IN RE: THOMAS BENNETT, Protestor.
Protest Decision 2006 ESD 81
Issued: February 14, 2006
OES Case No. P-06-109-020106-MW
Thomas Bennett, a member of Local Union 200, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2005-2006 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). He alleged that the local union violated the Rules by unreasonably limiting Jeff Bandur's access to collective bargaining agreements covering the local union's members.
Election Supervisor representative Joe Childers investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Article VII, Section 1(a) of the Rules grants to "[e]ach delegate candidate, each alternate delegate candidate and each nominated or accredited International Officer candidate … the right under this Section to inspect and make notes from all collective bargaining agreement (including all modifications, supplements, riders, stipulations and appendices) covering any member of the Union." Such requests "shall be made to the Local Union's Secretary-Treasurer or principal office in writing and shall be honored within five (5) days."
Pursuant to this provision, delegate candidate Jeff Bandur arranged to inspect Local Union 200's collective bargaining agreements on January 26, 2006. When he arrived, however, he learned that the local union maintains the contracts in electronic form. He was told that any of the local union's 160 contracts he wished to review would be printed and shown to him. Bandur believed that this process would take too long, so he left and called protestor Bennett. Bennett called Bill Broberg of our office and asked him to contact the local union to facilitate the review; Bennett also filed this protest. After Broberg's intervention, the local union printed all 160 contracts at its expense, Bandur and two other members of the Teamsters4Teamsters slate went to the hall and reviewed them, and the protestor agreed to withdraw this protest.
Accordingly, we deem this protest WITHDRAWN.
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 Supervisor 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
885 Third Avenue, Suite 1000
New York, New York 10022
Fax: (212) 751-4864
Copies of the request for hearing must be served upon the parties, as well as upon the Election Supervisor for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 1725 K Street, N.W., Suite 1400, Washington, D.C. 20007-5135, all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2006 ESD 81
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001-2198
braymond@teamster.org
Sarah Riger, Staff Attorney
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001-2198
sriger@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa, Esq.
Hoffa 2006
30300 Northwestern Highway, Suite 324
Farmington Hills, MI 48834
David@hoffapllc.com
Barbara Harvey
645 Griswold Street
Suite 3060
Detroit, MI 48226
blmharvey@sbcglobal.net
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
P.O. Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210
ken@tdu.org
Judith Brown Chomsky
P.O. Box 29726
Elkins Park, PA 19027
jchomsky@igc.org
Stephen Ostrach
1863 Pioneer Parkway East, #217
Springfield, OR 97477-3907
saostrach@gmail.com
Thomas Bennett
337 Rubicon
Neosho, WI 53059
Jeff Bandur
7220 S. North Cape Road
Franklin, WI 53132
Tim Buban, Secretary-Treasurer
Local Union 200
6200 Bluemound Road
Milwaukee, WI 53213
Joe F. Childers
201 West Short Street, Suite 310
Lexington, KY 40507
childerslaw@yahoo.com
William Broberg
1108 Fincastle Road
Lexington, KY 40502
wcbroberg@aol.com
Jeffrey Ellison
510 Highland Avenue, #325
Milford, MI 48381
EllisonEsq@aol.com