OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: DEREK CORREIA ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 73
and GENARO VENTURA, ) Issued: March 5, 2021
) OES Case No. P-089-022621-FW
Protestors. )
____________________________________)
Derek Correia and Genaro Ventura, members of Local Union 542, 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 Local Union 542 violated the Rules by posting a notice of nominations meeting results one day later than prescribed.
Election Supervisor representative Michael Miller investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Local Union 542 will elect 10 delegates and 6 alternate delegates to the IBT convention. The Members for Members 542 slate, comprised of rank-and-file members, is competing against the Teamsters 542 Members First slate, consisting of local union officials and rank-and-file members.
The protest alleged that the notice of nominations meeting results was not posted on the union bulletin board at US Foods in Vista CA when protestor Ventura checked the board at 4:43 p.m. PST on Thursday, February 25, 2021. The protestors contend the notice should have been posted no later than Wednesday, February 24. Investigation established that the notice was posted at US Foods at 7:15 p.m. PST on February 25, approximately 2½ hours after Ventura’s observation. The protest was filed February 26 at 10:17 p.m. PST. The protestors seek a remedy requiring the opposing slate to pay the costs of a campaign mailing by the Members for Members 542 slate to employees at the US Foods location, arguing that the failure to post timely resulted in diminished visibility for 2 slate members employed there. Ballots are to be mailed March 18 and counted April 14.
The nominations meeting was held Tuesday, February 16, 2021. The slate declaration the Members for Members 542 slate submitted was invalid.[1] The slate leader, Derek Correia, stated that the 16 candidates his group had nominated intended to run as a slate and that a valid slate declaration would be submitted. Based on that representation, a provisional ballot placement lottery between the two slates was conducted, to be honored only if a valid slate declaration was submitted to replace the invalid one.
Article VIII, Section 1(c) requires that slate declarations in local union delegates and alternate delegates elections be submitted no later than 3 days after the nominations meeting. The Members for Members 542 slate submitted a valid slate declaration to replace the invalid one after noon on Friday, February 19, 2021, the third day after the nominations meeting. The valid slate declaration listed the candidates in a different order than had appeared on the collection of pages that previously had been submitted.
Article II, Section 6 requires the notice of nominations meeting results be posted on all worksite bulletin boards as soon as possible but not later than 5 days after the nominations meeting. To emphasize the urgency of submitting the valid slate declaration promptly, our representative informed the protestors that the time for posting the notice would not begin to run until the valid slate declaration was received. The alternative was to post a notice showing protestors and their fellow candidates as unaffiliated candidates, which they did not desire. Nonetheless, in the days that followed the nominations meeting, protestor Correia resisted the need to submit a valid slate declaration before finally submitting it near the deadline for doing so on the third day.
Once the Members for Members 542 submitted the valid declaration, the notice of nominations meeting results form was prepared,[2] late in the day on Friday, February 19. Business agents received it on Monday, February 22 and were instructed to post it at the worksites they serviced. Shelly Allsup is the business agent for US Foods. Allsup is not a candidate in the delegates and alternate delegates election. She was unexpectedly out sick on Monday and Tuesday, February 22 and 23, with a serious condition. She returned to work Wednesday, February 24, at which point she received the notices for posting. She posted notices that day and the next, making the US Foods posting on February 24 at 7:15 p.m. PST.
Protestor Ventura saw the posting on February 25. Nonetheless, the protest was filed on February 26. Protestor Correia told our investigator that “a day late is a day late.”
We DENY this protest for several reasons. First, the posting was made when it was in part because the Members for Members 542 slate did not submit a valid slate declaration until February 19. Had they prepared their initial declaration properly, the notice would have been prepared, and been available for posting, sooner. We note that the alleged “loss of visibility” the protestors claim to have suffered because the posting here was made on February 25 rather than February 24 was clearly not the slate’s concern as it resisted preparing and submitting a valid slate declaration. Article XIII, Section 1 states that “[n]o protest of any person or entity shall be considered if such person or entity … caused or significantly contributed to the situation giving rise to such protest.” We conclude that the protestors contributed to the harm they claim to have suffered by not submitting a valid slate declaration initially, and then by taking 3 days to prepare and submit an effective slate declaration.
Second, we conclude that the local union and its business agent acted diligently and in good faith in making the postings, and that the business agent completed the posting at US Foods with dispatch, given her personal circumstances.
Third, to the extent the posting at US Foods was late by one day, that delayed posting disadvantaged both slates equally. This is not a case where the members who work at that location were notified that one slate was running but not the other.
Fourth, we find that the posting was completed at US Foods three weeks before ballots are to be mailed. This is not a case where a candidate can legitimately cry disadvantage, especially where that candidate is employed at the location where the notice was posted a day late. Under these circumstances, the protestors have no basis to seek the extraordinary remedy of a campaign mailing paid for by the opposing slate (not the local union, which had the responsibility of making the posting), where the harm of the delayed posting is insignificant at most and is more the fault of the slate’s own failure to prepare and submit a valid slate declaration in the first instance than it is the blame of a business agent acting diligently and in good faith.
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
2021 ESD 73
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
Derek Correia
Dmcorreia13@aol.com
Genaro Ventura
genarolfventura@gmail.com
Jaime Vasquez
jvasquez@teamsters542.org
Michael Miller
Miller.michael.j@verizon.net
Deborah Schaaf
dschaaf@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com
[1] To establish mutual consent to run as a slate with all other slate members, the slate declaration must list the names of all slate members before the first slate member signs his/her name. Article VIII, Section 1(b). Slate declarations may be signed in counterpart, provided that the page a member signs lists all slate members. Ostrach, 2005 ESD 43 (December 30, 2005). The slate declaration the Members for Members 542 slate submitted consisted of 8 pages, no single page of which listed the names of all members of the slate. Instead, the first page listed the names and showed the signatures of 9 candidates, and each of the remaining 7 pages listed one candidate each, with the signature of that candidate. Because the signer of any given page had not, by his/her signature, established his/her consent to run with any person whose name did not appear on the page he/she signed, the collection of pages did not constitute a valid slate declaration and had to be redone.
[2] The notice could not be prepared in advance of receiving the valid slate declaration because the notice had to list the candidates in the order they appeared on the declaration. The slate declaration the Members for Members 542 slate submitted on February 19 showed the candidates in a different order than on the initial, invalid slate declaration.