IN RE: ELIGIBILITY OF DONNIE VON MOORE and DEBRA SIMMONS, Local Union 743.
Protest Decision 2011 ESD 80
Issued: January 24, 2011
OES Case No. E-019-011311-MW
J. Burger, member of Local Union 743, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2010-2011 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). The protest alleged that delegate candidates Donnie Von Moore and Debra Simmons are ineligible for that position.
Election Supervisor representative Joe Childers investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Following several years of service to Local Union 743 as business agent and elected officer that ended in the 1990s, Von Moore became reemployed by the local union in January 2008. However, then-principal officer Richard Berg barred him and other recently hired business agents from becoming members of the local union at that time, relying on a local union bylaw that required new hires to serve 18 months in position before becoming eligible for membership.
Von Moore and others appealed Berg's decision, and the IBT General Executive Board eventually reversed it, finding that the policy did not apply to employees who had previously been Teamster members. The GEB held that Von Moore and others in the same situation could commence paying dues immediately and become members in good standing. The GEB also held that such persons would be permitted to pay retroactive dues without penalty and thereby retroactively obtain membership in continuous good standing.
Local Union 743's executive board adopted a resolution implementing the GEB decision on March 26, 2010, allowing current staff "to join retroactively as appropriate without penalty beyond regular payment of back dues." The executive board's resolution was announced to all staff by Berg in a memo dated May 6, 2010. Neither the resolution nor the memo stated a deadline for payment of the retroactive dues.
Von Moore paid $2,466 in back dues on July 2, 2010, extending his continuous good standing back to April 2008.
Simmons' situation was similar to Von Moore's. At the time of her hiring by the local union in January 2008, Simmons was on withdrawal from previous employment under Teamsters jurisdiction. She too was denied the opportunity to become a member of Local Union 743. When the GEB decision was implemented by the local union, Simmons paid retroactive dues of $3,014 on July 30, 2010, extending her membership in continuous good standing back to January 2008, her month of hire by the local union.
Protestor Burger was also in the same situation. He paid retroactive dues of $2,466 on May 28, 2010, extending his membership in continuous good standing back to January 2008. His protest asserts that "he and other affected BAs promptly did what was required to establish their retroactive good standing. But neither Mr. Von Moore nor Ms. Simmons timely applied for membership or paid back dues, and Mr. Von Moore did not pay his re-initiation fee."
We DENY this protest and find Von Moore and Simmons ELIGIBLE. Neither the March 26, 2010 executive board resolution nor Berg's May 6 memo announcing it set a deadline for paying retroactive dues, and no such deadline is established by the IBT constitution. Accordingly, we will not deem the payments by Von Moore and Simmons as untimely so as to render them ineligible, simply because the payments were made in July and Burger's was tendered in May. We further find that Von Moore was not required to pay a re-initiation fee; the local union executive board resolved that nothing "beyond regular payment of back dues" was required in order to join retroactively.
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:
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, 1801 K Street, N.W., Suite 421 L, Washington, D.C. 20006, 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
2011 ESD 80
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, N.W.
Washington,D.C. 20001
braymond@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa
Hoffa Hall 2011
1100 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Ste. 730
Washington, D.C. 20036
hoffadav@hotmail.com
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
P.O. Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210-0128
ken@tdu.org
Barbara Harvey
1394 E. Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48207
blmharvey@sbcglobal.net
Fred Gegare
P.O. Box 9663
Green Bay, WI 54308-9663
kirchmanb@yahoo.com
Scott D. Soldon
Previant Goldberg
1555 North River Center Drive, Ste. 202
P.O. Box 12993
Milwaukee, WI 53212
sds@previant.com
Fred Zuckerman, President
Teamsters Local Union 89
3813 Taylor Blvd.
Louisville, KY 40215
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Robert M. Colone, Esq.
P.O. Box 272
Sellersburg, IN 47172-0272
rmcolone@hotmail.com
Carl Biers
Box 424, 315 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
info@SandyPope2011.org
Julian Gonzalez
Lewis, Clifton & Nikolaidis, P.C.
350 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1800
New York, NY 10001-5013
jgonzalez@lcnlaw.com
J. R. Burger
1812 West Cullerton Street
Chicago, IL 60608
jburger40@gmail.com
Donnie Von Moore, President
Teamsters Local Union 743
4620 S. Tripp Avenue
Chicago, IL 60632
ciozzo@teamsterslocal743.com
Debra Simmons
851 N. Waller
Chicago, IL 60651
Joe F. Childers
Getty & Childers, PLLC
250 West Main Street, Suite 1900
Lexington, KY 40507
childerslaw@yahoo.com
William C. Broberg
1108 Fincastle Road
Lexington, KY 40502-1838
wcbroberg@aol.com
Kathryn Naylor
Office of the Election Supervisor
1801 K Street, N.W., Suite 421 L
Washington, D.C. 20006
knaylor@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
214 S. Main Street, Ste. 210
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
EllisonEsq@aol.com