Protest Decisions

ELECTION APPEALS MASTER

This matter is an appeal from the Election Supervisor's decision 2011 ESD 327 issued on September 26, 2011.  A hearing was requested by David J.  Hoffa, Esq. on behalf of the Hoffa-Hall 2011 Campaign.

A hearing was held before me on September 28, 2011 and continued on October 3, 2011.  The following persons were heard by way of teleconference:  Jeffrey J. Ellison, Esq., for the Election Supervisor's Office; Dolores Hall, Election Supervisor's investigator; David J. Hoffa, Esq. on behalf of the Hoffa-Hall 2011 Campaign; Robert Colone, Esq. on behalf of the Gegare Slate; and Christy Bailey, Hoffa Campaign manager.

This is a perplexing case and record.  It is undisputed that Aaron Belk, a candidate for IBT South regional vice president on the Gegare-Sheard slate, violated the Election Rules by mailing campaign literature to shop stewards at 465 IBT worksites, and seeking their assistance in disseminating it.  Specifically Belk asked the shop stewards to post the campaign material on union bulletin boards located at employer work sites.

The Election Supervisor's investigation focused on whether the campaign flyers had in fact been posted on the union bulletin boards at the work sites.  It concluded that at 97% of the bulletin boards the material had not in fact been posted.  On the question of what percentage of shop stewards actually received the material, the investigation established that at Local 79 only three or four of the stewards advised that they had received the material, although Local 76 has 26 work sites with an unknown number of shop stewards.  In the unlikely event that there is only one shop steward per work site, this evidence suggests that 85% of the shop stewards in Local 79 did not receive the campaign flyers.

It is clear that the campaign literature in question was mailed in all instances without the specific names of shop stewards.  Furthermore, because 600 locations are on Belk's mailing list and mailings were made to only 465 locations, it cannot be determined which locations in fact were the targeted recipients.  Accordingly, any remedial mailing to 600 locations would reach almost 25% of locations that were not the subject of Belk's mailings.

Investigator Dolores Hall's supplemental canvas of 30 Locals in the Region make it clear that a material number of the campaign flyers were a) intercepted by local union personnel and not delivered to shop stewards; b) thrown away or passed on to local union personnel by shop stewards without dissemination; c) returned to post offices as undeliverable; d) not disseminated by shop stewards because they had been notified of the mailings in advance by local union personnel, and e) not forwarded by the employer mail reception unit to shop stewards at the work site.

A remedial mailing is authorized under the Rules only where evidence of record objectively establishes that the campaign playing field has been unleveled by a Rules violation.  Here there is in the record no such showing.

Accordingly, the decision by the Election Supervisor is in all respects affirmed.

SO ORDERED:

__s/Kenneth Conboy_____________

Kenneth Conboy

Election Appeals Master

Dated: October 4, 2011