OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: DEATRA TART, ) Protest Decision 2011 ESD 234
) Issued: April 26, 2011
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-231-032211-MW
____________________________________)
Deatra Tart, member of Local Union 700 and delegate candidate on the Team 700 slate, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2010-2011 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”). The protest alleged that Vince Tenuto, local union business agent and delegate candidate on the Logan slate, campaigned on union-paid time in violation of the Rules.
Election Supervisor representative Joe Childers investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact
Local Union 700 is entitled to election fifteen delegates and four alternate delegates to the IBT convention. The Team 700 slate is competing against the Logan slate in that election.
Protestor Tart, a candidate on Team 700, alleged that on March 18, 2011 she observed Tenuto and three other persons distribute campaign flyers for the Logan slate at the Northwest garage facility for garbage trucks. Tart is employed at another facility but was present at the Northwest garage to support Kenneth Sawyer, a truck driver and steward at the Northwest garage who was seeking re-election as steward.
The City of Chicago employs members of Local Union 700 to drive its garbage trucks. Some eighty of those trucks are parked at the Northwest garage facility. Thirty are parked in a large building located there; the rest remain outside. Aside from a foreman’s office and a time clock at which the drivers record their time, the building is used solely to park the trucks, as they are serviced elsewhere.
Sawyer called Tart to the facility on March 18 to support him in the steward election. When she arrived, Tart entered the garage and went to a location near the time clock. Tart stated that she observed Tenuto and three other people distributing campaign flyers. The flyers did not concern the steward election; instead, they were for the Logan slate in the delegates election. Tart also stated that “one of the guys with Tenuto,” who she could not identify by name, tried to hand her literature but she did not take it. Tart stated that she also saw Tenuto hand out ballots for the steward election at the same time he was distributing campaign literature.
After observing this activity, Tart approached the foreman, Ricky Rencher, and asked if she could hand out literature for the Team 700 slate inside the garage. According to Tart, Rencher replied that she could not but that “they [Tenuto and others] could do anything they want” because they were from the union.
In addition to Tart, our investigator interviewed Sawyer, who stated that approximately three representatives from Local Union 700 came to the Northwest garage on March 18 with campaign literature for the Logan slate, which they distributed to drivers inside the garage. Sawyer identified Tenuto as one of the three representatives. Sawyer also stated that Tenuto was checking a sheet and telling each driver how delinquent that driver was in local union dues.
Sawyer said that along with the campaign literature, the local union representatives handed each driver a blue card, approximately 5 inches by 8 inches, with the names of three members running for steward. The persons listed on the card were Sawyer, Jerry Pinson, and Anthony Harris. The drivers were instructed to vote for one steward and return the cards so they could be tallied. Sawyer identified one of the representatives with Tenuto as Joe, but could not state his last name. In addition to handing out the campaign literature to the drivers, Sawyer stated that a large number of flyers were left on the desk in the office next to the time clock.
Sawyer identified the foreman, Rencher, and four other drivers as able to corroborate the evidence he and Tart provided about the events of March 18. Rencher told our investigator he is a foreman at the Northwest garage facility and is also a member of Local Union 700. He remembered March 18 and stated that Tenuto and Joe Belli, two Local Union 700 business agents, conducted the steward election that day by handing ballots to the drivers as they entered the garage. When the voting was concluded, they tallied the ballots inside the foreman’s office. Rencher denied to our investigator that either Tenuto or Belli distributed campaign literature at any time on March 18. Instead, he saw them conduct the steward election only. Rencher confirmed that other Local Union 700 members distributed campaign literature for the Logan Slate inside the area of the garage where the drivers parked their garbage trucks.
Rencher stated that he also recalled Tart approaching him on March 18 and asking if she could distribute campaign literature for her slate inside the garage facility where the trucks were parked. He responded that she should check with the union, as he did not want to give her the okay himself.
Our investigator telephoned the other witnesses Sawyer identified, Walter Clark, Ruben Tamez, Andre Patterson and Bob Morris. Clark, a garbage truck driver assigned to the Northwest garage, confirmed he was present at the garage on March 18. He stated that a business agent he could not identify handed him a blue card to vote for steward. He did not recall receiving anything else with his ballot, specifically campaign literature. He stated that the Team 700 slate had campaigned for the delegates election in the parking lot at the Northwest garage facility, but was not sure whether they campaigned there on March 18. He was not able to confirm that Tenuto distributed campaign literature inside the garage facility.
Tamez, another garbage truck driver assigned to the Northwest garage, stated that he is not affiliated with either slate in the delegates election, but that he received campaign literature in the mail. On March 18 inside the garage, he was handed a blue card to vote for steward. Tamez stated that all of the drivers were present at the garage that day. He stated that he was not instructed for whom to vote, but he voted and turned the card back in. Tamez denied that Tenuto or anyone else distributed any campaign literature for the delegates election inside the garage that day. Tamez stated that he was present in the garage for at least twenty minutes and perhaps as long as thirty minutes while the votes were counted in the steward election, and he did not observe any campaigning for the delegates election during that time.
