Protest Decisions

OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR

for the

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

IN RE: MARTHA SANCHEZ and                        )           Protest Decision 2016 ESD 85

            DEBRA HADDOCK,                      )           Issued: January 25, 2016

                                                                        )           OES Case Nos. P-101-011216-SO &

            Protestor.                                           )                       P-117-012116-SO

____________________________________)

            Martha Sanchez, member and employee of Local Union 745, 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, filed January 12, 2016, alleged that Mario Leyva “barged” into the El Paso, TX office of Local Union 745 “ranting,” displaying “dangerous behavior,” and causing the protestor, who was not present, to fear for her safety. 

            Debra Haddock, member and office manager of Local Union 745, filed a pre-election protest on January 21, 2016, alleging that the slate declaration Leyva filed was untimely, and the candidates listed on that slate declaration should not be permitted to appear on the ballot as a slate.

            These protests were consolidated for investigation and decision.  Election Supervisor representative Dolores Hall investigated them.

Findings of Fact

            Mario Leyva is a member of Local Union 745 and a candidate for delegate on the 745 Teamsters United Against Hoffa slate.  Local Union 745 has its main office in Dallas, TX; it maintains an additional office in El Paso, more than 600 miles west.  On Friday, January 8, 2016, the day before Local Union 745’s nominations meeting, Leyva phoned the El Paso office of the local union at about 4:30 p.m. to state he was on his way there to deliver a slate declaration for the slate of which he is a member.  He spoke with protestor Sanchez, who is employed in that office.  According to Leyva and the protest, she told Leyva that she would be there until 5:00 p.m. 

            Sanchez told our investigator that she remained at the office until 5:00 p.m., that Leyva did not appear within that time, and that she then locked the office and left for the day.

            Leyva told our investigator that he brought the slate declaration[1] and a cover letter to the union office at 4:55 p.m. to find Sanchez already gone, despite her assurance during their phone call 25 minutes earlier that she would remain until 5:00 p.m..  Leyva entered the office, which he said was unlocked, and found Jose Villegas, a retired member of Local Union 745 who works part-time to clean the union office, and Sheldon Heavens, a union member.  Leyva asked Villegas where Sanchez was.  According to Leyva, Villegas said he did not know but that she would be right back.  Leyva then spoke with Villegas for a few minutes.  Leyva said at 4:59 p.m., he asked Villegas and then Heavens to sign the cover letter to his slate declaration to document that he had delivered them.  They demurred.  At 5:00 p.m. with Sanchez still not back, Leyva placed the documents on Sanchez’s desk and took a camera photo of them.  He provided that photo to our investigator.  The digital properties of the photo show that it was taken at 5:01 p.m. on January 8, 2016.  The GPS location information associated with the photo show that it was taken at the local union hall in El Paso.

            Villegas told our investigator that he is a retired Teamster and does cleaning work for the local union on a part-time basis.  He said he arrived at the hall on January 8 “about six or seven minutes” before 5:00 p.m. to begin work.  He said that Sanchez and Heavens were present when he arrived but Sanchez left the office almost immediately after he came in.  According to Villegas, this was unusual, and he looked at the clock as she left and noted it was 4:55 p.m.  Villegas said that he and Heavens then talked for a few minutes when they heard a noise at the door.  Leyva entered with some papers.  When Leyva saw that Sanchez was not present, he asked Villegas to sign for the papers, but Villegas was uncomfortable doing so, because he was merely the cleaning person.  Villegas told our investigator it was 4:59 p.m. when Leyva asked him to sign the papers.

            Heavens told our investigator he did not know Leyva and did not know what Leyva and Villegas said to each other, explaining that they spoke half-English and half-Spanish to each other and Heavens understands English only.  Heavens confirmed to our investigator that Sanchez left the office “a little before 5.”

            Leyva told our investigator he remained at the union office until about 5:20 p.m., expecting as Villegas had said that Sanchez would return.  He left when he concluded she was not coming back that day.  After Leyva left the building, Villegas phoned Sanchez to tell her Leyva had been there.  Sanchez then returned to the office, arriving about 5:30 p.m.

