IN RE: GERALD P. McNAMARA,
Protest Decision 2001 EAD 84
Issued: January 22, 2001
OEA Case No. PR010411ME
Gerald P. McNamara, a member of Local 115, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2000-2001 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). The protestor alleges Local 115 president James Smith Jr. improperly interfered with McNamara's formation of a slate of candidates for the Local 115 delegate election, and alleges that Smith and other unnamed persons interfered with McNamara's efforts to obtain a second for his nomination as a delegate at the local union's January 7, 2001 nomination meeting.
Election Administrator representatives William B. Kane and William W. Thompson II investigated the protest.
Findings of Fact
Smith is Local 115's president, and McNamara is the local union's recording secretary. The local is in an IBT-imposed trusteeship. Edward Keyser is the trustee. Smith and McNamara were not removed from office when the trusteeship was imposed in November 1999. McNamara and Smith are running opposing slates in the Local 115 delegate election. The local's delegate candidate nomination meeting was held on January 7, 2001.
McNamara and University of Pennsylvania Local 115 steward Mary Shubert previously made known their intention to run together on a delegate election candidate slate. McNamara asserts that when Smith learned of this, he approached Shubert's uncle Henry Green, a Local 115 member employed at Drexel University, and asked him to talk Shubert out of running with McNamara. Shubert claims she was approached by Green on January 4, 2001 and that Green told her of Smith's request. She says that she thinks Smith approached Green just before Christmas break at the university. Shubert urged our investigator not to interview Green, claiming that he did not want to get involved.
Green denied talking with Smith about Shubert's slate candidacy or any other matter concerning the delegate election. Smith, however, admitted that he had spoken with Green about the delegate election before Christmas break at Drexel, and that he asked for and received Green's support for the delegate election. Smith denied asking Green to approach Shubert and ask her to drop her affiliation with McNamara.
McNamara also asserts that Smith approached Shubert's daughter, Jennifer Schoettle, also a member of Local 115 employed at Drexel. Smith asked Schoettle to ask her mother not to run with McNamara. McNamara claims that he was informed of this by Shubert.
Schoettle admits meeting Smith in late December 2000 at Drexel. The meeting was not pre-arranged, but a chance meeting. Schoettle says that she and Smith discussed the delegate election in a good-natured way and that Smith asked her to "talk to your Mom for me." Schoettle understood this to mean that Smith wanted Shubert to be a candidate with Smith on his delegate election slate. She says that McNamara's name was never mentioned. Schoettle told our investigator that Smith's tone was not threatening, but normal and conversational. She admits that she later told her mother about the meeting with Smith.
Smith's version of the conversation is different from that of Schoettle. He agrees that it was pleasant and unthreatening. He says, however, that he never asked Schoettle to approach Shubert about the delegate election, other than to convey to her the fact that there were "no hard feelings" on his part about her candidacy.
Pat Lennox, a member of Local 115, agreed to second McNamara's delegate nomination. McNamara claims that on January 4, 2001, Lennox told McNamara that he received several phone calls at his residence over the New Year's holiday weekend "badgering" him not to second McNamara's nomination. McNamara says he asked Lennox who had called, but Lennox would not reveal the names of the callers, other than to indicate that they were Smith supporters.
Lennox refused to be interviewed by our investigator about this matter. Smith denies talking to Lennox about the Local 115 delegate election. He also denies asking anyone else to do so, and further denies any knowledge of anyone else having done so.
At the January 7, 2001 nomination meeting, both McNamara and Shubert were nominated, seconded and accepted nomination for delegate. They later completed a slate declaration form, and are both candidates on the Members First slate.
Analysis
Even if we were to credit McNamara's second-hand version of communications between Smith, Green and Schoettle, which we do not, all that would have occurred here is an effort to persuade Shubert, through members of her family, to abandon her alliance with McNamara in the delegate election. There is nothing inappropriate under the Rules about such an effort. Protestor McNamara is not entitled to support by Shubert, and candidates opposing McNamara certainly have the right under the Rules to attempt to persuade others not to run as candidates with McNamara, and to do so either directly or through the candidate's friends, family or co-workers, so long as such persuasion is unaccompanied by coercion.
At the most, such non-coercive persuasion is all that occurred here with respect to Smith's communications with Green and Schoettle. We also conclude that Smith did not communicate with Lennox, either directly or indirectly, about McNamara.
For the foregoing reasons, the protest is DENIED.
Any interested party not satisfied with this determination may request a hearing before the Election Appeals Master within two (2) working days of receipt of this decision. The parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Administrator in any such appeal. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing, shall specify the basis for the appeal, and shall be served upon:
Kenneth Conboy
Election Appeals Master
Latham & Watkins
Suite 1000
885 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10022
Fax: 212-751-4864
Copies of the request for hearing must be served upon all other parties, as well as upon the Election Administrator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 727 15th Street NW, Tenth Floor, Washington, DC 20005, all within the time period prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
William A. Wertheimer, Jr.
William A. Wertheimer, Jr.
Election Administrator
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2001 EAD 84
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