Indiana
Supporters of UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman campaign in Indiana
Supporters of United Auto Employees presidential candidate Will Lehman visited auto factories in Indiana final week within the days main as much as the first-ever UAW presidential debate to win help for the Mack Vehicles employee who is looking for the abolition of the UAW paperwork and putting energy within the palms of the rank and file.
The workforce handed out leaflets promoting the September 22 debate pitting Lehman, a tiered employee on the Mack Vehicles plant in Macungie, Pennsylvania, towards incumbent UAW President Ray Curry and different candidates representing numerous wings of the UAW equipment. Lehman is stressing the necessity for employees to ascertain their very own authority within the factories by organizing rank-and-file committees impartial from the pro-company UAW paperwork.
Within the first cease on their marketing campaign swing, supporters of Will Lehman visited the Stellantis transmission complicated in Kokomo, Indiana. Many employees stated they’d not heard something concerning the nationwide union elections, which had been mandated in a referendum voted on final 12 months. At a plant gate distribution final Tuesday, for instance, one employee, Charles, requested members of the marketing campaign workforce, “Is that this for casting?” referring to the large foundry instantly adjoining to the Stellantis transmission plant the place he labored.
Employees at Kokomo Casting had carried out a quick three-day strike the earlier weekend over native points. The walkout was carried out by the UAW in a totally unserious method, with employees referred to as to the picket line on a weekend the place no manufacturing was scheduled, and the strike ended that very Monday. The UAW even advised employees on the Kokomo transmission vegetation to not be a part of the picket line, claiming this is able to be a contract violation.
When Will’s marketing campaign workforce defined that due to the years-long corruption scandal, rank-and-file employees can be voting to pick the highest management of the union for the primary time and that Will Lehman was contesting the presidency to abolish the parasitic union equipment altogether and return energy to the store flooring, Charles responded, “How come I’ve by no means heard something about this till now?”
When requested what the central points had been, Charles responded with out hesitation. “They gave away COLA, and we’ve been going backwards ever since. There was a stretch of seven years the place we had no raises in any way. Then we obtained 3 p.c. What’s that? A greenback an hour. $40 per week is nothing. We have to open the contract. Proper right here in Kokomo, Frito Lay is providing $42 an hour for beginning pay for a upkeep employee. Are you able to think about what COLA can be proper now? It might be at the least 5 – 6 {dollars} an hour.
“The union stated the corporate had us over a barrel. However the fact is we had scoundrels within the Worldwide that had been taking kickbacks. That’s so disgusting nonetheless!!
“Then they got here for an additional half-hour in dues cash each month. That was imagined to be a brief levy to construct up the strike fund. However that by no means went away. Particularly within the final two contracts, it took eternally for us to see any increase.”
Different employees singled out the a number of tiers as probably the most damaging concession the UAW gave away during the last three a long time. “That’s inflicting lots of turmoil within the plant,” stated Sherry, who has greater than 20 years on the firm and has been pressured to maneuver from plant to plant on a number of events. That and the widespread destruction of jobs had been two main sore factors.
“In ‘08 they laid off 235 expert tradesmen,” she continued. “They got here to my husband and stated, ‘You’ve obtained to both take the buyout or transfer to a unique plant. So he requested, ‘Would you progress my spouse?’ However their reply was, ‘Why would we do this?’ And the union did nothing. We had no alternative however to take the buyout.”
“Why can’t we get a pension and COLA?” requested Monik as she was leaving the transmission plant. “The financial system is altering. Every little thing has gone up. I’m a single mum or dad. Even two-parent properties can’t make it.”
Loads of employees had been impatient with the union for failing to tell them concerning the election and the way the voting would happen. “The UAW doesn’t battle for us,” commented Nicole. “The final time we voted anyone new in, he stated he was going to be completely different. However ultimately, it was the identical factor over once more.”
Sheila has 38 years with the corporate and has been pressured to maneuver a number of instances since beginning within the van plant in St. Louis. She research the information concerning the firm and described the huge destruction of jobs that has gone unanswered by the union. “When the four-speed and the six-speed [transmissions] went, they eradicated 1,000 jobs. In return the corporate introduced the spray bore course of which makes use of 5 folks on two shifts. That’s all you can provide us is 10 jobs?”
She talked concerning the new engine plant close by which can have as many as 500 jobs. “However these usually are not new jobs,” she stated. “They took one full shift and moved everyone to the engine plant.”
Proper now, the division producing the nine-speed transmission has been laid off for 2 weeks, and the eight-speed has been in the reduction of to 2 shifts. “It’s loopy!” She exclaimed.
