Protest Decisions

OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR

for the

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

IN RE: FRED ZUCKERMAN,                  )           Protest Decision 2016 ESD 239

                                                                        )           Issued: June 9, 2016

            Protestor.                                           )           OES Case No. P-155-020816-SO     

____________________________________)                                                                  

Fred Zuckerman, candidate for IBT General President, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2015-2016 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”).  The protest alleged that a steward at a UPS facility violated the Rules by surveilling and intimidating members who had received campaign flyers from Zuckerman and his supporters.

Election Supervisor representative Dolores Hall investigated this protest.

Findings of Fact and Analysis

            Protestor Zuckerman, three other members of the Teamsters United slate, and their supporters campaigned at a UPS facility in Clearwater, FL on February 8, 2016, speaking with members and distributing campaign flyers to them.  The protest alleged a UPS employee who serves as a steward for Local Union 79 surveilled members who received the campaign material and intimidated them into surrendering the flyers to him.  The protest asserts this conduct as violations of Rules provisions prohibiting intimidation and coercion as well as impermissible interference with pre-existing rights to campaign.

            Investigation showed that the campaigners began their activity between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. and campaigned without incident among arriving package car drivers for approximately one-half hour.  At that point, the protestor observed two persons he was informed were stewards come out of the facility and stand at the security station where arriving employees submitted their bags for inspection.  There, he saw at least one collect flyers from employees who were entering the facility.

            Ken Straight, a UPS employee who is assigned to porter and car wash duties and also serves as a steward, told our investigator that he learned from arriving employees that people were outside handing out papers.  He stated that he went outside to see what was happening.  He said he did so because, when flyer distribution happens, the flyers end up on the ground and he as a porter is responsible for picking them up.  Straight stated that he went to the guard station, where arriving employees there asked what the activity was about.  Straight said he replied that there was an election going on and people were campaigning.  Straight said that some employees asked him what to do with the flyers, indicating they did not want them.  He said he told them not to throw the flyers on the ground but instead to give them to him.  Straight told our investigator it was a windy day and he had trouble keeping the stack from blowing around.  When there was a lull in employees coming through, he threw the flyers away.

            Straight denied telling employees that “this is a Hoffa barn,” but admitted that if employees asked him who he favored he told them Hoffa.  Straight said that he engaged in this activity on his lunch break, and did not interfere with the campaigners.  Nor did he ask or direct employees to give him their flyers.

            A witness identified by the protestor told our investigator that he observed the campaigners distributing flyers as he walked from his car into the facility.  He stopped and received a flyer and then entered the workplace.  He told our investigator that no one asked him for the flyer when he went through the security station, and he brought the flyer home with him.  This member denied seeing Straight take flyers from any member.

            Mike Mann, another steward employed by UPS, told our investigator that he observed the campaign activity on February 8 and saw employees give Straight literature as they processed through security.  He said he saw employees throw the flyers on the ground or give them to Straight.

            Another steward, George Stefanic, told our investigator that he saw the campaign activity and the flyers on the ground where employees dropped them.  Stefanic said he heard a porter “fussing” about having to pick up all the flyers on the ground.

            On these facts, we find no Rules violation.  The conduct of Straight does not carry the hallmarks of impermissible surveillance (e.g., photography or note-taking, oral statements stating or suggesting that members are being watched or will be remembered, etc.).  Nor does his conduct suggest that he interfered with members’ right to receive the campaign message by directing them to surrender their flyers.  Instead, we conclude that Straight collected the flyers from members who intended otherwise to dispose of them by throwing them on the ground, and he did so solely to reduce the work that he and other porters might otherwise be required to do in picking up the discarded flyers.  Members who received the flyers and chose to keep them did so.  The evidence provided by the witness identified by the protestor corroborates these conclusions.

            For these reasons, 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:

Kathleen A. Roberts

Election Appeals Master

JAMS

                                                            620 Eighth Avenue, 34^th 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 17^th 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 239

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