IN RE: WILLIAM CALDERON,
Protest Decision 2001 EAD 340
Issued: May 2, 2001
OEA Case No. PR121102MW
See also Election Appeals Master decision 01 EAM 75 (KC)
William Calderon, a member of Local 200, 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"). He alleges that Local 200 provided him with poor representation in a grievance filed against his employer, Roundy's Inc., because of his support for International officer candidate Tom Leedham.
Election Administrator representative Dennis Sarsany investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Calderon is a supporter of Tom Leedham and the slate of delegate candidates in Local 200 that were pledged to Leedham. He designed some flyers for the slate for an October 14, 2000 outing/fundraiser featuring Leedham and distributed those flyers outside the Local 200 offices.
Thereafter, on October 27, 2000, Roundy's terminated him for violation of the company's "No call/no show" policy during late September and again in mid-October. Calderon filed a grievance. On November 17, 2000, a hearing was held on Calderon's grievance, at which he was represented by Sebastian Busalacchi, president of Local 200, and an opponent of the delegate slate supported by Calderon. Calderon claims that Busalacchi did a poor job of representing his interests. He further claims that after the hearing, Busalacchi did little to assist in the prosecution of the grievance.
According to Busalacchi, he was unaware of Calderon's political leanings until some time after the hearing on Calderon's grievance. Busalacchi also claims that Calderon has been consistently slow to provide evidence in support of his position in the grievance. For example, while Calderon advised Busalacchi that he had documentary evidence of his having called Roundy's to advise them of impending absences on September 27 and 28, he did not provide a copy of that evidence to Busalacchi until mid-December, after Busalacchi had requested the information both orally and in a letter dated November 21, 2000. Further, although requested by both Roundy's and Busalacchi, first at the grievance hearing and subsequently in a letter from Roundy's dated December 29, 2000 and another from Busalacchi dated January 10, 2001, Calderon did not provide medical evidence of the reasons for his September-October absence until February, 2001, more than two weeks after a deadline imposed by Roundy's in their December letter. When provided, the medical evidence did not include most of the information requested by Roundy's as a prerequisite to making a decision on the grievance.
During this time, without advising the local, Calderon engaged a private attorney who became involved in the dismissal and demanded that Roundy's deal only with him. As a result, the union was removed "from the loop" and had no input into the continuing discussions. Additionally, Calderon also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against both the local and the employer. Calderon withdrew those charges after the completion of the NLRB investigation.
Just before April 9, 2001, Roundy's informed Busalacchi that it still had not received sufficient information from Calderon's doctor to make a determination on his case. Subsequently, on April 11, 2001, Roundy's sent written notice of the denial of the grievance, based upon the failure by Calderon to supply necessary medical information.
Based upon the foregoing, we DENY the grievance. Calderon has not substantiated his claim that Busalacchi failed to represent him fairly with respect to his grievance, nor shown that Busalacchi's actions were in any way motivated by conduct protected under the Rules.
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 (fax: 202-454-1501), all within the time 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 340
DISTRIBUTION LIST VIA UPS NEXT DAY AIR:
Patrick Szymanski
IBT General Counsel
25 Louisiana Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Bradley T. Raymond
Finkel, Whitefield, Selik,
Raymond, Ferrara & Feldman
32300 Northwestern Highway
Suite 200
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
J. Douglas Korney
Korney & Heldt
30700 Telegraph Road
Suite 1551
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
Barbara Harvey
Penobscot Building
Suite 1800
645 Griswold
Detroit, MI 48226
Betty Grdina
Yablonski, Both & Edelman
Suite 800
1140 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tom Leedham c/o Stefan Ostrach
110 Mayfair
Eugene, OR 97404
William Calderon
2831 North 82nd Street
Milwaukee, WI 53222
IBT Local 200
Attn: Frank Busalacchi
6200 W. Bluemound Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53213
Dennis Sarsany
1829 Eddy Street
Chicago, IL 60657