic is to keep making record profits year after year and then think that the workers who made those profits are just going to settle for scraps. What is truly dangerous is for corporations and the billionaire class to continue making out like bandits while the working class gets left further and further behind."
"That is why these companies and the corporate media are so desperate to try and convince the American people that unions are the problem," he continued. "We are not the problem. This so-called ‘competition’ is the problem. Corporate greed is the problem. Our solidarity is the solution."
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Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, speaks to a crowd of striking workers during a rally last month. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Fain's annual salary of $347,389 places him in the top 5% of earners in his home state of Indiana where, according to a Forbes analysis, individuals whose salary exceeds $192,928 per year are in the top 5%.
If Fain's new salary as president matches his predecessor, former UAW President Ray Curry, his union income increased to $267,126 and his overall salary — including what he earns from the non-profit UAW Chrysler Skill Development & Training Program — increased to $454,385, a salary that would make him a top 1% earner.
The union boss Shawn Fain has donned an "eat the rich" T-shirt at protests and rallies. (UAW/Video screenshot | Getty Images / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Fain has established himself as the face of the ongoing strike against Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Stellantis, even appearing alongside President Biden for one rally in which he compared automakers to Nazi Germany. The union boss has even donned an "eat the rich" T-shirt at protests and rallies.
"They look at me and they see some redneck from Indiana," Fain said during a rally last week. "They look at you and see somebody they would never have over for dinner or let ride on their yacht or let fly on their private jet. They think they know us. But us autoworkers know better."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, and Fain speak at a rally amid the United Auto Workers' strike against the Big Three automakers in Detroit on Sept. 15, 2023. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images / Getty Images)
And while striking UAW members are making just $500 a week in substitute pay from the union while they strike, ABC News reported, it is unclear whether Fain himself has taken a pay cut.
In an open letter to Fain sent Tuesday, the Mack Trucks Workers Rank-and-File Committee demanded the UAW bump striking workers' pay to $750 a week and that leaders including Fain should accept a pay cut taking their salary to the same level as strikers.
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"President Fain, if you are unwilling to meet these demands, which correspond to the demands of the membership, then you should step aside and turn over control of the union to the rank and file," the workers wrote to Fain. "It is, after all, we who have the 'final say.'"
"To our fellow autoworkers in the Big Three, we call on you to take up this fight yourselves and not allow your strike to be sabotaged by the UAW leadership," the open letter continued. "We have launched our strike in defiance of the apparatus, and we call on you to do the same."
On Wednesday, the UAW expanded its strike to Ford's most profitable truck plant in Kentucky. Although leaders have signaled progress in UAW's negotiations with Ford and the other two automakers, Fain has continued to say the companies are failing to meet the union's lofty demands on wages, a modified work week and pension benefits.
Fain did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.