Auto workers appear to favor direct election of leadership

By TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer

DETROIT (AP) — Members of the United Auto Workers union appear to be in favor of picking their leaders in direct elections. With 72% of the ballots counted, nearly 63% favor direct elections. About 37% want to keep the current system of delegates selecting the union’s leadership. A federal court-appointed monitor who is conducting the election says on his website that 65,136 ballots were cast in favor of direct elections, while 38,503 wanted delegate voting. The website says the results are unofficial and the full count likely won’t be done until Thursday. Just over 143,000 ballots were received by Monday’s mail-in deadline.