            At 6:24 p.m. the same day, Leyva texted Brent Taylor, principal officer of Local Union 745, to report he had hand-delivered the slate declaration to the El Paso office of the local union.  Leyva received no reply to this text.  He texted Taylor again on this subject on Monday, January 11, at 10:45 a.m. and once more at 11:48 a.m., again with no response.  

            In addition to the text messages, Leyva sent an email message to Taylor on Friday, January 8 at 9:23 p.m. CST, attaching the written nominations, seconds, and acceptances, as well as the three pages of the signed slate declaration.[2]  Leyva sent the email directed to Taylor to “haddoc745@sbcglobal.net,” which he believed to be the email address of Debra Haddock, local union office manager in Dallas and the mother of Brent Taylor.  Haddock’s email address is haddock745@sbcglobal.net, and the address to which Leyva sent the documents was incorrect because it omitted the “k” at the end of “haddock.”  Leyva’s email (with attachments) was also sent to OES regional director Dolores Hall, who received it Friday evening, January 8.  When the incorrect email address for Haddock came to light several days later, Leyva checked his email inbox and determined that he did not receive an error or “bounce back” message concerning the email sent to Haddock.

            On Monday, January 11, 2016, at 4:09 p.m. CST, Sanchez called the police to report that Leyva had broken into the union hall the previous Friday.  Two officers from the El Paso Police Department responded to the union hall.  They took a report from Sanchez, listing her as the Reporting Person or “reporter.”  The written narrative of the report stated the following:

[The officers] were dispatched to the listed address reference a burglary of the building.  Upon arrival the officers met with the reporter who advised that on the listed date [Friday, January 8, 2016] and at about the listed times[3] a union member (Mario Leyva) came into the building, while the building was closed for business, to drop off paperwork that needed to be submitted before 17:00 hrs.  The reporter advised that she does not know how the member went in, but there were no damages to the door or the building.  The reporter stated that she would like the incident to be documented in the event the member complains that he submitted the paperwork on time.  The officers issued an incident information card to the reporter and advised her accordingly.

The incident information card to which the police report referred listed the incident number and the report date, “01-11-16.”  The report did not state the allegation Sanchez made in this protest of “dangerous behavior” and “ranting” on the part of Leyva, nor did it report that Sanchez claimed to “fear for my safety,” as she does here.

            Principal officer Taylor, on behalf of Local Union 745, denied receiving the slate declaration form, whether through the El Paso office or by email.  When the local union first indicated that it had not received the slate declaration on January 16, OES representative Hall that day forwarded Leyva’s January 8 email to which the fully signed slate declaration was attached to Haddock, instructing her that a ballot placement lottery had to be conducted.  Five days after receiving Hall’s email to which the fully signed slate declaration was attached, Haddock filed her protest asserting that Leyva’s slate declaration was untimely filed and the slate should not be recognized or be given a place on the ballot.

Analysis

            We first address Sanchez’s claim that Leyva “barged” into the El Paso office of Local Union 745, “ranting” and displaying “dangerous behavior” and leading Sanchez to fear for her personal safety.  No credible evidence substantiates this allegation.  All credible evidence refutes it.  Accordingly, we reject Sanchez’s protest in its entirety.

            In reaching this conclusion, we observe that the only person who claims that Leyva engaged in the behavior the protest attributed to him is Sanchez, and Sanchez was not present when the incident is said to have occurred.  The witnesses present, Villegas, Heavens, and Leyva, all deny that Leyva barged into the office, or broke in.  Further, they all agree that Leyva arrived at the office before 5:00 p.m..  In addition, Villegas and Heavens state that Sanchez left early, before 5:00 p.m., contradicting Sanchez’s claim that she remained at the office until 5:00 p.m.  We conclude that had Sanchez done as she promised Leyva she would do – remain at the office until 5:00 p.m., she would have received the slate declaration from Leyva.  Instead, we find she left early to avoid seeing Leyva and to allow the union officials in Dallas to claim that the slate declaration was never received. 

