Federal oversight of the United Auto Workers has cost the union more than $25.3 million, according to an annual report released Tuesday that illustrates rising costs amid multiple investigations into President Shawn Fain and his team.

The union's annual LM-2 Labor Department filing provided an updated cost of a federal watchdog, lawyer Neil Barofsky, who was installed by a first-in-UAW-history consent decree to oversee the union in 2021 for at least six years. Barofsky, based in New York, was appointed the UAW monitor following a years-long corruption scandal that entangled two former union presidents and several others in criminal charges.

Barofsky's firm, Jenner & Block, has been paid $25.39 million since 2021, and the firm charged more than $7 million last year ― an increase of almost 21% from one year earlier ― as the watchdog and his team investigated Fain and several members of his team. The total cost of federal oversight, however, is much higher, considering there are additional firms working for Barofsky.

"It's a good chunk of money going straight to pay for the monitor," said Marick Masters, a management professor emeritus at Wayne State University who has long tracked the union. And he noted that it doesn't account for the other subcontractors working with the monitor — or other internal UAW compliance costs, including extra staffing or paying for attorneys to represent union officers.

"If you add up all of those things, you'd probably find it's close to $30 million, I would guess," said Masters, noting that the extra costs come as the union is grappling with some broader budget challenges, including the fact that membership has not moved upward significantly in recent years.

The annual report also showed the UAW finished 2025 with a 4.6% gain in members compared to the year prior. Membership grew to 392,447, up from 375,161 a year prior. It's the largest gain year-over-year the Detroit-based union has reported since Fain was elected in 2023, when membership at 370,239 hit its lowest level since the Great Recession of 2009. Masters said the growth shows the union's membership ranks have "stabilized."

“Our union has made a major commitment to building working-class power in our core industries, and the results speak for themselves," Fain said in a statement. "We’re honored to welcome these 17,000 new members to the UAW family. We plan to keep on fighting, keep on winning and keep on growing the UAW.”

A UAW spokesman declined to comment on the monitor's fees. The monitor's oversight and costs are likely to be significant issues heading into the union's convention in June, and as campaigning cranks up for leadership elections that kick off later in the summer.

The union and monitor engaged in a legal battle last year over the disclosure of documents, including text messages and personal communications between Fain and top advisers. It was a part of the monitor's investigation into whether the decision to remove Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock and Vice President Rich Boyer from oversight of union departments was retaliatory. The documents, the monitor later revealed, showed Fain's chief of staff had colluded with the union's compliance director to falsify allegations against Mock.

The report described extensive destruction of text messages from the phones of Fain and the UAW’s former compliance director, who resigned last year. The union has restored Mock and Boyer to their department leadership roles, and Fain's chief of staff, who was influential in the design of the union's collective bargaining and organizing strategies, resigned.

President Fain's total compensation was $276,378 last year, up less than 1% from 2024. That included $245,390 in base salary, up from $229,514 the prior year. Secretary-Treasurer Mock's compensation totaled $250,633, including $227,953 in salary.

The union paid its vice presidents as follows: Mike Booth, $248,270, including a $221,260 salary; Rich Boyer $251,406, including a $229,229 salary; Chuck Browning, who retired in June, $158,912, including a $140,096 salary; and Laura Dickerson, who moved to vice president from Region 1A, $235,113, including a $212,431 salary. Kevin Gotinsky, a top administrative assistant who oversaw the union's Stellantis department while Boyer was removed from the role last year, made $216,155, including a $192,069 salary.

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