Voluntary Compliance Agreements 2016

On October 27, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 48 (located in Portland, Ore.), to conduct a new election and installation of officers for the positions of business manager and president.  The Department of Labor investigation established that the mail ballot served as notice of the election in both the union’s initial and runoff elections.  Department of Labor regulations provide that where the mail ballot serves as notice of the election, ballots must be mailed to members no later than 15 days prior to the date the ballots must be mailed back in order to be counted.  In connection with the runoff election, the union allowed fewer than 15 days between the ballots being mailed to the members and the date in which the ballots had to be mailed back in order to be counted.  The new election is to be held no later than December 31, 2016.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS San Francisco-Seattle District Office.  

On October 21, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) District Lodge 141 (located in Elk Grove Village, Ill.), concerning the March 2016 election by acclamation of IAM DL 141 officers.  The union agreed to OLMS supervision of nominations and election for all IAM District Lodge 141 officer positions at the time of the DL 141 regularly scheduled election in 2018.  The investigation of the challenged election disclosed that members in good standing of DL 141 were denied the right to be candidates and to hold office because the district improperly applied a recently enacted bylaw provision changing the number of local lodge endorsements that nominees needed to become bona fide candidates from 4 to 10.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Chicago District Office.

On October 21, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 2336 (located in Washington, D.C.), concerning an election of officers conducted in October 2014.  CWA Local 2336 agreed to conduct its next regularly scheduled election under OLMS supervision.  The union agreed that the regularly scheduled nominations and election are to be conducted before October 31, 2017. The investigation concluded that the union failed to provide adequate safeguards to ensure a fair election in that it failed to secure unused ballots and returned undeliverable ballots, and that those ballots were accessible to candidates and members, in violation of Section 401(c) of the LMRDA.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Washington Office.

On September 13, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with the Art Directors Guild, International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 800 (located in Los Angeles, Calif.), concerning its December 2015 election of officers.  The investigation concluded that the union’s use of an electronic voting system may have violated the requirement for “secret ballot” election as defined by the LMRDA.  Apprised of these findings, the union agreed to conduct a mail ballot election for president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary on or before December 20, 2016, under OLMS supervision.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Los Angeles District Office.

On September 8, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 228 (located in Washington, D.C.), concerning an election of officers conducted in August 2015.  Council 228 agreed to hold a new election, including new nominations, for the offices of president, first vice president, treasurer, secretary, and vice president region two under OLMS supervision.  The investigation concluded that one Council 228 affiliated local failed to provide proper notice of delegate nominations.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Washington District Office.  

On September 2, 2016, OLMS accepted and entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 16 (located in San Francisco, Calif.), to conduct an election and installation for the office of executive board (nine positions) under OLMS supervision no later than November 30, 2016.  The investigation established that Local 16 improperly allowed a candidate to remain on the ballot for an executive board position even after said candidate had been elected by acclimation as vice president with a de facto seat on the executive board.  This candidate also received the highest number of votes in the executive board race which affected the entire race.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS San Francisco-Seattle District Office.  

On August 30, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 83 (located in New Orleans, La.), concerning an election of union officers conducted on April 18, 2016.  Local 83 agreed to hold a new election for the office of clerk craft delegate under OLMS supervision.  The investigation concluded that the union failed to send ballots to 77 members at least 15 days prior to the date when they needed to be mailed back in order to be counted.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Dallas-New Orleans Office.  

On July 7, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District Lodge 37 (located in Houston, Tex.), concerning an election of union officers conducted in January 2016.  District Lodge 37 agreed to hold new nominations and a new election for all contested offices under OLMS supervision.  The investigation concluded that the District Lodge 37 delegates failed to conduct the election of president/directing business representative in accordance with the District Lodge’s bylaws.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Dallas-New Orleans District Office.

On June 20, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with the Union Independiente Empleados Telefonicos (UIET), located in Rio Piedras, P.R., concerning an election of union officers conducted in April 2016.  The UIET agreed to conduct a new election and installation (and new nominations, if necessary) for the office of Metro Area Representative.  The UIET agreed that the new election will be conducted prior to October 18, 2016, under OLMS supervision.  The agreement to conduct a rerun turned on the investigative finding that the union failed to provide proper notice of election.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS New York District Office.

