By Bob Hennelly/Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour

Part 1: Will Lehmann, a 34 year-old Mack Trucks rank-and-file worker from Leigh County Pennsylvania,  is running to lead the million member United Auto Workers. According to his website, Lehmann, a socialist, is building what he says is quote “a mass movement of the rank-and-file to break the dictatorship of the UAW apparatus and bring power to the shop floor.”

The other contenders include the current UAW President Ray Curry, Shawn Fain, Local 163 Shop Chairman Mark Gibson, and Brian Keller. They all debated last month.

After the convictions of two former UAW presidents and several other top union officials for a dizzying array of crimes, the union was placed under an independent federal monitor. 

Last year, by a vote of 89,615 to 140,586 vote, members voted to have the national leadership selected by a direct rank and file vote for the first time in its history. Today’s UAW includes workers in the auto industry, the government sector, higher education, hospitals and non-profit organizations.

All UAW members in good standing as of October 31, 2022, are eligible to vote in the Election, including members who are part-time workers, reinstated members, as well as retired members. In order to have your vote counted in the Election, mail-in ballot must be received by November 28, 2022. It is strongly encouraged that all return ballots be mailed by November 18, 2022.

Part 2: FDNY EMS Lieutenant Anthony Almojera VP DC 37 Local 362, the author of Riding the Lightening- A Year in the Life of a New York City Pandemic talks about his memoir that’s been optioned by CBS for development as a TV series. 

From the epilogue: “Our society is so fucked up, I thought,” writes Almojera. “We’d learned nothing. The spring had exposed the holes in our healthcare system, but the city wasn’t going to do a thing to mend them. All the talk of fighting inequality and social injustice was just taken-nothing more. New York had been hit by a metaphorical meteor in the spring, and we still had people who wouldn’t wear a mask, who didn’t want to get vaccinated.”

Plus 

A Personal Reflection by Stucknation on the mounting COVID death toll.

In Memory of Rachel Hennelly 08-09-60 10-20-12

We are supposed to be “over” COVID, and yet hundreds of people continue to die every day.  Our elected officials, from the White House to the State House, need this all to be in the rearview mirror.

Yet, every day loved ones are still dying, and the people that treat them still face the risk of a life-altering bout with the virus that killed more than a million Americans—and still counting. Gaps in infection control in congregant care settings—like the one Rachel was sent to—are still killing people, as is our failure to sufficiently invest in public health.