U.S. Department of Labor
Office of Labor-Management Standards
Division of Enforcement
Washington, DC 20210
(202) 693-0143 Fax: (202) 693-1343
May 12, 2011

Dear

This Statement of Reasons is in response to your complaint filed with the Department of
Labor on January 27, 2011, alleging that a violation of Title IV of the Labor-Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act (Act) occurred in connection with the election of officers
conducted by Local 87, Service Employees International Union, on September 30, 2010.

The Department of Labor conducted an investigation of your allegation. As a result of
the investigation, the Department has concluded, with respect to the specific allegation,
that there was no violation of the Act that may have affected the outcome of the
election. Following is an explanation of this conclusion.

You alleged that the union failed to properly count the ballots. Section 401(c) of the Act,
29, U.S.C. § 481(c), requires a union to have adequate safeguards in place to insure a fair
election. Courts have construed such safeguards as pertaining to the technical aspects
of conducting an election, including the ballot count and the vote tally. See also 29

C.F.R. § 452.110. You alleged that the ballot count for the officer races may have been
incorrect because of a problem with the computer program used to tabulate the ballots
for the executive board races.
However, the investigation disclosed that this problem was limited to the executive
board race. Further, the Department’s manual recount of the votes cast for the other
officer races showed only minor discrepancies between the union’s tally and the
Department’s tally. There was no evidence of ballot tampering or other election
improprieties. To the extent that there were minor differences between the union’s and
the Department’s vote count, these discrepancies would not have changed the election
results and, thus, could not have affected the outcome of the election. See 29 U.S.C. §
482(c).


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For the reasons set forth above, it is concluded that there was no violation of the Act
that may have affected the election outcome and I have closed the file on this matter.

Sincerely,

Patricia Fox
Chief, Division of Enforcement

cc:
Mary Kay Henry, President
Service Employees International Union
1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036
Olga Miranda, President
SEIU Local 87
240 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 41023

Beverly Dankowitz, Acting Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights and LaborManagement