Former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell pleaded guilty in federal court to charges stemming from the ongoing investigation into bribery of UAW officials.
A former top officer of the United Auto Workers pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of conspiring to violate U.S. labor laws by taking money from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. while representing union members employed by FCA.
Norwood Jewell, 61, a former UAW vice president and head of the union’s FCA Department, pleaded guilty to one count of violating U.S. Labor-Management Standards Act. He could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, the plea agreement limits the prison sentence to a maximum of 18 months and the size of the fine hasn’t been determined yet.
Jewell was released on $10,000 personal bond and must surrender his passport and firearms, pending a sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for early August.
During his hearing at which he pleaded guilty, Jewell told U.S. District Judge Paul Borman he had unknowingly been plunged into a “cesspool” when he took over the union’s FCA Department in June 2014, following his election has UAW vice president.
Alphons Iacobelli, former UAW vice president of labor relations, pleaded guilty last year to charges of bribery and misappropriation of joint FCA-UAW training funds as part of scheme to influence union officials that was put in place as far back as 2010 shortly after Fiat acquired a controlling interest in the Detroit-based Chrysler.
Alphons Iacobelli, right, was previously sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for his role in the FCA-UAW training fund scandal, including paying off the mortgage of UAW VP General Holiefield, left. Holiefield died before the scandal broke.
(Former UAW VP Jewell expected to plead guilty. Click Here for the story.)
Investigators from the FBI and U.S. Department of Labor also found the Iacobeilli also had diverted more than $1 million to acquire a used Ferrari and to pay for improvements to his home and to pay personal credit card bills.
Jewell’s predecessor as head of the UAW’s Chrysler Department, General Holiefield, who died of cancer in 2015, also benefitted from the scheme by accepting more than $200,000 to pay off the mortgage on his suburban Detroit home and other lavish gifts purchased with cash from the joint funds.
Jewell’s plea agreement stated that he accepted $40,000 from FCA that was used to cover the cost of travel and related expenses for lodging and meals while serving as a UAW vice president between the summer of 2014 and the summer 2016. “A lot was concealed from me,” said Jewell, who blamed a system he had inherited for the violations of the law.
However, in his plea agreement he accepted responsibility for violating federal law.
“As a union official, I can’t take anything of value from a company I’m bargaining with. Whether it be a dinner, a drink or goodwill,” Jewell told the judge. “I wasn’t perfect. I missed things.”
(Click Here for details about the Feds securing more indictments in FCA-UAW scandal.)
“Perceptions are important,” Michael Manley, Jewell’s attorney told reporters after the hearing. “These were technical violations of the law,” Manley said, adding the money had never influenced Jewell’s conduct as a union representative.
Manley also declined to say whether Jewell was prepared to cooperate with federal investigators by implicating other union officials for similar violations of the law.
Brian Rothernberg, UAW director of communication, noted in a statement released after the hearing that the union is moving forward with a series of reforms that would curtail similar violations of federal law in the future.
“As his plea makes evident today, Norwood Jewell exhibited poor judgment. This is a troubling moment for our organization, and our members are appropriately angry and frustrated. Our members will always be our highest authority, and so we pledge to continue to change the way that we do business,” the statement said.
“These reforms will make sure that transparency and accountability are at the forefront, and will bring this chapter to a close, once and for all,” the statement added.
(Former FCA executive gets 5.5 years prison. Click Here for the story.)
The union has seen its reputation badly damaged by the scandal, which also has been used to undercut the UAW’s efforts to recruit new members, particularly at a bitterly fought organizing campaign in the summer of 2017 at the Nissan assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi.