General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers union on Monday entered the fourth week of contract negotiations since the union began a national strike against the automaker 22 days ago. 

It's the longest national strike of an automaker in decades, and it's likely to stretch on judging by communication from both the UAW and GM over the weekend. As the impact of the strike by 46,000 GM-UAW members at 55 GM facilities around the U.S. is beginning to be felt on a national level through layoffs and work stoppages at affiliate companies, the UAW on Sunday said it had rejected another contract proposal and negotiations took "a turn for the worse."

GM said in response that it would continue to negotiate in good faith. The automaker and the UAW had reported progress on negotiations as recently as Friday. By Sunday, though, negotiations had stalled.

That news came in a Sunday letter from UAW Vice President Terry Dittes to members less than a day after the UAW announced it was making an executive move in response to the continuing federal investigation into union corruption. Vance Pearson, a member of the union's governing International Executive Board and the director of UAW Region 5, was placed on leave on Friday, nearly one month after Pearson was charged with embezzling union funds, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering.

An affidavit written by Labor Department Special Agent Andrew Donohue in the criminal complaint against Pearson details a years-long conspiracy that involved embezzling $1 million in member dues and spending the money on personal luxuries. The Detroit News identified two unnamed officials involved in orchestrating the scandal as Jones and Williams.

The criminal case focuses on lavish spending by UAW officials during conferences in Missouri and California and provides the most detailed government account of alleged misspending in Palm Springs, including $120,000 for cigars, steak dinners and drinks, and 107 rounds of golf. The News reported the government's interest in Palm Springs in September 2018.

From 2014 to 2018, a period that covers Jones' tenure leading UAW Region 5, Pearson and other leaders submitted phony expense forms seeking reimbursement from UAW headquarters, prosecutors said in an affidavit. The phony expenses were supposedly tied to UAW Region 5 leadership and training conferences.

Three days after being charged, Pearson attended negotiations with GM in Detroit, though he was not a member of the UAW-GM national bargaining team and did not vote on if the union should strike.

Pearson's leave comes as two former UAW communications directors, Frank Joyce and the Rev. Peter Laarman, used an op-ed Friday to break what they called an "institutional code of silence." They issued a scathing rebuke of the UAW leadership for abandoning the practices of the formerly "squeaky-clean organization built by the union’s earlier generations." 

They called for the resignations of the UAW's entire International Executive Board and the assistance of the Canadian auto workers union, Unifor, to help reconstitute the leadership. Specifically, they condemned the lack of action against Pearson.

Meantime, as the strike enters its fourth week, the economic repercussions are expected to become more deeply felt by GM, UAW members who've seen pay cut to less than half of what they take home weekly, GM suppliers and the southeast Michigan economy, where a number of the striking GM members and companies impacted by the strike are based.

Loss of income for GM and non-GM employees because of the strike will lead to less consumer spending, said Patrick Anderson, CEO of the East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group. "Even if the strike ends today it's still going to be with us at Christmas shopping time." 

ithibodeau@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @Ian_Thibodeau

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