IN RE: JOE BAKES,
Protest Decision 2001 EAD 303
Issued: April 12, 2001
OEA Case No. PR031613MW
Joe Bakes, a member and delegate candidate in Local Union 705, 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"). He alleges that UPS seasonal employees are ineligible to vote; he further claims that ballots returned without postal markings should not be counted.
Election Administrator representative Dennis Sarsany investigated the protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Seasonal employees. Bakes alleges that seasonal employees at UPS are ineligible to vote because they are seasonal. However, a member's seasonal status does not determine eligibility to vote. Rather, Article V of the Rules declares generally that "a member must have his/her dues paid up through the month prior to the month in which the election is held" to be eligible to vote. Seasonal employees who meet the requirements of Article V are eligible to vote. Accordingly, we DENY this aspect of the protest.
Postmarks. Bakes alleges an elaborate conspiracy to stuff the ballot box in the delegate election. He asserts that Gerald Zero, the local's secretary-treasurer and lead delegate candidate on the slate opposing Bakes' slate, is its mastermind. According to Bakes, Zero or persons working at his direction clandestinely printed or stole ballots, voted them for the Zero slate and, with the assistance of postal employees, deposited them directly into the post office box the local established for returned ballots without mailing them. Such conduct, if proven, would be a felony.
The only evidence Bakes offered to prove his conspiracy theory is that some envelopes deposited in the post office box for returned ballots lacked postmarks, bar codes, or other indicia of processing by the postal service. He cited a statistic supplied by an unnamed source allegedly conversant with postal sorting machinery that, "when operating correctly," the machinery imprints a postmark or barcode on 95 to 97 percent of all envelopes passing through it. Relying on this statistic, Bakes contended that ballots found in the post office box without postal markings were placed there by the conspirators. His protest, filed before votes were tallied, requested those ballots not be counted.
In response to Bakes' protest, ballots lacking postal markings of any kind were segregated and counted separately from all other returned ballots. Of the 4,729 ballots returned, 83 did not have such marks. This figure was less than the predicted 3 to 5 percent of envelopes that would pass through the sorting machinery without an imprint, according to the anonymous postal employee cited by Bakes. Moreover, the tally from these segregated ballots showed that Bakes' slate received more votes than the Zero slate. Indeed, were the ballots that lacked postal markings not included in the overall vote tally, as requested by Bakes, two members of Bakes' slate who were elected would have lost to members of Zero's slate.
Bakes offered no rationale explanation why Zero would risk criminal prosecution by engaging in or directing the acts alleged in order to cause the defeat of members of his own slate. There is no evidence to support Bakes' grave allegation. Therefore, 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. 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 the 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 all other parties, as well as upon the Election Administrator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 727 15th Street NW, Tenth Floor, Washington, DC 20005, all within the time period prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
William A. Wertheimer, Jr.
William A. Wertheimer, Jr.
Election Administrator
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2001 EAD 303
DISTRIBUTION LIST VIA UPS NEXT DAY AIR:
Patrick Szymanski
IBT General Counsel
25 Louisiana Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Bradley T. Raymond
Finkel, Whitefield, Selik,
Raymond, Ferrara & Feldman
32300 Northwestern Highway
Suite 200
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
J. Douglas Korney
Korney & Heldt
30700 Telegraph Road
Suite 1551
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
Barbara Harvey
Penobscot Building
Suite 1800
645 Griswold
Detroit, MI 48226
Betty Grdina
Yablonski, Both & Edelman
Suite 800
1140 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tom Leedham c/o Stefan Ostrach
110 Mayfair
Eugene, OR 97404
Joe Bakes
16749 Grace Street
Lockport, IL 60441
IBT Local 705
1645 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60612
Bruce Boyens
1642 West Van Buren
Chicago, IL 60612
Dennis M. Sarsany
1829 Eddy Street
Chicago, IL 60612