The decision by Will Lehman’s marketing campaign for employees to affix forces with employees in Europe and different international locations to construct the Worldwide Employees Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees and return energy to the store flooring in a standard battle to defend all jobs resonated with Sheila. “Stellantis has partnered with an organization referred to as Pause to construct an electrical transmission which is designed to make the battery last more,” she stated. “That firm is in Italy. We have now obtained to construct up one thing extra dependable than what we’re working with. All that corruption. That was a nightmare!”
Subsequent, supporters of Will Lehman visited the GM meeting plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The plant builds the top-selling Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra gentle vans. On the plant the corporate has turned more and more to using temp employees to maintain the plant working at full manufacturing ranges in the course of the pandemic.
Many employees had been sharply essential of the native union. Once they heard that the federal monitor was placing on the first-ever one-man, one-vote election in an try to present the union a facelift following the corruption scandal, they remarked that the pinnacle of their native union had been uncovered for corruption elsewhere and moved over to the Fort Wayne plant.
Amongst different complaints, the corporate was systematically abusing the contractual requirement to supply a break after 2.5 hours of labor and the native union did nothing. “Within the final contract we went on strike and fought to have an additional break as a result of we might be working over 2.5 hours with no break,” a younger employee reported to the marketing campaign workforce. “I talked to my committeeman about this already, they usually say they’ll’t do something about it.”
Whereas supporters of Will Lehman had been talking to employees, a consultant of the native UAW apparently referred to as GM plant safety to escort the Will Lehman marketing campaign workforce off the premises in violation of the federal monitor’s guidelines that govern the conduct of the election and defend the precise of every candidate to talk to all members of the union. When the Lehman workforce defined the scenario and the rights of the candidate below the monitor’s guidelines, the pinnacle of plant safety knowledgeable the workforce that the highest plant administration had positioned a name to Normal Motors headquarters in Detroit and was ready for directions. Plant safety determined to not forestall the distribution of election supplies.
At that time, employees who had been ready behind the turnstiles earlier than leaving for the day requested to have a number of the Lehman marketing campaign statements entitled “Return Energy to the Rank and File” in order that they might learn them and distribute them to their coworkers who had been lining up. When the primary batch was exhausted, they requested for extra statements and palm playing cards promoting the talk that was being held the following night so that everybody would have a duplicate.
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Indiana
Doyel: ‘The thrill of hope’ is what Indiana Wish gives to Hoosier families, like Archer’s
![Doyel: ‘The thrill of hope’ is what Indiana Wish gives to Hoosier families, like Archer’s Doyel: ‘The thrill of hope’ is what Indiana Wish gives to Hoosier families, like Archer’s](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/12/17/PIND/77035776007-doyel-christmas-1.jpg?auto=webp&crop=854,480,x0,y231&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Kabuki Syndrome: Indiana Wish provided Archer Ruzic with a playground
Archer Ruzic, who has been diagnosed with more than 20 illnesses and conditions, giggles
Archer Ruzic giggles like a baby lamb, bleating gently, beautifully, as his dad loves on him in the kitchen of the family’s westside home. Archer is 4 years old and nonverbal, generally silent when he’s not crying in pain or, as he’s doing now, giggling softly. This is one of those moments for Jesse and Olivia Ruzic, that giggle, when everything feels OK – the hospital trips and seizures, the heart surgeries, the medications lined up on the counter like they live inside Walgreens.
That was another moment when everything felt OK – a trip to Walgreens.
This was in Michigan, four years ago, after one of Archer’s surgeries, the insertion of a feeding tube into his stomach. Archer was 6 months old and couldn’t eat by mouth – still can’t, really – and was being fed through a nasal tube. His waving little hands had discovered the nasal tube one day, and “pulling it out was becoming his favorite hobby.”
That’s from Olivia, the kind of delightful thing she or Jesse will say about their son, about their situation. Their strength is supernatural, coming from their faith. They met in 2012 at a seminary in Chicago, when Olivia tripped and … well, we’ll tell that story in a moment. By March 2020 they were married and living in Michigan, where Jesse was a pastor and Olivia worked alongside him, when the trip to Walgreens happened.
Archer was in the hospital after something had gone wrong following the insertion of that feeding tube. He suffered a stroke, and doctors told his parents – well, you can imagine what they told his parents.
“They thought he might die,” Olivia says.
Olivia and Jesse prayed, and Olivia posted an update on Facebook asking – begging – for more prayers.
“People all over the globe prayed for him,” she says.
This was a viral social media post that crossed oceans and came back to Michigan, to a Walgreens, where Olivia was getting medication for Archer when a woman approached her:
“Are you Archer’s mom?” she asked Olivia. “I’m praying for him.”
