IN RE: HOFFA 2006, Protestor.
Protest Decision 2006 ESD 326
Issued: July 18, 2006
OES Case No. P-06-293-060806-HQ
Hoffa 2006 filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2005-2006 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). The protest alleged that the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions slate mailed campaign literature to delegates and alternate delegates using local union addresses, in violation of the Rules.
Election Supervisor representative Steven R. Newmark investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact
The Leedham slate mailed letters postmarked June 2, 2006 to elected delegates and alternate delegates throughout the IBT requesting support for Tom Leedham and Leedham slate candidates. The Hoffa campaign asserted that the Leedham slate violated the Rules by using local union addresses for at least some of those delegates and alternate delegates without including the literature table disclaimer required by our Advisory on the Use of Literature Table or Bulletin Boards for the Distribution of Campaign Literature Inside Union Halls.
The protestor submitted 7 envelopes as evidence: 6 were addressed to delegates and alternate delegates from Local Union 75 at the local union hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin; the seventh was addressed to alternate delegate Sonny Nardi at the address of Local Union 416 in Cleveland, Ohio. The 6 Green Bay addresses were included on a list of all certified delegates made available by the IBT on May 12, 2006. Sonny Nardi was elected alternate delegate on April 25; his election was certified by our office on May 26. Nardi listed Local Union 416 as his address on his delegate information sheet. However, his name and address did not appear on the May 12 list because he was not certified at that time.
The Rules permit accredited candidates to obtain from the IBT a list of certified delegates and alternate delegates with corresponding addresses. The Election Supervisor's office creates and updates the list as local union delegate and alternate delegate elections are certified and periodically forwards updated lists to the office of the IBT General Secretary-Treasurer. That office, in turn, provides the then-current list to accredited candidates who request it.
Investigation showed that Hoffa requested and received from the IBT the list of names and addresses of certified delegates and alternate delegates that was made current by the Election Office on May 12, 2006, the second Friday of May. The Leedham campaign requested the certified delegate list on Friday, May 26, directly from the Election Office, rather than the IBT, as required by the Rules. Instead of directing the requestor to the IBT, however, the Election Office erroneously provided the list to the Leedham slate.
On June 16, the Election office sent the next list of certified delegates and alternates to the IBT. This list included Nardi and showed his address for contact purposes as that of the Local Union 416 hall.
In the course of the investigation, the protestor withdrew its claims as to the six delegates and alternate delegates from Local Union 75 and limited its claim to Nardi.
Analysis
Article VII, Section 4 of the Rules states that "[e]ach accredited candidate for International office has the right to request and receive from the IBT a list of all certified delegates with corresponding addresses. The first such list of the delegates then certified shall be distributed by the IBT on December 15, 2005, with an updated list distributed each month thereafter on the second Friday of the month through June, 2006. The list shall be arranged by Local Union number."
The Rules do not regulate the addresses elected delegates and alternate delegates may list on their candidate information sheets. As such, delegates and alternate delegates, as elected representative of the local union, may list the address of the local union they have been elected to represent without violating the Rules.
The central purpose of the Rules provision permitting accredited candidates to obtain certified delegate lists is identical to that underlying the provision that permits candidates to obtain union membership lists - it allows candidates to campaign among and solicit support for their candidacies directly from members who will vote on whether the candidates will be nominated to the ballot in the International officer election. To suggest, as the protest did, that an accredited candidate may not mail campaign literature to the address a certified delegate has listed, if the listed address is that of the local union, would impermissibly interfere with the candidate's ability to solicit support among all delegates and alternate delegates.
In reaching this conclusion, we recognize the tension in the Rules between the broad prohibition on use of union resources for campaigning - including the prohibition on use of a local union address for distribution of campaign material embodied in Ostrach, 2000 EAD 29 (October 2, 2000), aff'd, 00 EAM 07 (October 10, 2000) - and the right of accredited candidates for International office to obtain names and contact information for certified delegates and alternate delegates under Article VII, Section 4. In balancing these provisions, we hold that an accredited candidate is permitted to contact delegates and alternate delegates at any addresses those persons list - including local union addresses - where the contact is made to those persons in their capacities as delegates or alternate delegates. Accredited candidates may not otherwise contact those persons for a campaign purpose at the local union addresses they list, except in their capacities as delegates and alternate delegates, without including the disclaimer required by our advisory on literature tables and bulletin boards.
Accordingly, the Leedham slate did not violate the Rules by mailing campaign literature to elected delegates and alternate delegates at the local union addresses they listed on their candidate information sheets. The Leedham mailing was not required to include the literature table disclaimer because the campaign literature was not intended for literature tables; instead, it was directed to elected local union representatives - delegates and alternate delegates - at the addresses they had listed for contact.
Alternate delegate Nardi, the only recipient of literature who remains a subject of this protest, listed the address of Local Union 416 as his contact address as an elected alternate delegate. The Leedham campaign did not violate the Rules by sending campaign literature to Nardi at the address he listed.
Although not raised by the protest, the Election Office erred when it provided a certified list of delegates and alternate delegates directly to the Leedham campaign on May 26. The Election Office should have instructed the Leedham campaign to request the list directly from the IBT, as Article VII, Section 4 indicates. However, we are unable to discern any impact our error caused on the course the convention took or the results of the balloting for candidates nominated for International office.
Accordingly, we 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 Supervisor 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
885 Third Avenue, Suite 1000
New York, New York 10022
Fax: (212) 751-4864
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, 1725 K Street, N.W., Suite 1400, Washington, D.C. 20006-1416, all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2006 ESD 326
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001-2198
braymond@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa
Hoffa 2006
30300 Northwestern Highway, Suite 324
Farmington Hills, MI 48834
David@hoffapllc.com
Barbara Harvey
645 Griswold Street
Suite 3060
Detroit, MI 48226
blmharvey@sbcglobal.net
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
P.O. Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210
ken@tdu.org
Daniel E. Clifton
Lewis, Clifton & Nikolaidis, P.C.
275 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2300
New York, NY 10001
dclifton@lcnlaw.com
Stefan Ostrach
1863 Pioneer Parkway East, #217
Springfield, OR 97477-3907
saostrach@gmail.com
Steven R. Newmark, Esq.
Office of the Election Supervisor for the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
1725 K Street, NW, Suite 1400
Washington, DC 20006
snewmark@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
510 Highland Avenue, #325
Milford, MI 48381
EllisonEsq@aol.com