Protest Decisions

IN RE: GARY GREGORY
Protest Decision 2001 EAD 173
Issued: February 20, 2001
OEA Case No. PR010911MW

Gary Gregory, a Local 135 member, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2000-2001 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). Gregory alleges that Local 135 requires its officers and business agents to contribute into a fund used to defray delegate election campaign expenses by means of regular payroll check deductions. Gregory alleges a violation of Article VII, Section 11(a) of the Rules.

Election Administrator representative Dennis Sarsany investigated this protest.

Findings of Facts and Analysis

Gregory is a candidate for delegate on the Working Rank & File Stand Up slate. He has no direct knowledge to support his allegation. He did allege a series of historical, campaign-related expenditures by Local 135 officers and business agents. He would presumably ask us to infer that such expenditures must have come from the fund that he alleges exists. We cannot, without more, make any such inference. Gregory also offered James Goodnight as a witness. Goodnight is a Local 135 retiree and former business agent at the local. Goodnight states that Local 135 did have a fund similar to what is alleged here, but acknowledges that this fund has not been in existence for years and that the current payroll saving accounts at the local are voluntary and the property of the ccount holders.

Local 135 denies the charge. Steve Chestnut, the local's in-house counsel and the campaign treasurer for the Barton Unity Team for Continued Strength and Progress (the slate that opposes Gregory's), states that the payroll savings plan offered by the local to its employees is a voluntary program, identical in all material respects to those offered by other employers, and that all contributions to his slate have been voluntary.

The fund as alleged here would constitute an improper use of union funds in violation of Article XI, Section 1(b)(6) of the Rules. Richards, 2000 EAD 5 (August 1, 2000). There is, however, no competent evidence that any such fund exists.

We accordingly DENY the 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. 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, shall specify the basis for that appeal, and shall be served upon:

Kenneth Conboy

Election Appeals Master

Latham & Watkins

Suite 1000

885 Third Avenue

New York, New York 10022

Fax: 212-751-4864

Copies of the request for hearing must be served upon the parties listed above, as well as upon the Election Administrator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 727 15^th Street, N.W., 10^th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005, facsimile (202) 454-1501, all within the time period prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.

William A. Wertheimer, Jr.

Election Administrator

cc: Kenneth Conboy, Election Appeals Master

Dennis Sarsany, Midwest Area Regional Director

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