These are the moments that sustain a mom and dad when their son, their sweet little Archer, has been diagnosed with so many illnesses and conditions – more than 20, many of them unrelated – that eight of his 11 organ systems are affected. The family needs more moments, though. It’s why they called Indiana Wish last year. They were seeking help. They wanted to hear more of that glorious giggle.
Olivia Ruzic, 32, tries to explain what it’s like to raise a child like Archer. She goes old school, to the 1985 video game Tetris. Remember that one? Trying to put the blocks together, just so?
“Rare-disease parenting feels like a game of Tetris, and it’s impossible to win,” she says. “You’re constantly trying to fit together blocks that just won’t: How does this medicine that helps one organ system affect another organ? We’re so consumed with medical issues, are we neglecting developmental issues? We have two other kids – are we neglecting them? You always ask: ‘Am I doing enough?’
“Working with Indiana Wish was such a beautiful experience. They posed a beautiful question: What wish would bring your child the most joy?”
Olivia pauses.
“Indiana Wish put the most blocks together for him.”
Indiana Wish serves all year
This is an annual story you’re reading, the second such installment of our holiday Indiana Wish series. It started last year with a story about a wish granted in 2019 to Muncie’s Lauren McGlaughlin: a family trip to France, her idea, for memories that would sustain Lauren’s parents and siblings after her eventual death from cancer the next year.
Some wishes are big, like that. Some are smaller. The average cost is $12,000, and Indiana Wish is a non-profit. Each wish is granted with help from community donations.
Why write this story? Why write it every year – and during the holiday season, when we’d rather laugh than cry?
Can’t tell you, exactly. It just feels right. As we come together in December, celebrating whatever we celebrate, let’s love on people whose lives don’t look like ours – and support groups like Indiana Wish, whose sole purpose is comforting families living through their unimaginable struggle.
Pause for a moment. Let’s compose ourselves. You need to learn more about Olivia and Jesse, and about Archer and his two brothers. And you need to see the wish they received.
Indiana Wish, 2023: Lauren McGlaughlin is alive in family’s memories from Muncie to Paris
Granting Archer’s wish
Archer loves the park. Well, he’d love the park if it weren’t so overwhelming. He loves the slide. Loves to swing next to his older brother, Jack, 7.
But parks tend to have other children, and the stroke Archer suffered at 6 months caused a brain bleed in his thalamus region, where sensory processing takes place. He gets overwhelmed to the point of withdrawal, lying down on a mat to get away from all that stimulus. His frustration leads to emotional agony, to say nothing of the increased risk of infection that comes with being around other small children. When Archer gets sick, he suffers more seizures. The cycle is terrifying, heartbreaking.
Archer loves the park, but parks don’t love him back. So the family wished for a park in their backyard. Nothing big: A swing set for Archer, Jack and baby brother Dash, 8 months old. A small trampoline. Like that.
Indiana Wish built an interactive playhouse with swings, a slide and cabin. Archer plays there with Jack, swinging or sliding or just hanging out inside the cabin. It’s like their own fort, just the two of them, after Jesse or Olivia help lift Archer into the cabin. He can walk short distances, but needs help climbing.
Indiana Wish also built a netted trampoline. Jesse and Archer get on it and jump together, literally together: Jesse, 34, wraps his arms around his son and they bounce up and down. They are safe, they are together, and listen carefully. Hear it?
Archer’s giggling.
Why Indy? Riley Hospital for Children
She’s from Franklin, Indiana. He’s from Washington D.C. It was at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute where Olivia and Jesse “met,” if you can call it that. More like she was walking to class, down some stairs, and tripped. She didn’t land at the 6-2 Jesse’s feet so much as she landed on them.
“Sorry,” Olivia told the tall stranger from D.C. before hurrying away in embarrassment, “I’m just getting used to this walking thing.”
Now Jesse is yelling after her to slow down, to come back:
“I’m falling for you!” he called out.
Great line, you have to admit.
They were married, and soon had Jack. Then came Archer, and right away – like, when he wouldn’t cry after delivery – doctors knew something was wrong. Three open-heart surgeries in six months. A diagnosis of Kabuki Syndrome, a punishing genetic condition that affects the body and brain. More diagnoses: Kidney damage. Brain damage. Diaphragm in the wrong place. A muscle mutation. Epilepsy. Autism. More.
“I don’t want to go into the whole list,” says Olivia, whose family moved to Indianapolis last year to be closer to Riley Hospital for Children, “but he’s not the most acute. I know someone putting their son in hospice now. You’d be shocked at the intense level of suffering – but also the intense level of joy these children have, including my son.”
