IN RE: HAL LEYSHON,
Protest Decision 2001 EAD 508
Issued: October 16, 2001
OEA Case No. PR100515NE
Hal Leyshon, a supporter of the Tom Leedham Rank and File Power slate ("Leedham"), 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 597 recently issued him a withdrawal card in retaliation for his support of Leedham.
Election Administrator representative Jason Weidenfeld investigated the protest.
Findings of Fact
Leyshon was a dues-paying member of Local 597 from August 1997 through October 3, 2001 when he received a letter from Local 597 secretary-treasurer Ron Raibideau. The letter informed Leyshon that he had been placed on withdrawal retroactive to August 2001 in accordance with "Article XVIII, Section 6(a) of the I.B.T. Constitution and Section 20(c) of the Local 597 Bylaws."
Leyshon has not been employed for years by any employer with a collective bargaining agreement with Local 597. Leyshon stopped working for UPS in late 1996 and states that since then he has received no pay from any employer of Local 597 members. Rabideau confirms that Leyshon stopped working for UPS in 1996 and took a withdrawal card at that time. Rabideau did not know for whom, if anyone, Leyshon was working when he restarted paying dues in August 1997. We find that since the end of 1996, Leyshon has not been employed by any employer with which Local 597 has a collective bargaining agreement.
After leaving UPS, Leyshon did not work for pay for any IBT local union until he interned with Local 174 from September 1999 through December 1999. In 2000, Leyshon worked for very brief periods for Local 597, primarily assisting organizing campaigns. He states that he generally did not work for pay for more than eight hours weekly at Local 597. Rabideau estimates that Local 597 compensated Leyshon for no more than twenty hours of work for all his activities on the local union's behalf.
Notwithstanding the small amount of work for which Local 597 paid Leyshon, Rabideau claims that he considered Leyshon's working for Local 597 to be "working at the craft," thus explaining why a withdrawal card was not issued until six months after Leyshon was last paid by Local 597. Even so, this does not explain why Leyshon never received a withdrawal card from January 1999 through August 2000, when he received no compensation from working at the craft. We find that for two years from August 1997 through August 1999, a period that encompassed the 1998 rerun election, Leyshon received no pay from the IBT, any IBT local union, or from employment with any Local 597 employer. Instead, he occasionally provided Local 597 with volunteer services, continued to pay dues, and was, rightly or wrongly, accorded the same rights as any active Local 597 member in good standing.
Rabideau claims that Local 597 rarely issues withdrawal cards involuntarily and therefore does not regularly check whether someone has been inactive for six months; most members who are not working request withdrawal cards to ensure that they do not have to pay dues during a period of unemployment. Rabideau estimates that two or three cards have been issued involuntarily since 1993, when he became secretary-treasurer. Rabideau also said that Local 597 recently checked all members' records to see whether they needed to receive withdrawal cards.
Rabideau admits that Local 597 did not issue Leyshon a withdrawal card during previous periods when he was not working at the craft. Rabideau claims that he did not know that Leyshon was not working for any IBT employer during this time and only realized it when Leyshon began working intermittently for Local 597 in 2000. Leyshon counters that Rabideau offered him temporary work on a movie in the summer of 1998. Leyshon also claims that he volunteered with Local 597 as the local education coordinator from some time in 1997 through the date he received the withdrawal card. The parties also agree that Rabideau offered to help Leyshon find an internship from September 1999 through December 1999 as part of Leyshon's studies in a graduate labor studies program at the University of Massachusetts. Under these circumstances, we find that Rabideau knew in the summer of 1998, at the latest, that Leyshon was not working at the craft or for any IBT-affiliated entity.
Rabideau knows that Leyshon campaigns actively for Leedham and claims that Local 597 has not attempted to hinder his campaigning. Leyshon questions Rabideau's alleged openness. Leyshon approached Rabideau at the start of the delegate election process early this year and asked if he would run as a Leedham delegate candidate. Rabideau claims that he told Leyshon that he would not support either IBT General President candidate at that point. Rabideau won the delegate election on April 7, 2001. Three days later, Rabideau informed Leyshon in a letter that Local 597 would not pay him for work performed in March because he had failed to receive authorization for that work from Rabideau. In correspondence with Leyshon, Rabideau claimed that Leyshon would not be reimbursed for various reasons, including Leyshon's alleged campaigning for Leedham for some of the time for which he requested compensation. The parties agree that Leyshon has not been authorized to perform work for Local 597 since the letter.
Rabideau supports IBT General President Hoffa's reelection campaign, although he claims that he did not announce that support until a mailing last month to Local 597's members. Dawn Stanger, a Local 597 member, says that on September 30, 2001, Rabideau and Local 597 president James Porter wore Hoffa campaign t-shirts to a UPS contract proposal meeting. We know of no previous explicit endorsements by Rabideau for Hoffa before September 30, 2001.
Analysis
The IBT Constitution requires a local union to issue an honorary withdrawal card to any local union member who is unemployed for six months. IBT Constitution, Article XVIII, Section 6(a). If a member believes that a withdrawal card was issued in violation of the Constitution, he or she may appeal in accordance with the appeal procedure provided for by the Constitution. Article XVIII, Section 6 (e).
Leyshon admits that he has not worked at the craft for more than six months. He has offered no evidence of disparate treatment. He has not contradicted Rabideau's claims that Local 597 reviewed members' records to determine the identities of all members who needed to be issued withdrawal cards involuntarily and that Leyshon was the only such member. We find no retaliatory motive for the complained-of action here.
Accordingly, we DENY the protest.
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 (facsimile: 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 508
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 Lane
Eugene, OR 97404
Todd Thompson
209 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20003
IBT Local 597
Quarry Hill Road
Barre, VT 05641
Hal Leyshon
55 E. Bear Swamp Rd.
Middlesex, VT 05602
Matt Ginsburg
30 Third Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
James L. Hicks, Jr., P.C.
Suite 1100
2777 N. Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, TX 75207