Protest Decisions

IN RE: JAMES D. JACKSON,
Eligibility Decision 2000 EAD 46
Issued: November 7, 2000
OEA Case No. E102401MI

On Sunday, October 22, 2000, Local 299 held its nominations meeting for delegates and alternate delegates to the International Convention. By fax received on October 24, 2000, Local 299's secretary-treasurer James D. Jackson filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b)(1) of the Rules for the 2000-2001 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules") in which he alleges that Angelo Derrick, a Local 299 member, was ineligible to run for alternate delegate because he did not have income from which dues could be deducted for the months of November 1998, December 1998, and January 1999.

Election Administrator representative Lois M. Tuttle investigated this protest.

Article VI, Section 1(a) of the Rules provides:

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.

According to Mr. Derrick's TITAN record, Mr. Derrick was a member on dues checkoff whose employer, Allied Systems, did not timely transmit dues payments for the months of October 1998 through January 2000. In fact, throughout this period Mr. Derrick's dues payments were anywhere from one to eight months' behind. Only in February 2000 did Mr. Derrick's employer catch up these payments. Mr. Derrick is not shown as making any cash-dues payments over this period of time.

This might not be fatal if Mr. Derrick had sufficient earnings from which dues could have been deducted for each of the months in question. See IBT Constitution, Article X, Sec. 5(c), "[A] member on dues checkoff whose employer fails to make a proper deduction during any month in which the member has earnings from which the dues could have been deducted, shall not lose good standing status for that month. In such an event, the Local Union shall notify the member of his employer's failure and payment shall be made by the member within thirty (30) days of said notice in order to retain good standing status."

In this case, the local union has provided no evidence to suggest that it had notified Mr. Jackson of his employer's failure to make timely payments of his local's dues between October 1998 and January 2000. However, the investigation could not establish that Mr. Derrick had sufficient earnings for all months throughout the period between October 1998 and January 2000.

Along with his protest, Mr. Jackson provided a copy of an October 24, 2000 letter addressed to the local by Robert Hatto, an Allied Systems employee. Mr. Hatto states that Mr. Derrick was not working for the period between October 20, 1998 to February 22, 1999, during which time he went on workers' compensation and received no earnings from the company except for a single December 1998 check for a grievance settlement in the amount of $76.28.^[1]  Mr. Hatto stated that he had received this information from Jean Martin of the company's payroll department.

The Election Administrator representative contacted Ms. Martin as well as Dawn Ruttledge, a payroll department employee in charge of union dues. According to these employees, Mr. Derrick received sufficient earnings to pay union dues from his employer for all months between October 1998 and January 2000, except for the months of November 1998, December 1998, and January 1999.

Ms. Ruttledge verified that Mr. Derrick had received a check for a grievance award in the amount of $76.28 in December 1998. Ms. Ruttledge and Ms. Martin did not know anything about the nature of the grievance award or the pay period to which the check was meant to be attributed. However, even if the check was intended as "earnings" attributed to pay periods in one or two of the months in question (i.e., November 1998 and/or December 1998), the amount of the check ($76.28) could not have been sufficient to cover the amount of union dues for more than one month (the union dues rate being $40 per month for the months of November 1998 through January 1999). Based on the employer's information, Mr. Derrick therefore lacked sufficient earnings to pay dues for at least two, and possibly three, months within the 24-month continuous period.

Mr. Derrick has not contacted the Election Administrator's office to dispute this account, nor could he be reached using any reasonable method available. Mr. Derrick has not responded to either the protest acknowledgement letter sent him on October 25, 2000 by next day mail or a follow-up letter sent to him on November 1, 2000 by next day mail. These letters were sent to Mr. Derrick using his last known address shown in TITAN and the local's records. The letters have not been returned. The last known telephone number of Mr. Derrick's, provided by the local, is not his current number. The Election Administrator representative was unable to obtain a current number for Mr. Derrick from information. Therefore, we are forced to decide this matter without hearing Mr. Derrick's account.

Accordingly, it is the determination of the Election Administrator that Mr. Derrick was INELIGIBLE to run for alternate delegate in the International Convention. Therefore, the protest is GRANTED.

Any interested party not satisfied with this determination may request a hearing before the Election Appeals Master within one day of receipt of this letter. The parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Administrator in any such appeal. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing and shall be served on:

Kenneth Conboy, Esq.

Latham & Watkins

885 Third Avenue, Suite 1000

New York, NY 10022

Fax (212) 751-4864

Copies of the request for hearing must be served on the parties listed above as well as upon the Election Administrator, 727 Fifteenth Street, N.W., 10^th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, Facsimile (202) 454-1501. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for a hearing.

William A. Wertheimer, Jr.

William A. Wertheimer, Jr.

Election Administrator

cc: Kenneth Conboy, Election Appeals Master

Michael Nicholson, Michigan Area Regional Director

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