Eligibility of Brees, 2021 ESD 125
OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: ELIGIBILITY OF ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 125 (corrected)
DAVE BREES, ) Issued: June 18, 2021
) OES Case No. E-152-061021-GP
Local Union 455. )
____________________________________)
Dave Brees, member and elected delegate of Local Union 455, 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 challenged the letter issued by the Office of Election Supervisor disqualifying him to serve as delegate for Local Union 455 because he had been ineligible for nomination to that position.
Election Supervisor representative Jeffrey Ellison investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Article VI, Section 1(a) of the Rules provides that “to be eligible to run for any Convention delegate, alternate delegate or International Officer position, one must: (1) be a member in continuous good standing of the Local Union, with one’s dues paid to the Local Union for a period of twenty-four (24) consecutive months prior to the month of nomination for said position with no interruptions in active membership due to suspensions, expulsions, withdrawals, transfers or failure to pay fines or assessments; (2) be employed at the craft within the jurisdiction of the Local Union for a period of twenty-four (24) consecutive months prior to the month of nomination; and (3) be eligible to hold office if elected.”
OES reviews the eligibility for nomination of all delegates and alternate delegates elected to serve at the IBT convention to establish that they met the standards established by the IBT constitution to be eligible for the positions to which they were elected.
The nominations meeting for Local Union 445’s delegates and alternate delegates election took place October 6, 2020. Therefore, the 24-month period during which protestor Brees was required to maintain continuous good standing to be eligible for nomination ran from October 2018 through September 2020.
Protestor Brees’s dues record showed that he paid his dues timely by checkoff authorization for the first four months of the eligibility period (October 2018 through January 2019). However, he was off work on medical leave for the full month of February 2019, and he had no earnings from which dues could be deducted. Because of this absence, he was required to make timely direct payment of his dues to the local union for that month. He did not do so. His dues record shows a cash payment to the local union in March that paid his dues for February and March 2019. This payment, while timely for March, was untimely for February and constituted an interruption in the continuous good standing necessary to be eligible for nomination. Article X, Section 5(c) of the IBT constitution declares that “[p]ayment of such dues after their due date shall not restore good standing status for such month or months in computing the continuous good standing status required by Article II, Section 4 of this Constitution as a condition of eligibility for office.”
Brees offered two defenses to his failure to pay February 2019 dues timely. The first was that, because of his medical condition, he “was incapable of paying dues until March 2019.” While we are sympathetic to his condition, the obligation to make timely dues payments does not recognize such an excuse because all members are held to the same standard.
Brees’s second contention is that he did not receive any notice from the union that he was in arrears, nor was he suspended from membership. This argument likewise has no merit and is rejected. For a cash dues payer as Brees was at the time (because he had no earnings in February from which dues could be deducted), dues must be paid by the last business day of the month in order to be timely paid for that month. IBT constitution, Article X, Section 5(c). Brees did not become delinquent in his February 2019 dues obligation until the moment it became too late to pay them timely, which was the close of business on the last business day of that month. Accordingly, no notice of delinquency from the local union to Brees would have permitted him to pay his February dues timely. See Eligibility of Winters, 2020 ESD 25 (October 4, 2020), aff’d, 2020 EAM 5 (October 15, 2020).
That Brees was not suspended from membership likewise does not help his case. Under the IBT constitution, a member is automatically suspended from membership when he is three months in arrears, not the single month that Brees fell behind. IBT constitution, Article X, Section 5(c). Regardless, any suspension would have been imposed only for an arrearage that would have interrupted his continuous good standing and rendered him ineligible for nomination.
Accordingly, we DENY the protest and hold that Brees was properly DISQUALIFIED to serve as delegate to the IBT convention because he was INELIGIBLE for nomination to that office.
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 125
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
Doug Brees
breezinco@aol.com
Teamsters Local 455
svairma@teamsterslocal455.org
Jim Devine
jdevine@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com