On November 9, Will Lehman, a rank-and-file Mack Trucks worker and candidate for president of the United Auto Workers union, was informed by the court-appointed monitor overseeing the UAW national elections that the slate of incumbent UAW President Ray Curry had violated federal law by using union resources to promote his campaign.

According to the monitor, on October 26, Curry’s slate sent a campaign email to a list of hundreds of UAW members compiled through official union business.

To “remediate” this violation, the monitor allowed Lehman and other candidates for UAW president to send an email to the same list to which Curry had illegally communicated. The monitor informed Lehman that he could only use 375 words in his message to the same list, Lehman said, though the monitor refused to answer when asked who was on the list or what Curry had sent previously.

Below is Lehman’s message, which the monitor is forwarding to the list. To learn more about Lehman’s campaign, visit WillForUAWPresident.org.

Dear UAW member,

This is Will Lehman, rank-and-file candidate for UAW president. You are receiving this email because Ray Curry’s slate broke federal law by emailing you last month. Federal law and the rules of this election prohibits use of union resources to campaign for office.

As a remedy to Ray Curry’s illegal behavior, the Monitor didn’t take any action against his campaign. Instead, the Monitor told me I can email you as well, even though I only get to do so several weeks later, which is not a real remedy, since most of you have already voted since then and I didn’t get a chance to change your minds. I asked the Monitor who is on this list and what Curry’s slate said to you so I could respond or have a better idea what issues I should talk to you about, but they didn’t tell me anything other than that you signed up for something in Region 2B.

It’s like being led before a stage blindfolded and told to speak without knowing who my audience is or what they would be interested in hearing about. Are you retirees who the UAW apparatus has forgotten about throughout years of corruption, reducing conditions to us current workers to levels not seen since long before you first clocked in in the 1940s-1980s? Are you second tier workers like me who don’t make the same as our brothers and sisters on the line with us?

This is what I ask you: if you had already voted when you received this email, reply and say so. I ask because there is growing evidence that this is not a fair election. There are widespread reports of workers not receiving ballots on time to vote, even after requesting them from the monitor multiple times. So, please reply to this email if you already voted when you got this email, even if you didn’t vote for me, and also let me know if you have information about ballot issues at your workplace.

Thank you,
Will Lehman

P.S. The Monitor said I get 375 words and I’ll use every last one: my campaign will take power from the apparatus and give it to the rank-and-file. I ask that you vote for me.