Archer loves eggs and sausage. He reads electronic books, and darned if the kid doesn’t prefer to listen in Spanish. His parents used to go into the controls when he was sleeping, and return it to English, but Archer keeps switching it back to Spanish.
Indiana Wish and ‘the thrill of hope’
At first, Archer babbled like babies do.
“He used to say ‘Mama,’” Olivia says. “We have video of him saying it once.”
Then, the stroke. He doesn’t talk anymore, but he has beautiful brown eyes and the most expressive face; he gets his point across. But there are days where it’s all too much – another seizure, more aches and frustration – and Archer will stay in his bed, irritable or worse, in pain.
Indiana Wish knew about those moments, and purchased for Archer a reclining rocking chair. The cushion is the softest material ever – like a bed of Hawaiian rolls, the family calls it – and the rocking motion can calm him down. This happened a few weeks ago:
“Archer was having one of those days,” Olivia says. “Pneumonia and a heart-wrenching seizure day, and because of that he was so exhausted he couldn’t lift his head.
“I put up a Christmas tree. He really loves lights. I could hear him screaming in his medical bed, nothing was helping him, and I had Christmas music on in the background, songs about a God who loved humanity so much He comes down and suffered for us. My whole life I’ve always believed that, but I was struggling that day. It’s so hard when you have child that has a progressive disease that causes so much pain, and you can’t fix it. I was struggling to believe God is with us.
“I took Archer out of the bed and lay him across the rocker. He was lying on those Hawaiian rolls, and at first he was visually struggling to process the tree. I started rocking him, and he sighed and stopped screaming. A faint, beautiful smile crossed his lips. Seeing him be comforted in his pain reminded me: I’m not alone, and God is with us.
“I felt the thrill of hope,” she continues. “‘A weary mom rejoices’ – it’s so true. Indiana Wish really brings hope to families. I could not be more thankful.”
They are paying it forward as best they can, Archer’s parents. Ask around, and you learn Olivia works part-time at a local grocery store, where she quietly uses her employee discount to help other weary moms with their purchases. Ask around, and you learn Jesse left the church not because he lost his passion to serve, but found a passion to serve in another way: He’s attending nursing school, and has one year left. He wants to work in the neonatal intensive care unit. The NICU is a lonely place for parents – and can be harder on the dad, often, than the mom – and Jesse wants to help.
They are one of 3,500 Indiana Wish families granted a wish since 1984. You can help by visiting www.indianawish.org.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
How you can help
This is the second installment of IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel’s annual holiday series on Indiana Wish, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that has granted more than 3,500 wishes to state children, ages 3-18, diagnosed with a life-threatening or terminal illness. The average cost of a wish is $12,000. To help support Indiana Wish, visit www.indianawish.org/donate/.
More: Join the text conversation with sports columnist Gregg Doyel for insights, reader questions and Doyel’s peeks behind the curtain.
Indiana
Obituary for Jean A. Saggars at Yeager Funeral Home
Indiana
Indiana Preps for an Execution After 15-Year Pause
![Indiana Preps for an Execution After 15-Year Pause Indiana Preps for an Execution After 15-Year Pause](https://img1-azrcdn.newser.com/image/1578946-12-20241216113101.jpeg)
Indiana officials are preparing to execute the state’s first death row inmate in 15 years, a man who was convicted a quarter-century ago of killing his brother and three other men, the AP reports. Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on Indiana’s death row since 1999. If he is put to death as scheduled Wednesday, it will be the state’s first execution since 2009. In that time, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana, but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison. Corcoran is scheduled to be executed before sunrise Wednesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, about 45 miles east of Chicago.
Indiana’s resumption of executions is refocusing attention on Corcoran’s case and questions about how the state has been able to obtain a drug for lethal injections. Indiana last executed Matthew Wrinkles, who was put to death in 2009 for killing his wife, her brother, and sister-in-law in 1994. State officials said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable. There has been a yearslong nationwide shortage because pharmaceutical companies—particularly in Europe, where opposition to capital punishment is strongest—have refused to sell their products for that purpose.
That has prompted states to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some states have switched to more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause excruciating pain. Indiana is following that lead, planning to use pentobarbital to execute Corcoran. The federal government also used pentobarbital in the 13 federal executions carried out during the final six months of then-President Trump’s first term. Many states, including Indiana, refuse to divulge where they get the drugs. When asked how the state obtained the pentobarbital it plans to use in Corcoran’s execution, the Indiana Department of Correction directed the AP to a state law labeling the source of lethal injection drugs as confidential.
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