Protest Decisions

OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR

for the

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

IN RE: SEAN MASON,                               )           Protest Decision 2021 ESD 95

                                                                        )           Issued: March 30, 2021

Protestor.                                           )           OES Case No. P-112-031621-SO

____________________________________)

Sean Mason, member of Local Union 385, 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 business agents Randy Collins and Rom Dulskis campaigned during a shop steward election, in violation of the Rules.

Election Supervisor representative Dolores Hall investigated this protest.

Findings of Fact and Analysis

Local Union 385 will elect 10 delegates and 3 alternate delegates to the IBT convention.  Two full slates and 1 independent candidate are competing for these positions.  The OZ Teamsters United Local 385 slate is headed by Mason, the protestor here.  The Teamsters Unite! Stronger Contracts slate is comprised in part by employees of the local union.

Ballots were mailed to members on March 2, 2021 and are to be counted April 1, 2021.  On March 16, protestor Mason learned that, on March 4, the steward election that is the subject of this protest was held in the employer’s parking lot where members park their vehicles at the UPS facility in Daytona FL. 

Randy Collins has business agent responsibility for the UPS facility in Daytona FL.  He is also a delegate candidate on the Teamsters Unite! Stronger Contracts slate.  He told our investigator that he decided to conduct a steward election for full-time employees there and informed members of his decision in late February 2021.  He announced that any full-time member who advised him of interest in being a steward would be listed on the ballot.  Four members responded.  They were the incumbent stewards, Brian Heath and Ray Cortini, and two other members, Frank Corrigan and John Thomas.  Collins initially scheduled the election for March 3; he was unable to conduct it that day, so he moved it to the next, March 4.  Voting took place in the employee parking lot before and after the day shift.

Corrigan told our investigator that the steward election on March 4 was the first time in his 15 years employed at UPS-Daytona that such an election had been held.  Daniel Gibbs confirmed that no such election had been held in his 18 or 19 years there. 

The employee parking lot at UPS-Daytona is situated across a drainage ditch from the hub.  It is accessed by a concrete sidewalk approximately 5 feet wide that leads to a wooden bridge, approximately 40 feet long, spanning the ditch.  On March 4, campaigners supporting Collins’ slate in the delegate election were positioned at the end of the bridge on the parking lot side of the ditch; they distributed campaign literature and solicited members as they walked toward the table where Collins conducted the stewards election.  The estimate of the distance from the campaigners to the election table varied, depending on the witness, from 30 feet to 100.  Collins denied that he personally campaigned during the stewards election.  He conceded, however, that members of his slate, including Rom Dulskis, conducted campaign activity addressed to the delegate election during the stewards election.  Collins, performing his business agent function, was on union-paid time.  The delegate election campaigners were off-duty.

In conducting the election, Collins did not obtain a list of members employed at the site from the local union to use as an election control roster; he did not require any voter to sign in or otherwise establish his/her eligibility to vote; and he took no steps to prevent any person from voting more than once, other than to rely on his own recollection of who had voted.  Instead, he simply issued a ballot for the full-time stewards election to anyone approaching his table wearing a brown uniform.[1] The tally of votes in the full-time stewards election showed 23 for Thomas, 22 for Corrigan, and 7 each for the incumbent stewards, Heath and Cortini.  Despite this result, Collins reappointed the incumbents as stewards.  Collins told Corrigan that he believed Corrigan had too little experience to serve as steward, despite his 7 years as a driver.  Collins said that he named Thomas, who garnered the most votes, as a “steward trainee” under Cortini and Heath.

The thrust of the protest is that Collins conducted the steward election, a union function, to benefit his candidacy and that of his slate in the delegates and alternate delegates election.  For the following reasons, we agree.  The full-time stewards election was held during the balloting period in the delegates election and, according to witnesses, had never occurred before.  The logistics of the polling were laid out to require employees to pass through a chokepoint of delegate election campaigners distributing flyers for delegate candidate Collins on the way to the steward balloting location staffed by business agent Collins.  Moreover, the stewards election was a sham, as the candidates who polled the most votes were disqualified after-the-fact because of Collins’ arbitrary assessment that they lacked sufficient experience to perform the function.  Furthermore, Collins reappointed the incumbent stewards, even though they polled the fewest votes by more than a three-to-one margin—a tally that signified their co-workers’ lack of confidence in their representational abilities.  Collins’ intention not to honor the results of the election was signaled before the fact by his failure to limit voting only to those persons who were members of the local union.  With this failure and the other circumstances we have identified, we conclude that Collins set up and conducted the stewards election to create the opportunity for face-to-face interaction with members, and to give his slate members the opportunity to campaign to them as they proceeded to what Collins told them – and they believed – was an election of the stewards who would represent them on the shop floor.  This behavior violates Article VII, Section 12(c) because it constitutes use of the apparatus of the union to support the campaign efforts of Collins and his slate.

Accordingly, we GRANT the protest.

Remedy

When the Election Supervisor determines that the Rules have been violated, he “may take whatever remedial action is deemed appropriate.”  Article XIII, Section 4.  In fashioning the appropriate remedy, the Election Supervisor views the nature and seriousness of the violation as well as its potential for interfering with the election process.  “The Election Supervisor’s discretion in fashioning an appropriate remedy is broad and is entitled to deference.”  Hailstone & Martinez, 10 EAM 7 (September 14, 2010).

            We order Collins and the Teamsters Unite! Stronger Contracts slate to cease and desist from using union resources to support their campaign activity.

            As noted, the ballot count in Local Union 385’s delegates and alternate delegates election is scheduled for April 1, 2021.  We reserve further remedy pending a determination as to whether Collins’ conduct may have affected the results of the election.  To assess that effect, we direct that ballots for members employed at the UPS-Daytona facility be tallied and reported separately.

            A remedial order of the Election Supervisor is immediately effective, unless stayed.  Lopez, 96 EAM 73 (February 13, 1996).

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 95

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

Sean Mason

Seanlmason16@gmail.com

Teamsters Local Union 385

Michael McElmury, Trustee

mmcelmury@teamster.org

Randy Collins

rcollins@local385.org

Maralin Falik

maralin@voteges.com

Dolores Hall

dhall@ibtvote.org

Jeffrey Ellison

EllisonEsq@gmail.com