IN RE: ERIC JENSEN, Protestor.
Protest Decision 2006 ESD 223
Issued: May 4, 2006
OES Case No. P-06-197-030206-MW
Eric Jensen, a member of Local Union 320, 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"). The protest alleged that a membership list was improperly used for a campaign mailing that attacked the delegate candidacy of Gordy Jurek, in violation of the Rules.
Election Supervisor representative Joe Childers investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Jurek is an employee of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus and was a candidate on the slate that favored Leedham for IBT General President. On or before March 1, 2006, a campaign mailing critical of Jurek was received by mail by most or all Local Union 320 members employed at the Duluth campus. The mailing indicated it was from Teamsters Against Corruption, an entity unknown in the local union. The mailing carried no return address and did not identify any person associated with the entity. The envelopes were hand-addressed.
The protest indicated that the employer has published a staff directory that lists the addresses of most employees. However, the protest alleged that at least one recipient of the mailing "does not list his address in the University of Minnesota staff directory, so it would have been impossible to do the mailing without use of the membership list."
The protest concluded that "either the Hoffa campaign is sharing the list with a non-candidate, or Local 320 officials who comprise the Mauren slate have shared or allowed copying of the list by a caucus in the local, without allowing it to be shared with other caucuses or delegate candidates in the local."
Aside from the allegation that the address of one recipient of the mailing was not listed in the employer's staff directory, Jensen presented no evidence to support the protest.
Sue Mauren, principal officer of the local union and head of the Mauren slate in the delegate and alternate delegate election, denied any knowledge of the protested mailing. She acknowledged that campaign literature was mailed on her slate's behalf. She stated, however, that each mailing was done by transmitting the membership list directly to the mailhouse by electronic means, where addresses were applied mechanically, not by hand. Further, she asserted that the addresses of all Minnesota public employees are public record, suggesting that the sponsor of the protested mailing could have developed its address list from that source.
Our investigation revealed no evidence that the membership list of the local union was disclosed in violation of the Rules. The allegation that the Hoffa campaign "shar[ed] the list with a non-candidate" does not state a violation of the Rules, for an accredited candidate is permitted under Article VII, Section 7(a) to permit use of the membership list issued to that candidate "in support of delegate and/or alternate delegate candidates … provided that the list is used solely to advance the accredited … candidate's campaign for nomination and/or election." Accordingly, we DENY this 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 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 223
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
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
Daniel E. Clifton
Lewis, Clifton & Nikolaidis, P.C.
275 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2300
New York, NY 10001
dclifton@lcnlaw.com
Stephen Ostrach
1863 Pioneer Parkway East, #217
Springfield, OR 97477-3907
saostrach@gmail.com
Erik Jensen
4345 11th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Jense028@umn.edu
Susan Mauren, Secretary-Treasurer
Teamsters Local 320
3001 University Avenue SE #500
Minneapolis, MN 55414
William Broberg
1108 Fincastle Road
Lexington, KY 40502
wcbroberg@aol.com
Joe F. Childers
201 West Short Street, Suite 310
Lexington, KY 40507
childerslaw@yahoo.com
Jeffrey Ellison
510 Highland Avenue, #325
Milford, MI 48381
EllisonEsq@aol.com