OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: TEAMSTERS UNITED, ) Protest Decision 2016 ESD 165
) Issued: April 8, 2016
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-221-031416-FW
____________________________________)
Teamsters United filed a post-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 3(a) of the Rules for the 2015-2016 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”). The protest alleged that impermissible ballot collection and lack of security at the ballot count of ballot packages returned as undeliverable affected the outcome of the Local Union 572 delegates and alternate delegates election.[1]
Election Supervisor representatives Denise Ventura and Michael Miller investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Ballot collection is a serious offense because it interferes directly with the democratic choice of the membership. Article II, Section 15, titled “Prohibition on Interference with Voting,” provides the following:
No person or entity shall limit or interfere with the right of any IBT member to vote, including, but not necessarily limited to, the right to independently determine how to cast his/her vote, the right to mark his/her vote in secret and the right to mail the ballot himself/herself. No person or entity may encourage or require an IBT member to mark his/her ballot in the presence of another person or to give his/her ballot to any person or entity for marking or mailing.
Any violation of this rule may result in disqualification of a candidate who benefits from the violation, referral of the matter to the Government for appropriate action under law (including the Final Order) or such other remedy as the Election Supervisor deems appropriate.
The instructions for balloting included in ballot packages shall contain these prohibitions and shall urge members to promptly vote and return their ballots.
The protest alleged that stewards at Mission School Transportation, an employer under the local union’s jurisdiction in Long Beach, California, collected ballots so they could be voted for the Middleton slate, which the Teamsters United 572 slate opposed in the local union’s delegates and alternate delegates election. One member employed at that facility told our investigator that the member had asked steward Shanda Harrell whether the member should mail the ballot or give it to the steward for mailing. According to the witness, the steward said that the witness could give the ballot to her. The witness went home, thought about the exchange, and then decided to mail the ballot directly rather than give it to the steward. The protestor presented no other evidence of ballot collection by this or any other member.
Separately, steward Harrell contacted the local union after ballots were tallied in the election to report that she had collected a number of ballots and failed to mail them. Harrell met with our investigator and surrendered the ballots to him, whereupon they were voided. Harrell told our investigator that around February 15, members began approaching her in the workplace to ask her how they should fill out their ballots and for whom they should vote. According to Harrell, she told each member that she could not tell them how to vote, but she said she explained the purpose of the election and that members should not vote for more than twelve delegate candidates or seven alternate delegate candidates, the maximum permitted without over-voting. Harrell told our investigator this was the first election since she became a steward, and she answered the questions of as many as ten members about completing the ballot. Most of these asked her if she would mail the ballot for them, and Harrell agreed.
Harrell said she collected completed ballots over several days, placing them in the side pocket of her car door for later mailing. Some time later, she learned that the election was over. She was surprised at this news because she thought she had additional time in which to mail the ballots she had collected. She contacted the local union to advise that she had several ballots she had not mailed and to ask what to do with them. The local union passed the information on to our investigator, who met Harrell to take delivery of the ballots. Our investigator received ten ballot return envelopes, eight of which were sealed. One of the ballot return envelopes was Harrell’s.
Harrell told our investigator that she now understands that ballot collection is forbidden by the Rules. Harrell asked our investigator if she would go to jail for her action. Harrell stated that she had the impression that the other steward at the facility, Lois Webb, also collected ballots.
Webb told our investigator emphatically that she did not collect ballots. She stated that one member asked her to mail the member’s ballot, but Webb said she told the member she could not do so and that the member would have to mail the ballot.
The investigation substantiated the ballot collection claim and we GRANT that aspect of the protest.
The remedy for proved ballot collection is to void the collected ballots. Here, such action is unnecessary because the collected ballots were never mailed.
However, given our decision ordering a rerun election in Halstead, 2016 ESD 166 (April 8, 2016), we order the notice attached to this decision be posted on all worksite bulletin boards under the jurisdiction of the local union and remain posted through May 13, 2016, the date set for tallying ballots in the rerun election.
The second allegation of this protest that we address alleged that ballots returned as undeliverable were left unsecured at the ballot tally. The implication of this allegation is that the ballot packages were accessible so that one or more unscrupulous persons could remove the ballots, secret ballot envelopes, and ballot return envelopes from ballot packages returned as undeliverable, vote the ballots, and slip them in to be counted with voted ballots picked up from the post office.
OES staff attended the ballot count in this local union. They observed that the ballot packages returned as undeliverable were maintained in a tray on the floor within the perimeter established by the tables used to count ballots. They were out of reach of persons who observed the counting of ballots and were not touched or opened by any person.
