U.S. Department of Labor
Office of Labor-Management Standards
Division of Enforcement
Washington, DC 20210
(202) 693-0143 Fax: (202) 693-1343
August 20, 2010
||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||
|||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||
||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||
Dear |||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||:
This Statement of Reasons is in response to your complaint filed on July 28, 2008, alleging that a violation of Title IV of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (“LMRDA” or “Act”), 29 U.S.C. § 481-484, occurred in connection with the United Steelworkers, Local 272, (“USW” or “Union”) election held on May 1, 2006.
The Department of Labor conducted an investigation of your allegations. Based on the results of that investigation, the Department entered into a voluntary settlement agreement with the USW on September 18, 2008 to supervise the next regularly scheduled election of officers for USW Local 272 prior to April 30, 2009. Steelworkers Local 272 agreed to conduct nominations and an election for the offices of President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, Financial Secretary, Treasurer, Guide, two (2) Guards, and three (3) Trustees which were challenged in the May 1, 2006 election.
Inasmuch as Local 272’s only employer, International Paper, closed the plant located in Bastrop, Louisiana at which the USW membership worked, the USW placed Local 272 under trusteeship as of February 17, 2009. Consequently, no supervised election was held because Local 272 remained in trusteeship until the USW terminated Local 272 on January 22, 2010, when it ceased to exist as a local.
For the reasons set forth above, I have closed the file regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Patricia Fox
Chief, Division of Enforcement
cc: Mr. Leo W. Gerard, International President
United Steelworkers
Five Gateway Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
Katherine Bissell, Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights and Labor-Management