Shawn Fain is the fiery auto worker driven to become a United Auto Workers leader. He was elected as the group’s president by a small margin in March 2023—the first UAW president directly selected by the membership—promising an end to past regimes’ corruption and a return to hardline bargaining.
The 55-year-old is an electrician by trade who worked at a Stellantis parts plant in Kokomo, Indiana, his hometown, and had been a UAW member for 29 years before joining a reform caucus to restore credibility to the
