OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: BRADLEY SHOWALTER ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 90
and TIM BULAK, ) Issued: March 22, 2021
) OES Case Nos. P-099-030421-MW
Protestors. ) & P-101-030621-MW
____________________________________ )
Bradley Showalter and Tim Bulak, members of Local Union 710 and candidates for delegate on the Teamsters United for OZ slate, filed separate pre-election protests pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2020-2021 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election (“Rules”). Each protestor alleged he was excluded from the candidates meeting that followed the nominations meeting because he was not provided the Zoom link needed to attend.
Election Supervisor representative Joe Childers investigated these protests. They were consolidated for this decision.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Three full slates and no independent candidates are competing for 17 delegate and 10 alternate delegate positions at Local Union 710. The nominations meeting was conducted by Zoom commencing at 6:00 p.m. CST on February 19, 2021. Candidates and interested members registered for the meeting by completing a form on Local Union 710’s website prior to the meeting. The form required that they enter their names, email addresses, employer name and location, SSN4, and phone numbers. This information was reviewed by local union staff, who emailed Zoom links to registrants who were members.
Karen Burcham of Local Union 710 served as the Zoom host. She logged onto Zoom at 5:45 p.m. and admitted attendees to the meeting. Maralin Falik of GES presided at the meeting and commenced it at 6:00 p.m. Written and oral nominations were received for all candidates at the meeting, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, ending at approximately 6:30 p.m. CST. Some 62 persons attended, including Burcham, Falik, 3 OES staff members, and candidates and other members.
When all nominations were submitted, Falik announced that a candidates meeting would convene by Zoom shortly, using a separate Zoom link. Burcham emailed the link for the candidates meeting to all candidates for whom she had email addresses. Burcham served as Zoom host for the candidates meeting as well, opening the link at 6:40 p.m. and admitting participants to the meeting. The business of the candidates meeting convened at approximately 6:45 p.m. and lasted until 7:02 p.m., with Falik again serving as the presiding official. The items she addressed included observers’ rights, the procedure for distributing campaign material to members using the local union’s membership list, and the lottery for ballot placement of the slates. When the meeting convened, 34 persons were logged in, including Burcham, Falik, OES staff members, and candidates. An additional 4 persons logged in during the meeting, and 5 attempted to join the meeting in the 10 minutes after it had ended.
Showalter and Bulak participated in the nominations meeting but not the candidates meeting. Both protested that they did not receive the link to the candidates meeting. Investigation showed that the Zoom link was not sent to Showalter. Burcham used email addresses listed on the candidate information sheets submitted by each slate to compile the list of persons to whom the candidates meeting link was sent. Although a candidate information sheet prepared by a representative of the Teamsters United for OZ slate was submitted for Showalter, no email address was listed on the sheet for him. Burcham did not send him an email containing the Zoom link for this reason.
Bulak received the link at the email address listed on his candidate information sheet but did not notice it immediately. It was time-stamped 6:37 p.m., ahead of the 6:45 p.m. start of the meeting. When he found the link and attempted to log in at 7:07 p.m., the meeting had ended.
When the candidates meeting commenced at 6:45 p.m., Falik asked the lead delegate candidate on each slate for his consent to proceed, even though not all candidates had logged on. Each consented.
Candidates meeting are intended to be open to all candidates and to address the issues Falik handled at the meeting here. Local Union 710, the Zoom host, attempted to invite all candidates by sending a link to the meeting to them. It succeeded with all candidates except Showalter. Although the registration Showalter completed to attend the nominations meeting included his email address, Zoom host Burcham prepared the broadcast email invite for the candidates meeting using the candidate information sheets each slate submitted, and Showalter’s email address was not included on his sheet.
With respect to Bulak, we find he was sent the invite timely.
Article IX, Section 1(b) states that “[e]ach candidate on a slate shall be deemed to be represented by each and every other candidate on that slate.” Although Showalter was not able to log onto the candidates meeting, at least 4 other members of his slate, including the lead delegate candidate, attended and participated.
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. 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 90
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
Bradley Showalter
la.famigliacanecorso@gmail.com
Tom Bulak
Taboo1968.tb@gmail.com
Doug Holler
Dougholler710@gmail.com
Teamsters Local Union 710
election@teamsters710.org
mcales@teamsters710.org
Maralin Falik
maralin@voteges.com
Joe Childers
jchilders@ibtvote.org
William Broberg
wbroberg@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
EllisonEsq@gmail.com