My name is Will Lehman, and I am running for president of the United Auto Workers union. Fellow Mack Trucks worker Joe David and I are standing as delegates for UAW Local 677 in elections that are being held at the UAW union hall on Thursday, April 9.
We are running as part of an insurgent slate of workers running as delegates throughout the UAW—not to get cushy jobs inside the UAW apparatus, but to abolish the apparatus and transfer power to the rank and file. This is the basis for carrying out a real fight to defend our jobs, living standards, working conditions, and basic democratic rights.
Nominations are underway at locals across the country, and workers at other UAW locals are already stepping forward. These delegates will nominate the candidate for top offices in the union. If this process is left in the hands of Shawn Fain and the Solidarity House bureaucracy, workers will be offered only candidates loyal to that apparatus and the corporations.
The delegate process itself is obscure, inconsistent across locals, and too often handled with little notice to members. Workers are left checking bulletin boards just to find out when elections are happening. We are running as delegates to expose this system and to represent the rank and file—not the apparatus.
What we will do as delegates
- Fight for transparent, democratic election to the UAW leadership
- Use the convention to encourage coordination and discussion among workers across plants and industries, and internationally
- Lead the Insurgent Slate to an election that will aim to throw out the corporate bureaucracy and return the power to the rank and file
What we will not do as delegates
- Take missed-work pay or any compensation drawn from workers' dues
- Rubber-stamp backroom deals or cover for the union-management partnership that imposes concessions
- Treat this convention as a PR exercise to legitimize a pro-management leadership
- Take a vacation at the UAW "retreat" in Black Lake, Michigan
The record of the corporate bureaucracy speaks for itself. Hundreds of UAW officials collect salaries between $150,000 and $200,000 a year out of our dues, while more than $25 million has been spent on a federal monitor and lawyers to shield corrupt officers from accountability. The Fain, Mock, and Boyer fiasco is their idea of reform. We are not here to polish that image. We are here to take it down.
Workers are already facing a cost of living crisis. The war with Iran is driving energy and food prices higher, threatening supply disruptions, layoffs, and plant shutdowns that will hit our households and workplaces directly. Once again, workers are being told to pay for a crisis we did not create. The bureaucracy has no answer to this except to demand more sacrifice from workers.
There is a rising tide of opposition to the pro-corporate bureaucracy as seen in the 96 percent rejection of the UAW-backed sellout contract by Nexteer Automotive workers in Saginaw, Michigan. From strikes by nurses, meatpacking workers and grad students in the US to walkouts and factory occupations by our brothers fighting layoffs and plant closures in Mexico, everywhere workers are saying: Enough is enough!
There is no going back. In 2026, workers must come forward as challengers to the established order and begin building a new leadership–one that belongs to the rank and file.
Vote for Will Lehman and Joe David as delegates for UAW Local 677. Put power back where it belongs, on the shop floor!
Candidates:
Will Lehman and Joe David, Delegates, UAW 677
How to vote in the delegate election:
Voting is taking place: Thursday, April 9, 5:00 am - 11 am; 12:30 pm - 5:30 pm UAW 677 Local Hall, 2101 Mack Blvd #1, Allentown, PA
Questions? Contact Will at 267-225-6633