With respect to the remaining witnesses Sawyer identified, our investigator left messages for Patterson and Morris, but those messages were not returned.
Business agent Tenuto filed an affidavit stating that between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on March 18, he visited the Northwest garage to inform certain members that they were delinquent in their union dues and to assist with a steward election. He told our investigator that Joe Belli, another business agent, conducted the election. Tenuto stated that he met with 48 members at the Northwest garage that day concerning their dues status. Tenuto emphatically denied in his affidavit and to our investigator that he distributed any campaign literature at the Northwest garage facility that day or that he even spoke to any member about the delegates election, although others were campaigning inside the garage where the garbage trucks were parked. He said the campaigners were off duty from their jobs at the airport and were handing out Logan slate literature.
Business agent Belli told our investigator he was the only Local Union 700 representative to handle ballots for the steward election that day. He placed a ballot box on a bench inside the garage and stayed by the ballot box the entire time. Belli is not a candidate in the delegates election, is not affiliated with any slate, and has not campaigned for any slate or candidate in the delegates election. Hector Hernandez, a member of Local Union 700 who was off work that day, and who works at the airport, assisted in the steward election by checking drivers’ names off a list and then sending them to Belli to receive and vote their ballot. Tenuto gathered information from drivers concerning their dues status and recorded information on waiver forms supplied by the local union.
Analysis
Article VII, Section 12(b) of the Rules prohibits campaign activity on time paid for by the union. Protester Tart and Sawyer claim they personally observed Tenuto distribute Logan slate campaign literature to the members inside the Northwest garage while he was conducting a steward election and meeting with individual drivers concerning their dues status. Such conduct, if proven, may violate the Rules.
We find that Tenuto conducted union business at that location on March 18. However, contrary to Tart and Sawyer, we conclude he did not distribute campaign flyers to drivers while assisting with the steward election and meeting with members about their dues. This conclusion is supported by Belli, who denied that Tenuto distributed the flyers.
It is also supported by two witnesses identified to us by the protester. One denied directly that Tenuto distributed campaign literature inside the garage that day. The other could not recall receiving such literature. We conclude that the weight of the evidence is that Tenuto did not campaign while on union business at the Northwest garage on March 18.
Further, we conclude that the leafleting conducted on behalf of the Logan slate inside the garage that day did not violate the Rules. In essence, this garage is a non-work area where the drivers may congregate prior to clocking in or out for the day, but no other work is performed in this area. It serves the same purpose as the outside parking lot where garbage trucks are parked. Therefore, we conclude it is not a work area where campaigning is forbidden.
Accordingly, 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 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, NY 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, 1801 K Street, N.W., Suite 421 L, Washington, D.C. 20006, 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
2011 ESD 234
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
braymond@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa
Hoffa Hall 2011
1100 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Ste. 730
Washington, D.C. 20036
hoffadav@hotmail.com
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
P.O. Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210-0128
ken@tdu.org
Barbara Harvey
1394 E. Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48207
blmharvey@sbcglobal.net
Fred Gegare
P.O. Box 9663
Green Bay, WI 54308-9663
kirchmanb@yahoo.com
Scott D. Soldon
3541 N. Summit Avenue
Shorewood, WI 53211
scottsoldon@gmail.com
Fred Zuckerman, President
Teamsters Local Union 89
3813 Taylor Blvd.
Louisville, KY 40215
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Robert M. Colone, Esq.
P.O. Box 272
Sellersburg, IN 47172-0272
rmcolone@hotmail.com
Carl Biers
Box 424, 315 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
info@SandyPope2011.org
Julian Gonzalez
Lewis, Clifton & Nikolaidis, P.C.
350 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1800
New York, NY 10001-5013
jgonzalez@lcnlaw.com
Deatra Tart
3541 W. Lexington Street
Chicago, IL 60624
sweetdtartb@aol.com
Becky Strzechowski, Assistant Trustee
Teamsters Local Union 700
1300 W. Higgins, Suite 300
Park Ridge, IL 60068
beckyski@comcast.net
William Logan
6740 North Wildwood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60646
logandelegateslate@comcast.net
Anthony O’Donnell
1246 East 98th Street
Chicago, IL 60628
Lawmann60104@yahoo.com
Joe F. Childers
Getty & Childers, PLLC
250 W. Main Street, Suite 1900
Lexington, KY 40507
childerslaw@yahoo.com
William C. Broberg
1108 Fincastle Road
Lexington, KY 40502-1838
wcbroberg@aol.com
Maria S. Ho
Office of the Election Supervisor
1801 K Street, N.W., Suite 421 L
Washington, D.C. 20006
mho@ibtvote.org
Kathryn Naylor
Office of the Election Supervisor
1801 K Street, N.W., Suite 421 L
Washington, D.C. 20006
knaylor@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
214 S. Main Street, Ste. 210
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
EllisonEsq@aol.com