OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: SAM BUCALO, ) Protest Decision 2015 ESD 26
) Issued: August 28, 2015
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-033-081215-ME
____________________________________)
Sam Bucalo, member and secretary-treasurer of Local Union 100, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2015-2016 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”). The protest alleged that UPS impermissibly restricted employee parking lot campaign access only to those persons who are UPS employees.
Election Supervisor representative Dan Walsh investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
On Monday, August 10, 2015, protestor Bucalo took a vacation day to campaign for Teamsters United at employer facilities under the jurisdiction of Local Union 100. He campaigned first at the UPS Gest Street facility without incident. Late in the afternoon, he moved to the UPS Sharonville facility where three other supporters of Teamsters United were already campaigning. Those campaigners erected a small table measuring approximately 18” x 4’ for flyers and as a hard surface petition signers could use.
Bucalo was at Sharonville about a half hour when he received a text message from Local Union 100 president David Webster. The text read: “Joe Mullikin just called. Sale[1] you can hand out any literature you want but table has to go and any non-UPSers must leave.” Mullikin is the labor relations manager for the UPS region that includes Local Union 100. Webster told our investigator that Mullikin called him that afternoon and said, “Sam is at Sharonville and has a table set up and is collecting signatures. He can stand there and pass out literature all he wants but can’t have a table set up and can’t have any non-UPS people on the property.” Webster passed on Mullikin’s message to Bucalo by text at 5:58 p.m. According to Webster, Bucalo did not reply to the text.
Mullikin had been told Bucalo was at Sharonville but did not witness it himself. Further, Mullikin was unaware of the size and location of the table used for campaigning, and he had no information as to whether it interfered with ingress or egress of vehicles or pedestrians or otherwise impinged on the employer’s operations.
Before beginning full-time union business as secretary-treasurer, Bucalo was employed full-time by UPS. He told our investigator he was concerned that Mullikin’s directive excluding non-UPS employees from the Sharonville parking lot applied to him, even though the language of the text expressly stated he could campaign there as he wished.
UPS took no action through its security force or operations officials to remove non-UPS employees from Sharonville or any other UPS facility Bucalo visited that day. Bucalo left Sharonville shortly after receiving Webster’s text relaying Mullikin’s statement; he went back to the Gest Street facility and campaigned there, again without incident. The other campaigners at Sharonville, one of whom was not a UPS employee, were present there for more than twelve hours that day; UPS took no action to investigate their employment status, remove the non-UPS employee, or restrict or prohibit their use of the small table.
Mullikin told our investigator that UPS has a firm access policy uniformly enforced that prohibits non-UPS employees from campaigning on employer property in local union elections. He said he understands the access rules are different for the International officer election, and he called Webster on August 10 not appreciating that the Sharonville campaigning was for that election.
Article VII, Section 12(e) grants a limited right of access to members to campaign on parking lots on employer property where employees park their vehicles. Under this provision, members generally must be permitted access for the limited campaign rights the provision specifies, and an employer may not restrict such access only to its own employees. Counsel for UPS has informed us that the corporate office will shortly issue advice to facility managers and labor relations representatives concerning the Rules’ requirements with respect to campaign access under Article VII, Section 12(e).
Despite Mullikin’s message to Webster, UPS took no action to exclude Teamster members, Bucalo included, from any facility on the day in question or to limit their ability to campaign or to use the small table they brought with them. 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:
Kathleen A. Roberts
Election Appeals Master
JAMS
620 Eighth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10018
kroberts@jamsadr.com
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, 1050 17th Street, N.W., Suite 375, Washington, D.C. 20036, all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Kathleen A. Roberts
2015 ESD 26
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
braymond@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa
1701 K Street NW, Ste 350
Washington DC 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
Teamsters United
315 Flatbush Avenue, #501
Brooklyn, NY 11217
info@teamstersunited.org
Louie Nikolaidis
350 West 31st Street, Suite 40
New York, NY 10001
lnikolaidis@lcnlaw.com
Julian Gonzalez
350 West 31st Street, Suite 40
New York, NY 10001
jgonzalez@lcnlaw.com
David O’Brien Suetholz
515 Park Avenue
Louisville, KY 45202
dave@unionsidelawyers.com
Fred Zuckerman
P.O. Box 9493
Louisville, KY 40209
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Sam Bucalo
6158 Kingoak Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45248
sammo1245@aol.com
Teamsters Local Union 100
2100 Oak Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45241
sarahm@teamsterslocal100.com
Craig Holmes
United Parcel Service
55 Glenlake Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30328
cholmes@ups.com
Dan Walsh
950 Duxbury Court
Cincinnati, OH 45255
dwalsh@ibtvote.org
John Pegula
1434 Greendale Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15239
jpegula@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
214 S. Main Street, Suite 210
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
EllisonEsq@aol.com