Protest Decisions

OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR

for the

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

IN RE: SAM BUCALO,                              )           Protest Decision 2016 ESD 190

                                                                        )           Issued: May 4, 2016

            Protestor.                                           )           OES Case No. P-209-030716-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 Airgas violated the Rules by posting a letter critical of Bucalo and removing a notice of election.

            Election Supervisor representative Lia Lockert investigated this protest.

Findings of Fact and Analysis

            Airgas Great Lakes is an employer under the jurisdiction of Local Union 100.  Its collective bargaining agreement with the local union expired on November 30, 2015.  Members continued to work under the expired agreement as the employer and the union met to negotiate a successor agreement.  An initial meeting set for November 19 was canceled by the employer.  Thereafter, the parties met on December 9 and 10 and February 3 and 4.  Meetings set for January 6 and 7 were canceled by Bucalo because of his mother’s January 1 passing.  A March 1 meeting was also canceled by Bucalo because of his father’s emergency surgery.  The parties dispute whether negotiations were held on February 5 and, if not, which party was responsible for cancellation. 

            Through March 1, 2015, negotiations did not result in agreement on a successor collective bargaining agreement.  As a result, the union announced in a press release on March 1 that members had authorized a strike.  The employer responded with a “Notice to All Employees” dated March 4 announcing that it had learned from the union’s press release that the union may call a strike; the notice stated further that the employer intended to operate notwithstanding a strike, that employees who worked during the strike would be paid, that employees who withheld services during the strike might be permanently replaced, and that the employer would act lawfully at all times while not condoning violence or threats against its employees or property.  The notice began with the following paragraph:

Airgas has been negotiating with Teamsters Local 100 (the “union”) for a new contract for three months.  During that time, the union’s Secretary-Treasurer and Business Agent, Sam Bucalo, has canceled nearly half of the scheduled negotiating sessions.  The parties met on December 9 and 10, and February 3 and 4, but Bucalo canceled the sessions scheduled for January 6 and 7, February 5 and March 1, 2016; meanwhile Airgas only canceled one session: November 19.[1]

            Bucalo protests that the employer’s notice constituted impermissible employer interference in Local Union 100’s delegates and alternate delegates election because it “slanders” him for canceling bargaining sessions.  Article XI, Section 1(b)(2) bars employers from contributing to a candidate, “directly or indirectly, anything of value, where the purpose, object, or foreseeable effect of the contribution is [to] influence, positively or negatively, the election of a candidate.”  Bucalo contended that the employer’s notice that he canceled bargaining sessions placed him in an unfavorable light and negatively affected his delegate candidacy, and therefore constituted an employer campaign contribution in violation of the Rules

            We disagree.  The notice addressed only the impending strike involving Airgas employees and stated the employer’s position as to the responsibility that should be assigned to Bucalo for the cancellation of bargaining sessions.  It made no reference to the delegates and alternate delegates election or Bucalo’s delegate candidacy in that election.  We decline Bucalo’s invitation to construe the Rules’ prohibition on employer contributions so broadly as to make it impossible for an employer to communicate with its employees and criticize a union representative for the circumstances giving rise to a strike, where no mention is made in that communication of an election or that representative’s candidacy in it.

            The second element of Bucalo’s protest is that the employer removed the notice of delegates election from the bulletin board when it posted the pre-strike communication notice.  The board in question was not reserved for union communications.  Indeed, the local union did not have a bulletin board at Airgas that was reserved for its communications with its members.  Rather, the notice of election was posted on a general purpose bulletin board.

            Article II, Section 7(d) requires that “each Local Union shall post the Notice of Election on all Union bulletin boards …”  This posting is in addition to including the notice in the mail ballot package that is sent to each member.  At worksites where the local union does not have a “Union bulletin board,” the absence of a posted notice of election there does not violate the Rules.  The facts demonstrated that Local Union 100 did not have a bulletin board at Airgas, therefore Airgas’s removal of the notice of election from a general bulletin board there did not violate the Rules.

For these reasons, 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, 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 190

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