On June 10, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 390 (located in Albany, N.Y.), concerning its November 20, 2015 election of officers.  The OLMS investigation concluded that the union failed to mail a notice of election to members as required by Section 401(e) of the LMRDA.  The union agreed to conduct a new election for president and vice president, the only two contested positions, on or before December 1, 2016, under OLMS supervision.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Boston-Buffalo District Office. 

On June 3, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 505 (located in El Paso, Tex.), concerning the challenged election of officers conducted on November 24, 2015.  The union agreed to conduct new nominations, if necessary, and a new election for the positions of president, recording secretary, and one trustee, under OLMS supervision.  The investigation of the challenged election disclosed that the union failed to provide members with the right to vote when insufficient postage was placed on the return ballot envelopes, ballots were mailed late to a group of retiree members, and several ballots were not counted.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Dallas-New Orleans District Office.  

On May 10, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2595 (located in Yuma, Ariz.), concerning an election of union officers conducted in November 2015.  Local 2595 agreed to hold a new election, including new nominations, for all offices under OLMS supervision.  The investigation concluded that (1) the Local failed to conduct the election in accordance with its constitution and bylaws; (2) the Local failed to provide proper notice of nominations; and, (3) the Local denied members the right to vote by failing to update its membership list prior to mailing ballots.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Phoenix Resident Investigator Office. 

On May 10, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 496 (located in Richmond, Va.), concerning an election of union officers conducted in December 2015.  Branch 496 agreed to conduct a new election for the offices of president and vice president, prior to August 12, 2016, under OLMS supervision.  The investigation concluded that the branch denied members the right to vote in that duplicate ballot requests were not honored.  The investigation also found that the branch failed to maintain adequate safeguards to ensure a fair election in that voted ballots were picked up at the post office on multiple occasions and maintained at a private residence.  Additionally, the branch denied a candidate the right to have an observer at the mailing of the ballots and during multiple visits to the post office to pick up returned ballots.  Further, the branch failed to properly count the votes cast by members in that not all valid voted ballots were counted in the tally and ballots from eligible members were voided.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Washington District Office. 

On March 24, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with Art Directors Guild, International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 800 (located in Studio City, Calif.), concerning its December 2015 election of officers.  The investigation concluded that the union failed to conduct an election for 14 officer positions within the past three years as required by Section 401(b) of the LMRDA.  Apprised of these findings, the union agreed to conduct a mail ballot election for executive director, associate executive director, and 12 members of the Board of Directors on or before June 30, 2016, under OLMS supervision.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Los Angeles District Office.  

On March 4, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1199 (located at Nellis AFB, Nev.), concerning a challenged election of officers held in October 2015.  Local 1199 entered into a voluntary compliance agreement to hold a new election for all positions.  The OLMS investigation concluded that the local allowed an ineligible candidate to run for office.  The local also failed to provide adequate safeguards to ensure a fair election as the voting instructions stated ballots returned without a secret ballot envelope would not be counted, but voters were not provided a secret ballot envelope.  Additionally, the investigation could not establish that Local 1199 mailed ballots to every member because the local did not maintain any record of who was mailed a ballot.  Local 1199 agreed to hold a new election for all officer positions under OLMS supervision.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Los Angeles District Office.

On February 17, 2016, the Department entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Division 757 (located in Portland, Ore.), concerning an election of union officers conducted in June 2015.  Division 757 agreed to hold a new election for the offices of president/business representative and vice president/assistant business representative under OLMS supervision.  The investigation concluded that the union allowed ineligible candidates to run for office and allowed only certain candidates to use a union-created email list.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS San Francisco-Seattle District Office.  

On February 10, 2016, OLMS entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 241 (located in Chicago, Ill.), to conduct new nominations in February 2017 and a new election in March 2017 for all officer positions with terms ending in December 2019.  The investigation established that the membership list used for mailing the combined nomination/election notice (1) did not contain the names or addresses of 164 retired members, (2) did not contain the last known home address of 304 retired members, and (3) resulted in an unknown number of returned undeliverable election notices that the union made no effort to resend to members’ correct addresses and subsequently discarded (which resulted in a separate violation).  In all, 468 members may not have had notice of the election.  The notice violation may have affected the outcome of four races (president/business agent, 1st vice president, 2nd vice president, and financial & recording secretary treasurer), in which retiree members were eligible to vote.  The agreement follows an investigation by the OLMS Chicago District Office.  

Last Updated: 12-07-16