OFFICE OF THE ELECTION SUPERVISOR
for the
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
IN RE: GREG EDENS, ) Protest Decision 2021 ESD 110
) Issued: April 30, 2021
Protestor. ) OES Case No. P-136-041521-MW
____________________________________)
Greg Edens, member of Local Union 710, 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 710 employee Joanne Lizak violated the Rules by campaign on union-paid time and union property.
Election Supervisor representative Joe Childers investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Local Union 710 will elect 17 delegates and 10 alternate delegates to the IBT convention. Three full slates are competing in the election. Ballots were mailed March 23, 2021 and will be counted April 30, 2021.
Protestor Edens is a delegate candidate. His protest alleged that Joanne Lizak made campaign posts to Facebook while at work.
Lizak is a TITAN operator for Local Union 710. On April 13, she took her break and stepped outside to make a personal phone call. While outside, she checked Facebook and noticed a post made by the Cales/Schaeffer 710 Members First slate. The post urged members to vote for the slate and, if they had not received their ballots, to call or email the election vendor to request one. Lizak supports the Cales/Schaeffer slate. She told our investigator that she shared the Facebook post with a number of Facebook pages she to which she has access. She used her personal phone to do so.
Article VII, Section 12(a) of the Rules prohibits campaigning on employer-paid time. However, “campaigning during … paid lunch hours or breaks, or similar paid time off is not a violation of this section.” The protestor’s contention is that Lizak could not campaign between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on workdays, which are her scheduled work hours. This contention does not square with the provision just cited. We credit Lizak that she shared the Facebook post while on paid break. There is no contrary evidence.
For these reasons, 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 110