OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: GRANT MAERTZ, ) Protest Decision 2020 ESD 27
) Issued: October 19, 2020
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-035-100920-FW
____________________________________)
Grant Maertz, member of Local Union 952, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2020-2021 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”). The protest alleged that the local union had failed to post the Notice of Local Union Election Plan Submission on all local union bulletin boards.
Election Supervisor representative Michael Miller investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Local Union 952 proposes to elect 12 delegates and 5 alternate delegates to the IBT convention. It submitted its proposed local union election plan (LUEP) to the Office of Election Supervisor (OES) on Tuesday, September 29, 2020. Under Article II, Section 4(e), the local union is required to post notice on all local union bulletin boards advising that the plan has been submitted to OES, that the proposed plan is available for review, and that interested members may submit comments on the plan to OES. The deadline for posting the notice is 5 days after submission. The deadline for submitting comments on the proposed plan is 15 days after submission.
Protestor Maertz alleged that two of seven bulletin boards at UPS Anaheim lacked the required notice. One of the boards is situated adjacent to the customer service counter and services 12 regular employees; the other is located in the well-trafficked Huntington Center station area, directly beneath the office of the manager of UPS Anaheim. With member Wayne Addison, Maertz observed that the required notice was missing from these boards on Tuesday, October 6, the seventh day after the proposed plan was submitted to OES and two days after the posting required by the Rules was to be completed. He sent a text message to local union business agent Nick Bruno at 6:27 p.m. PDT that day, advising that these boards were missing the notice and asking that the notice be posted there. Maertz received no response to his text message. When the notices were still not posted on Friday, October 9, Maertz filed this protest.
A Local Union 952 representative posted the required notice on the two boards at issue here by Tuesday, October 13, a fact confirmed by the protestor. Principal officer Eric Jimenez told our investigator that he, his slate, and his business agents assumed their current positions with the local union in January 2020 and were still identifying all local union bulletin board locations, including the boards at issue here. We note, however, that the local union listed a total of seven boards at UPS Anaheim on the proposed LUEP submitted to OES on September 29, 2020, and attested to by the principal officer. From that, we infer that the local union knew, or should have known, the location of the seven bulletin board at the time it submitted the plan. Given this fact, we do not accept Jimenez’s explanation that the local union staff was still in the process of identifying UPS Anaheim bulletin board locations at the time of this protest.
OES has received no other complaints alleging a failure by Local Union 952 to post required notices at Local Union 952. We have received no comments on the proposed LUEP from any member, including Maertz and Addison, both of whom told our investigator they intend to be candidates for delegate in the coming election.
With the posting on the two boards in response to this filing of the protest, we deem the protest RESOLVED. However, we remind Local Union 952 leadership that it must fulfill its obligation to post notices timely, and as required, for the 2021 IBT International Officers election.
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. Any party requesting a hearing must comply with the requirements of Article XIII, Section 2(i). All parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely in any such appeal upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Supervisor. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing, shall specify the basis for the appeal, and shall be served upon:
Barbara Jones
Election Appeals Master
IBTappealsmaster@bracewell.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, all within the time prescribed above. Service may be accomplished by email, using the “reply all” function on the email by which the party received this decision. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Barbara Jones
2020 ESD 27
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS NOTED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
braymond@teamster.org
Edward Gleason
egleason@gleasonlawdc.com
Patrick Szymanski
szymanskip@me.com
Will Bloom
wbloom@dsgchicago.com
Tom Geoghegan
tgeoghegan@dsgchicago.com
Rob Colone
rmcolone@hotmail.com
Barbara Harvey
blmharvey@sbcglobal.net
Kevin Moore
Mooregp2021@gmail.com
F.C. “Chris” Silvera
fitzverity@aol.com
Fred Zuckerman
fredzuckerman@aol.com
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
ken@tdu.org
Grant Maertz
Gmaertz952@gmail.com
Teamsters Local Union 952
Team952@aol.com
Ejiminez952@teamsters952.org
Joe Kaplon
jkaplon@wkclegal.com;
Liz Rosenfeld
erosenfeld@wkclegal.com;
Amanda Lively
alively@wkclegal.com
Michael Miller
Miller.michael.j@verizon.net
Deborah Schaaf
dschaaf@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com