cc: Ms. Sonia Canchola, President
Postal Workers CAL 4635
129 East A Street
Upland, CA 91786
Mr. Mark Dimondstein, President
American Postal Workers Union
1300 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
Christopher Wilkinson, Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights Labor Management
the election was high with 1,216 ballots cast. The investigation did not support your allegation that members who made requests for duplicate ballots were not mailed ballots. There was no violation.
Under Section 402(a) of the LMRDA, a member of a local organization who has exhausted the remedies available under the constitution and bylaws of such organization and of any parent body may file a complaint with the Secretary of Labor within one calendar month. Article 12, Section 8 of the APWU Constitution provides that a post-election protest must be filed with the election committee within 72 hours after the grievance arises. Any appeal of the election committee decision must be appealed to the National Election Committee (NEAC) in writing within 5 days of receipt of the decision appealed from. The decision of the NEAC is final.
The investigation revealed that you filed a protest with the NEAC on April 25, 2014, alleging that some candidates campaigned on union time because they failed to submit their leave slips to the election committee by April 4, 2014. Also, on May 8, 2014, you filed a protest with the NEAC alleging that interfered with the April 18, 2014 ballot tally by his presence at the tally. Your protests of these issues were not timely filed because they were not filed within 72 hours after the grievance arose as required by the APWU Constitution. Consequently, you did not properly exhaust your internal remedies, and, as a result, the Secretary of Labor has no authority to consider the merits of these two protests. See 29 U.S.C. § 482.
You also wrote to the NEAC to complain of issues associated with the new officers terminating the local election committee after the election. None of these issues involved the conduct of the April 18, 2014 election. Consequently, they do not impact rights under Title IV of the LMRDA.
For the reasons set forth above, the Department has concluded that there was no violation of Title IV of the LMRDA that may have affected the outcome of the election, and I have closed the file regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Patricia Fox
Chief, Division of Enforcement
cc: Ms. Sonia Canchola, President
Postal Workers CAL 4635
129 East A Street
Upland, CA 91786
Mr. Mark Dimondstein, President
American Postal Workers Union
1300 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
Christopher Wilkinson, Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights and Labor-Management