OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: PAUL TRUJILLO, ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 156
) Issued: October 11, 2021
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-183-100821-CA
____________________________________)
Paul Trujillo, member of Local Union 822, 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 Grant Coleman violated the Rules by identifying himself and another person by their union titles when making a campaign endorsement without stating that the titles were for identification purposes only.
Election Supervisor representative Jack Sullens investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Respondent Grant Coleman is a business agent for Local Union 31 in Vancouver BC. On October 8, 2021, he posted a self-made video to his personal Facebook page demonstrating how to fill out a ballot for the International officer election. During the course of the video, he stated that he and Stan Hennessy were supporting the Vairma-Herrera Teamster Power slate. He identified himself by his union title and referred to Hennessy by his title as principal officer of the local union. Neither the video nor the written post that accompanied the video included the disclaimer that “union titles are for identification purposes only.”
Our Advisory on Campaign Contributions, Expenditures, and Disclosure (July 15, 2020) emphasizes that the Rules prohibit endorsements of candidates by the union as an entity. It further cautions that “board members or local union officers who want to endorse a candidate must indicate on any publication of such an endorsement that their office or position is listed ‘for identification purposes only.’” Coleman’s video did not do so.
Protestor Trujillo found the video on October 8, 2021, and sent a private Facebook Message to Coleman, stating, “Hey Brother, I wanted to give you the opportunity to remove your post. It is in violation of the Election rules as established by the OES.” It is unknown whether Coleman responded directly to Trujillo’s FB Message. He did, however, remove the video before Trujillo filed the protest.
Coleman is free to re-post the video, provided he states in text that accompanies the video that “union titles are for identification purposes only.” He is not required to re-record the video to include the disclaimer in the audio of it.
Trujillo informed OES that, even though he had accomplished his goal of having the video removed, he wished to proceed with the protest. We deem the protest RESOLVED.
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 156
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
Fred Zuckerman
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
ken@tdu.org
Scott Jenkins
scott@oz2021.com
Paul Trujillo
Tiknan.tono@gmail.com
Teamsters Local Union 31
Stan Hennessy
shennessy@teamsters31.ca
Grant Coleman
gcoleman@teamsters31.ca
Jack Sullens
jsullens@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com