Will LehmanFor UAW President

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Read Will Lehman's statements on the UAW, the auto industry, and the fight for rank-and-file control of our union.

Will Lehman, rank-and-file candidate for UAW President
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Featured Statement

Why I’m running for UAW President in 2026

The purpose of this campaign is to end the dictatorship of the Solidarity House bureaucracy, re-establish the needs of the rank and file as the purpose of the union, and mobilize the full industrial power of the membership to defend democratic rights.

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Will Lehman, right, stands with two autoworkers in a plant parking lot; the worker beside him holds a “WILL LEHMAN FOR UAW PRESIDENT!” poster reading “I am running for president of the United Auto Workers to put rank-and-file workers in power,” and another holds a campaign leaflet.

Watch the UAW presidential candidates debate this Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern

On Thursday, July 30 at 6 p.m. Eastern, I will take part in a debate of the candidates running for president of the UAW — the one opportunity in this election to hear every candidate side by side. Watch, invite your coworkers, and weigh my program against what the rest are offering before ballots go out next month.

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Event flyer reading “A Life Stolen for Profit: The Rank-and-File Investigation into the Death of Stellantis Worker Ronald Adams, Sr.,” with a photo of Ronald Adams Sr. smiling alongside family members.

One Year After the Public Hearing into Ronald Adams Sr.’s Death

Marking one year since the IWA-RFC’s Detroit hearing into the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr., Will Lehman says the rank-and-file investigation has been vindicated—and warns that with Gregory Knopf’s death at Ford Sharonville and Richard Boyer’s letter downplaying wildfire smoke, only independent rank-and-file safety committees with the power to stop the line can prevent more deaths.

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Will Lehman, in sunglasses and a dark T-shirt, stands with a supporter holding a “WILL LEHMAN FOR UAW PRESIDENT!” campaign sign in a parking lot, with vintage cars and event canopy tents in the background.

At UAW Local 1700 campaign event in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Lehman outlines fighting program to protect workers from impact of wildfires

At a UAW Local 1700 get-out-the-vote event in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Will Lehman laid out a program to protect workers from wildfire smoke that sickened autoworkers across Detroit-area plants, while UAW President Shawn Fain stayed silent and other candidates offered no serious response to the crisis.

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Two autoworkers outside the Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly Plant, each holding up a “WILL LEHMAN FOR UAW PRESIDENT!” poster — a man in a hi-vis vest with locs and glasses, and a woman in a blue T-shirt holding a handful of campaign leaflets.

Detroit autoworkers denounce death threat, rally to defense of UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman

Autoworkers at Bridgewater Interiors and the Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit rallied to Will Lehman’s defense Monday after a top UAW officer posted an AI-generated image depicting him bound, gagged and held at gunpoint. “They’re trying to shut you up,” one young worker told him. “And they usually only do that when somebody’s telling the truth.”

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Raymond Jensen, wearing a yellow lanyard, poses with UAW President Shawn Fain at a UAW event in Washington, D.C.

Top UAW official Raymond L. Jensen posts death threat against me: Workers must oppose this act of intimidation!

Raymond L. Jensen Jr., until recently assistant director of UAW Region 9 and a prominent Shawn Fain supporter, posted an AI-generated image on Will Lehman’s Facebook page depicting him bound, gagged and held at gunpoint. Lehman’s attorney has demanded the UAW Monitor investigate, and Lehman calls on workers to oppose the intimidation and build rank-and-file committees in every plant.

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A multi-lane highway shrouded in thick, orange-tinted wildfire smoke haze, with a distant overpass, scattered cars, and construction cones along the shoulder; the sky and tree line are obscured by smog.

Shut down the plants! Autoworkers must take health and safety into our own hands

As wildfire smoke and a historic heat wave pushed Detroit’s air pollution to record levels this week, Ford, GM, Stellantis and the UAW kept every plant running—UAW President Shawn Fain acknowledged the air was unsafe but ordered no plant closed. Autoworkers must build rank-and-file committees to shut down non-essential production and win real respirators, clean-air upgrades, and worker-controlled monitoring.

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Black-and-white portrait of UAW President Shawn Fain, a balding man with glasses and a gray mustache and beard, in a dark suit and patterned tie with UAW pins, in front of a curtained window.

UAW President Fain is under federal criminal investigation. What are we going to do about it?

A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the UAW's court-appointed monitor as part of a criminal investigation into Shawn Fain, whose findings show Fain abused his office to secure favors for his fiancée and retaliated against a vice president who objected. The bureaucracy cannot be reformed—it must be abolished and power transferred to rank-and-file committees.

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Campaign supporters distribute Will Lehman for UAW President leaflets to autoworkers at a plant entrance marked Gate 5, beside metal security turnstiles and black perimeter fencing on a sunny day.

Deere workers: The two-year contract extension is a trap. Build rank-and-file committees now to stop another sellout by the UAW apparatus

John Deere has proposed a two-year contract extension for 10,000 UAW members in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas—a preemptive move to lock in below-inflation raises and the 2021 sellout before workers can organize. Deere workers must reject it outright and rebuild the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee to lead the fight themselves.

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Two Dana auto parts workers outside the Warren, Michigan plant, each holding a “WILL LEHMAN FOR UAW PRESIDENT!” poster — a man in a blue Dana work shirt wearing safety glasses and ear protection, and a woman seated in a vehicle wearing sunglasses.

Dana workers, locked in contract battle, give warm welcome to Will Lehman campaign team

Workers at the afternoon shift change at the Warren, Michigan Dana plant responded enthusiastically to the call by Will Lehman’s campaign to build a rank-and-file movement in opposition to the UAW apparatus which is actively betraying their struggle.

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A digital highway sign reading ‘EXTREME HEAT, SAVE POWER 4-9PM, STAY COOL’ above a freeway, with the Los Angeles skyline visible in the smoggy background and cars in traffic below.

Dangerous heat wave shows the need for workers’ control over safety

The ongoing heat wave is a workplace emergency, not just a weather event. Workers need the power to stop the line and halt production when heat conditions turn dangerous — not wait on a union bureaucracy that stands with management.

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Workers walking out through turnstiles at the Nexteer Automotive Plant 4 Main Entrance in Saginaw, Michigan, with a red Nexteer sign overhead reading Plant 4 Main Entrance

The fight at Nexteer is far from over! Expand your rank-and-file committee!

I have been following your fight from the beginning. A contract rammed through by fraudulent methods — including the firing of Antwiane Sanders for opposing it — is not legitimate. Guard and expand your rank-and-file committee. The fight is yours to win.

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A worker stands outside the Nexteer Automotive plant entrance holding a 'Will Lehman for UAW President' flyer, with the Nexteer Automotive sign visible above the turnstile entrance behind him

UAW's shotgun vote at Nexteer: Something is rotten in Saginaw

The ratification vote being organized inside the Nexteer factory is not a legitimate vote — it is a shotgun affair designed to silence opposition to a pro-company deal. UAW officials at every level have acted not as workers' representatives but as their enemies.

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Will Lehman

The bureaucracy can't be reformed. It must be abolished. Ready to build rank-and-file power?

Will Lehman for UAW President