Accordingly, we DENY this aspect of 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 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:
Kathleen A. Roberts
Election Appeals Master
JAMS
620 Eighth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10018
kroberts@jamsadr.com
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, 1050 17th Street, N.W., Suite 375, Washington, D.C. 20036, all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Kathleen A. Roberts
2016 ESD 165
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
braymond@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa
1701 K Street NW, Ste 350
Washington DC 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
Teamsters United
315 Flatbush Avenue, #501
Brooklyn, NY 11217
info@teamstersunited.org
Louie Nikolaidis
350 West 31st Street, Suite 40
New York, NY 10001
lnikolaidis@lcnlaw.com
Julian Gonzalez
350 West 31st Street, Suite 40
New York, NY 10001
jgonzalez@lcnlaw.com
David O’Brien Suetholz
515 Park Avenue
Louisville, KY 45202
dave@unionsidelawyers.com
Fred Zuckerman
P.O. Box 9493
Louisville, KY 40209
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Frank Halstead
260 LaFollette Court
Los Angeles, CA 90042
fwhalstead@hotmail.com
Teamsters Local Union 572
450 East Carson Plaza Dr
Carson, CA 90746
info@teamsters572.org
rmiddleton@teamsters572.org
lgarcia@teamsters572.org
Michael Miller
P.O. Box 251673
Los Angeles, CA 90025 miller.michael.j@verizon.net
Deborah Schaaf
1521 Grizzly Gulch
Helena, MT 59601
dschaaf@ibtvote.org
Denise Ventura
949 Old Hickory Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15243
dmventura@outlook.com
Jeffrey Ellison
214 S. Main Street, Suite 212
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
EllisonEsq@aol.com
Office of the Election Supervisor
for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
1050 17th Street, N.W., Suite 375
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-429-8683
844-428-8683 Toll Free
202-774-5526 Facsimile
ElectionSupervisor@ibtvote.org
www.ibtvote.org
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF TEAMSTERS LOCAL UNION 572
DO NOT GIVE YOUR BALLOT TO ANYONE TO MARK OR MAIL ON YOUR BEHALF. No person or entity shall limit or interfere with the right of each IBT member to determine independently how to cast his or her vote and to cast and mail the ballot himself or herself. The Election Supervisor shall not hesitate to impose the most severe sanctions for violation of the prohibition against solicitation of a member's ballot by any other Union member, officer, business agent, steward or other person, including, but not limited to, recommending appropriate disciplinary proceedings against members involved, referring the matter to the Government for appropriate action under law (including the Consent Order) and, when appropriate, disqualifying the candidate on whose behalf ballots were solicited.
No de su papeleta de voto a nadie para que se lo marque o envie por correo. Ninguna persona o entidad puede limitar o interferir con el derecho que tiene cada miembro del IBT de decidir en forma independiente sobre su voto y enviarlo por correo personalmente. El Supervisor de Elecciones no dudará en imponer las sanciones más severas a cualquier miembro del Sindicato, oficial, representante de empresa, administrador o a cualquier otra persona por violar la prohibición de solicitar la papeleta de voto de un miembro. Estas sanciones incluyen hacer recomendaciones judiciales contra los miembros involucrados, refiriendo el asunto al gobierno para una acción apropiada bajo la ley (incluyendo el Orden de Consentimiento) y en caso de juzgarse apropiado, descalificar al candidato a cuyo nombre se solicitaron las papeletas de voto.
This is an official notice prepared and approved by Richard W. Mark, Election Supervisor for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. It must remain posted on this bulletin board through
May 13, 2016 and must not be defaced or covered up.
[1] This protest incorporated by reference protests previously filed by Frank Halstead, lead candidate on the Teamsters United 572 slate, that concern Local Union 572’s delegates and alternate delegates election. Protest P-148-020616-FW, alleging retaliation by local union principal officer Rick Middleton against Teamsters United supporter James Motty by issuing him a withdrawal card was deemed resolved in Halstead, 2016 ESD 162 (April 8, 2016), when the local union accepted Motty’s dues and deposited the withdrawal card. Protest P-172-021216-FW, alleging interference with campaign rights at First Student – Pasadena, was denied in Halstead, 2016 ESD 163 (April 8, 2016). Protests P-142-020416-FW and P-175-021716-FW were consolidated for decision and granted in Halstead, 2016 ESD 166 (April 8, 2016). Protests P-168-021616-FW and P-189-022416-FW, alleging employer retaliation for activity protected by the Rules, remain under investigation and will be addressed in future decisions. Protest P-177-021716-FW, filed by Lourdes Garcia, a candidate on the slate that opposed the Teamsters United 572 slate, was denied in Garcia, 2016 ESD 164 (April 8, 2016).