OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: SEAN MASON, ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 82
) Issued: March 13, 2021
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-086-022621-SO
____________________________________)
Sean Mason, member and delegate candidate in Local Union 385, 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 local union business agent Randy Collins used his union position to campaign by telling union stewards and a UPS manager that Mason had been discharged for dishonesty.
Election Supervisor representative Dolores Hall investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Local Union 385 will elect 10 delegates and 3 alternate delegates to the IBT convention. Two full slates and 1 independent candidate are competing for these positions. The OZ Teamsters United Local 385 slate is headed by Mason, the protestor here. The Teamsters Unite! Stronger Contracts slate is headed by local union business agent Walt Howard; the slate includes Collins, the respondent on this protest.
Protestor Mason told our investigator he was campaigning at the Leesburg FL UPS facility on February 24 with Joe Spano, another candidate on his slate, when the UPS supervisor Ken Merrill approached and asked Mason what he was doing there. According to Mason, Merrill told him business agent Collins had called Merrill and various shop stewards and told them Mason had been fired and did not have a right to campaign there. According to Mason, Merrill stated that discharged employees are not permitted on UPS property. Mason said several drivers were present and heard Merrill relay what Collins had said. Mason replied that he had the right to campaign in the parking lot. He gave Merrill the parking lot access material from the OES website, and Merrill returned to the building to consult. He returned shortly, said he had contacted UPS labor relations, and told Mason he could campaign even though discharged.
Spano corroborated Mason’s account, including Merrill’s statement that Collins had called him and various stewards to state that Mason had been discharged for dishonesty and should not be allowed to campaign. Spano stated that Merrill left to check out Mason’s contention that he could campaign even though discharged, returning shortly to state that he could remain.
Mason was discharged on February 9. The basis for the discharge was fraudulent use of bereavement leave. A grievance has been filed and is scheduled for a joint panel hearing. According to Mason, his father, a Kansas resident, passed away on January 15. Mason told his supervisor he would be off work the week of January 25 to travel to Kansas. During that week, however, he called in sick on January 25, reported for work the next day, and traveled to Kansas later in the week, using the four days of paid bereavement leave permitted by the collective bargaining agreement, and returning on January 31 with his father’s cremains. Mason worked Monday through Friday, February 1 through 5, without incident, and also on Monday, February 8. The next day, February 9, he reported for his shift, was called into a meeting with three UPS managers that lasted the full day, and was discharged for dishonesty. Shop steward Steve Rush was present for the meeting.
Merrill, the UPS manager at the Leesburg hub, told our investigator that he has known Mason for years, did not know he had been discharged, and learned that information that day from a steward on site at Leesburg after Mason appeared there to campaign. Merrill denied learning of Mason’s discharge from business agent Collins, stating he has not spoken to Collins “in years.” Merrill said that UPS has a strict policy barring discharged employees from UPS premises, and Leesburg is a small facility where employees are directed to be vigilant for discharged employees coming on premises. When the steward told Merrill that Mason was in the parking lot even though he had been discharged, Merrill approached Mason and told him he could not be there. Merrill said Mason replied that he was permitted to campaign in the parking lot, produced some paperwork to that effect, and Merrill confirmed Mason’s right to campaign by checking with UPS labor relations.
Bill Richards, a steward at the Leesburg hub, stated he told Merrill that Mason had been discharged. Richards told our investigator that he saw two campaigners in the Leesburg UPS parking lot on February 24 and approached them to see what they said. They were asking members who wanted more information about their campaign to fill out clipboards with their names and contact information. Richards said he heard one campaigner state that he had been discharged from UPS and was trying to get his job back. Richards said that Leesburg is a small facility without fencing, easily accessible from the street, and management has instructed all employees to be vigilant for discharged employees coming onto property. Richards reported to Merrill, the manager, that he had heard one campaigner state he was discharged. Merrill talked to the campaigner and, after a bit, told the campaigner he could stay. Richards then talked to the campaigner, who told him about his discharge and showed him a death certificate on his phone.
Rush, the steward who attended the long meeting with Mason that ended with his discharge, told our investigator that he had not heard Collins tell anyone that Mason had been discharged. He said, “that doesn’t sound like something Randy would do.” Rush stated that if anyone asks him why Mason was discharged, he tells them, stating that he has been asked that question “hundreds of times.”
Collins, the business agent, is a candidate on the slate opposing Mason’s slate. Collins is representing Mason in the grievance procedure. The employer has not agreed to settle the discharge, which has resulted in the grievance being pushed to a panel hearing. Collins denied to our investigator telling any steward that Mason had been discharged. He said he received a phone call from Richards, the steward at Leesburg, complaining that Mason was campaigning too close to the building. Collins said he did not tell Richards Mason had been discharged because Richards indicated during the phone call he already knew.
The allegation Mason makes is that Collins acquired information through his official union activity – that Mason had been discharged for dishonesty – and disseminated it to union stewards in urging them not to support Mason and his slate. The protest’s contention, at bottom, is that Collins used a union asset, information about Mason’s status, to campaign, in violation of Article VII, Section 12(c). The only evidence to support this allegation are the statements of Mason and Spano recounting what they assert UPS manager Merrill told them when he approached them in the parking lot. We credit Merrill’s account, that he learned of Mason’s discharge from shop steward Richards, who heard it directly from Mason. We further credit Merrill’s statement that he has not spoken with business agent Collins for a lengthy period. Finally, we conclude that Mason’s discharge and the reason for it is common knowledge, resulting both from Mason’s recounting of the circumstances in campaign settings and from steward Rush’s statements to inquiring members.
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. 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 82
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
Sean Mason
Seanlmason16@gmail.com
Teamsters Local Union 385
Michael McElmury, Trustee
mmcelmury@teamster.org
Randy Collins
rcollins@local385.org
Dolores Hall
dhall@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com