Protest Decisions

OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR

for the

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

IN RE: HOFFA-HALL 2016,                      )           Protest Decision 2016 ESD 308

                                                                        )           Issued: October 19, 2016

            Protestor.                                           )           OES Case No. P-391-101216-ME     

____________________________________)                      

Hoffa-Hall 2016 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 Teamsters United supporters campaigning at a UPS facility temporarily attached a campaign banner to an employer-owned fence, in violation of the Rules.

            Election Supervisor representative Dan Walsh investigated this protest.

Findings of Fact and Analysis

The protest alleged that Teamsters United supporters campaigning at the UPS facility on Trabue Road in Columbus, OH temporarily hung a campaign banner from a company chain-link fence bordering the employee parking lot there.  A photo supplied with the protest depicted a small folding table approximately 34 inches square, erected in an employee parking lot adjacent to a building entrance.  The table was covered with campaign material; beneath the table was a 54-quart covered plastic storage bin filled with additional campaign material.  Attached to the chain-link fence topped with barbed wire some eight feet behind the table and six feet off the ground was a rectangular vinyl-coated cloth banner approximately 1½ x 3 feet in size, printed in blue, yellow, and white and bearing the message “Fred Zuckerman Teamsters United.”  All of the campaign materials were supplied by the campaign.  The parking lot and fence were employer-owned.  Use of the employee parking lot for campaigning is expressly permitted by Article VII, Section 12(e) of the Rules.  The protest asserted implicitly that suspending the banner from the employer’s fence signaled employer support for Teamsters United, and as such constituted a prohibited employer contribution under the Rules.

The UPS facility is under the jurisdiction of Local Union 413.  The principal officer of the local union is Tony Jones, a candidate for International office on the Teamsters United slate.  Nick Perry, a member of the local union, serves as the campaign treasurer of Teamsters United.  Perry told our investigator that he campaigned at the UPS-Trabue Road facility on October 10, 2016 from late afternoon to early evening.  He hung the banner on the fence, telling our investigator he did not understand that the Rules prohibited his doing so.  Witness accounts suggest that the banner remained on the fence for three hours or less, whereupon Perry removed it.  Jones told our investigator he was unaware a campaign banner had been hung on the fence.  UPS-Trabue Road labor relations manager Matt Richter also was unaware the banner was there, adding that UPS prohibits posting of campaign material on company property.

Promptly after the protest was docketed, Teamsters United campaign manager Beth Breslaw emailed all slate members to advise that hanging signs on employer fences violated the Rules.

Our cases have held that affixing banners, stickers, and signs to employer- or union-owned property is prohibited by the Rules. 

We deem this protest RESOLVED, given the remedial actions by Perry in removing the banner and Breslaw in instructing slate members to refrain from using employer fences to campaign.

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 308

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