OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: LAUREN BUISSON & ) Protest Decision 2016 ESD 234
JUAN GARCIA, ) Issued: June 7, 2016
) OES Case No. P-202-030316-FW
Protestors. )
____________________________________)
Lauren Buisson and Juan Garcia, members of Local Union 2010, 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 Local Union 2010 violated the Rules by obtaining pre-publication access to a campaign email that was to be distributed to the local union membership.
Election Supervisor representative Deborah Schaaf investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Local Union 2010 is comprised of employees of the University of California system. The local union conducted the nominations meeting for its delegates and alternate delegates election on January 23, 2016. Nominated were a full slate comprised of six delegate and three alternate delegate candidates and a partial slate of two delegate candidates and one alternate delegate candidate. The protestors here were delegate candidates on the Team Rank & File slate, the partial slate. The full slate, named the Team 2010 Unity slate, was comprised of local union officials and chapter coordinators.
The local union has access to and uses a comprehensive email list for communication with its members. The Rules permit use of such an email list by candidates for delegate, alternate delegate, and International office. Article VII, Section 7(d) provides for email distribution of campaign material, viz.
The Union shall honor reasonable requests by candidates for distribution of literature through electronic mail. Requests for the distribution of literature by electronic mail shall be governed by the same rules applicable to the distribution of literature by mail under this Section. … Campaign literature distributed through electronic mail shall clearly state that it is campaign literature, the contents of which are not endorsed by the Union. The manner of distribution of candidate literature by electronic mail shall be subject to such Advisory or further guidelines as may be established by the Election Supervisor for the purposes of facilitating distribution of literature by electronic mail, protecting the confidentiality of electronic mail addresses, and protecting the privacy of electronic mail recipients.
Article VII, Section 7(f) states further in part that “[t]he Union may not censor, regulate, alter or inspect the contents of any candidate’s campaign literature.”
Local Union 2010 entered into an arrangement with Big Rig Media, a vendor, to process blast emailing of campaign literature in the local union’s delegates and alternate delegates election. Both slates used Big Rig to make email campaign blasts to the local union leadership on March 1, 2016.
The protest alleged that Melissa Munio, chief of staff of Local Union 2010, requested and received a copy of the Rank and File slate’s campaign email from Big Rig before it was blasted, and did so for the purpose of communicating its content to Jason Rabinowitz, the principal officer of Local Union 2010 and leader of the Team 2010 Unity Slate.
Investigation showed that on February 29, 2016, Munio requested and received a proof copy of the Rank and File Slate’s campaign literature from Big Rig. She told our investigator she did so to “ensure compliance with the [local union’s] Policy for Electronic Distribution of Campaign Literature,” which, consistent with our Advisory, required a disclaimer be included that indicated that the literature was campaign material that was not endorsed by the local union. When she received the proof of Rank and File’s email literature, Munio made a correction to the disclaimer, which had used slightly different language than was required by the local union campaign email policy. Munio denied sharing the contents of Rank and File’s campaign email with the Team 2010 Unity slate, and there is no evidence to the contrary.[1]
We decline to find that Munio’s conduct constituted a violation of Article VII, Section 7(f), for the reason that her inspection of the Rank and File email proof was limited to the official disclaimer required to be included and because she did not engage in any action or conduct that revealed the substance of the campaign message to any other person or party.
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
2016 ESD 234
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
Lauren Buisson
teamsterlauren@gmail.com
Juan Garcia
UCTeamsterRankandFile@gmail.com
Teamsters Local Union 2010
400 Roland Way, Suite 2010
Oakland, CA 94621
jrabinowitz@teamsters2010.org
jcarrington@teamsters2010.org
Deborah Schaaf
1521 Grizzly Gulch
Helena, MT 59601
dschaaf@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
214 S. Main Street, Suite 210
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
EllisonEsq@aol.com
[1] Nothing in the blast campaign emails that the Team 2010 Unity slate issued demonstrates that any message referred to or responded to any assertion made in the Rank and File slate campaign email.