April 2026

Hello brothers and sisters. I can’t believe this may be the last article that I am blessed to write to you as the President of UAW Local 652 and Chairman of the Board of the Lansing Labor News. But, as the time for our triennial elections is fast approaching, this may be the last article. I can’t believe these years have passed so quickly, and I feel truly blessed to have served the membership in the various capacities I have over the years.

Other than Local elections, this will be a very busy year for us as Union Members and American citizens. We have our Local Union elections coming this May, our primaries in August, and midterms concluding this November, and all the while, we will have our International UAW Executive Board elections in October, with initial mailings of ballots beginning in August. As I stated earlier, this will be a busy year for your votes to be heard. As we look at what is important to us, I urge you to consider, in our local, state, and Federal elections, which candidates have your paycheck, benefits, and health and safety at the forefront. Please don’t let yourselves be distracted by taglines. Your votes matter, so when you use them, pay attention to the service that has been provided to you when casting your ballots, and maybe do a little research on the candidates you don’t truly know to come to an educated decision.  When it comes to “doing research”, there isn’t a TV show or podcast that is real research, regardless of the source. Now, Ben, you might ask, why would you say that? Well, what do TV shows and podcasts have in common? To stay relevant, they need readers and listeners. What brings and keeps these valuable commodities to their channels? Drama, polarizing views and statements, but most certainly not boring factual data. I beg you all to pay attention to the details. Here is a detail we can all agree on. Life is getting more and more expensive; there is no way around that, but there are really only two reasons why life gets more expensive. The first path is that the economy is growing faster than the world can provide the needed resources, which is the supply-and-demand inflation problem. The second path is bad policy and practices. In a healthy, growing economy, we're probably all guilty of buying things we want but don’t truly need, which creates the inflation we get so angry about. But in a bad economy, we are spending the same amount of money only on the things we need, and those things are getting more expensive. In the first path, we are all a bit guilty of self-inflicted wounds; yet in the second, we are victims of what is being thrown at us. When we go to the voting booths this year, I hope we can remember what a growing, too fast at times mind you, economy felt like when where we were able to afford what we needed and some of what we didn’t versus what it looks like now, when we aren’t spending on the fun things near as much for fear of what we need will just continue to get more unaffordable. Let us look at what and who created these changes, not be distracted by the ridiculous reasons we have been given for these negative changes, and use our votes to get back to a growing economy and policies that support us, workers, not burden us with bad policy.

I will ask at least one more time, make the time to be active in your Union and in our various levels of politics. Never forget, we have a duty to be active members and citizens. I wish you all well and charge you all with taking to the polls this year and let your voices be heard.

In Solidarity,

 Ben