            Sanchez’s behavior further undermined her own credibility.  Police records demonstrate that the first time officers were summoned to the El Paso office was after 4:00 p.m. on Monday, January 11, three days after the incident Sanchez alleged.  The report prepared by the responding officers reflects Sanchez’s complaint that Leyva purportedly entered the Local Union 745 office “while the building was closed for business,” but does not reflect any claim by Sanchez that she feared for her personal safety or that Leyva had in any way demonstrated threatening behavior.  It was not until filing the instant protest the next day, January 12,   that Sanchez finally made the claim that Leyva had demonstrated personally threatening behavior.  We do not credit this allegation.  To the contrary, we conclude that Leyva behaved appropriately, even though understandably frustrated that Sanchez lied to him by saying that she would remain at the office until 5:00 p.m. 

            For these reasons, we DENY Sanchez’s protest on the merits. 

Turning to Haddock’s protest, we find as fact that Leyva delivered the fully signed slate declaration to the El Paso office of Local Union 745 on January 8, 2016.  As the local union’s nominations meeting for its delegates and alternate delegates meeting was on January 9, the deadline for submission of slate declarations was January12, and Leyva’s delivery of the signed declaration on January 8 therefore met the Rules’ requirements.  We reject Haddock’s implied contention that Leyva’s delivery to the El Paso office did not satisfy Article VIII, Section 1(b) because secretary-treasurer Taylor works in the Dallas office; to the contrary, we hold that timely delivery of a valid slate declaration to any office of the local union will satisfy the delivery requirement of that provision.

We find further that Leyva demonstrated the effort to give notice of slate formation by emailing the fully signed declaration to the Haddock, as office manager of the local union.  The email address he used for her was incorrect, but because the email was also addressed to and received by the Election Supervisor’s representative, it established the date and time of Leyva’s attempt to make electronic delivery of the signed slate declaration and serves to corroborate his assertion that the declaration was fully signed and ready for delivery on January 8, the date we find he actually delivered it to the El Paso office.

In finding that Leyva made hand-delivery of the declaration to the El Paso office on January 8, we credit his statement, as corroborated by the photo properties and GPS location information he provided.  We discredit Sanchez’s claim that the slate declaration was not on her desk when she returned to the office, finding no credibility whatsoever to any statement she made that is material to these protests. 

Accordingly, we DENY Haddock’s protest on the merits.  We also DENY it as untimely filed.  Article XIII, Section 2(b) requires protests to be “filed within two (2) working days of the day when the protestor becomes aware or reasonably should have become aware of the action protested.”  The slate declaration was emailed to Haddock on January 16 by OES representative Hall, yet Haddock did not file this protest until January 21, rendering it untimely filed.

            We held in Haddock, 2016 ESD 80 (January 25, 2016), that Houston Mitchell is eligible for nomination as delegate, that Richard Arrieta was validly nominated, that Adrian Gonzalez is eligible for Alternate Delegate, and that Gustavo Gonzalez was validly nominated.

            In accord with these decisions, Local Union 745 is directed to take the following actions:

• It shall replace on all union worksite bulletin boards no later than Thursday, January 28, 2016, the notice of nominations meeting results to reflect that two slates are competing in the local union delegates and alternate delegates election.  It shall list the 745 Teamsters United Against Hoffa slate as a slate competing in the election and shall list the slate members as follows:

Frank Cunningham     Delegate

Miguel Ramos             Delegate

Mario Leyva                Delegate

Richard Arrieta           Delegate

Houston Mitchell        Delegate

John Valentine            Alternate Delegate

Gustavo Garcia           Alternate Delegate

Adrian Gonzalez         Alternate Delegate

Lorenzo Martinez        Alternate Delegate

Carlos Dungy              Alternate Delegate

• Before posting the revised notice of nominations meeting results, it shall obtain approval of OES representative Dolores Hall as to the form and content of the revised notice.

• It shall conduct a ballot placement lottery to determine the ballot placement of the two slates competing in the election, with reasonable notice to all candidates so that the lottery may be observed.  Notice of the lottery shall be given no later than Tuesday, January 26, 2016 and shall be completed by Friday, January 29, 2016.  OES representative Dolores Hall shall resolve any disputes as to whether the time of day and location of the lottery are reasonable.

• After conducting a valid ballot placement lottery on reasonable notice, it shall submit to OES no later than Monday, February 1, 2016 a revised Form 18 – Candidate Ballot Placement Form.

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, 34^th 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 17^th 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

            2016 ESD 85

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