OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: JACKIE SPEARS, ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 67
) Issued: February 28, 2021
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-090-022721-FW
____________________________________)
Jackie Spears, member and delegate candidate in Local Union 2010, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2020-2021 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”). The protest alleged that including already elected alternate delegates on the ballot violates the Rules.
Election Supervisor representative Jeffrey Ellison investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Local Union 2010 will elect 14 delegates and 4 alternate delegates to the IBT convention. At the nominations meeting held January 30, 2021, 17 members were nominated for delegate and 4 members for alternate delegate. The 17 delegate candidates were divided between a full slate and a partial slate, and an election is necessary to determine which nominees will serve as delegates to the convention. The 4 members nominated for alternate delegate were unopposed and, at the close of the nominations meeting, were declared elected.
A vendor engaged by the local union prepared a ballot to decide the delegates portion of the election. The ballot listed all candidates for delegate, arranged by slate affiliation. In addition, the ballot listed the 4 members elected as alternate delegates. Those members were positioned under the slate name with which they were affiliated at the time of the nominations meeting. Beneath each alternate delegate’s name were the words, “elected by acclamation.”
The vendor circulated the ballot to slate representatives, including protestor Spears, as well as to the OES representative with geographic responsibility for Local Union 2010. All approved the proposed ballot that included the names of the elected alternate delegates.
Protestor Spears filed the instant protest on Saturday afternoon, February 27, two days ahead of the date scheduled for mailing of ballots under the approved local union election plan. In the protest, Spears stated she had just become aware that the Rules prohibit uncontested races from appearing on the ballot.
Article II, Section 8 states that “when the number of nominees for alternate delegate does not exceed the number of alternate delegates to be elected, there shall be no necessity for an election for alternate delegates and such nominee(s) shall be declared duly elected. The election ballot shall not contain the name of any candidate for a position for which there is no contest, even if there is a contest for another position.” Based on this provision, it was error to include the names of the members elected to the position of alternate delegate. Even absent this explicit provision, ballots under the Rules cannot list the names of members already elected because those ballots may contain only the names of members who are candidates. Members deemed elected because of the absence of opposition have ceased to be “candidates” within the meaning of Definition 6 the Rules.
For these reasons, we GRANT the protest. The ballot for the contested election of delegates shall be limited solely to that contest, and the names of the elected alternate delegates shall not appear on the ballot or on any notice of election associated with the election of delegates at this local union.
Ballots have been printed for this election, and those ballots include the names of the alternate delegates already elected. Those ballots must be reprinted, with the names of the alternate delegates removed. The reprinting must be completed expeditiously, together with associated reprinting of the notice of election to be included in the ballot package. To the extent this work necessitates a delay in mailing of ballot packages to Local Union 2010 members beyond the current scheduled mailing date of Monday, March 1, 2021, the local union election plan is deemed amended to reflect the date ballots actually are mailed. No other amendment to the election plan is ordered, provided the ballot packages containing the reprinted ballot and notice of election are mailed no later than Friday, March 5, 2021.
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. Any party requesting a hearing must comply with the requirements of Article XIII, Section 2(i). All parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely in any such appeal upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Supervisor. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing, shall specify the basis for the appeal, and shall be served upon:
Barbara Jones
Election Appeals Master
IBTappealsmaster@bracewell.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, all within the time prescribed above. Service may be accomplished by email, using the “reply all” function on the email by which the party received this decision. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Barbara Jones
2021 ESD 67
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS NOTED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
braymond@teamster.org
Edward Gleason
egleason@gleasonlawdc.com
Patrick Szymanski
szymanskip@me.com
Will Bloom
wbloom@dsgchicago.com
Tom Geoghegan
tgeoghegan@dsgchicago.com
Rob Colone
rmcolone@hotmail.com
Barbara Harvey
blmharvey@sbcglobal.net
Kevin Moore
Mooregp2021@gmail.com
F.C. “Chris” Silvera
fitzverity@aol.com
Fred Zuckerman
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
ken@tdu.org
Jackie Spears
jesjnmmf@aol.com
Teamsters Local Union 2010
Jason Rabinowitz
jrabinowitz@teamsters2010.org
Deborah Schaaf
dschaaf@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com