Marshall v. Local 1010, United Steelworkers

• Decision Date: 06 August 1980
• Docket Number: Civ. No. H 77-64.
• Citation: 498 F. Supp. 368
• Parties: Ray MARSHALL, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff, v. LOCAL 1010, UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO, CLC, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

498 F. Supp. 368

Ray MARSHALL, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff, v. LOCAL 1010, UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO, CLC, Defendants.

Civ. No. H 77-64.

United States District Court, N. D. Indiana, Hammond Division.

August 6, 1980.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Andrew B. Baker, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Hammond, Ind., Herman Grant, Regional Sol., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Chicago, Ill., Beate Bloch, Associate Sol., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Joseph A. Yablonski and Daniel B. Edelman, Yablonski, Both & Edelman, Washington, D. C., Arthur A. Daronatsy, Gary, Ind., Judith R. Schneider, New York City, Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. and John Silard, Rauh, Silard & Lichtman, Washington, D. C., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM DECISION

McNAGNY, District Judge.

Invoking § 402(b) of Title IV of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 73 Stat. 534, 29 U.S.C. § 482(b), the Secretary of Labor ("the Secretary") brought this action asking the Court to set aside an election held by Local 1010, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO ("the Union") and to mandate that a new election be held. The Secretary alleges that the April 8, 1976 election of the officers of defendant local was not held in a manner consistent with the procedural prescriptions of § 401 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 481. In three particulars the Secretary charges that the election was conducted in violation of the statute: 1) votes were not cast by secret ballot, 2) a number of unused ballots were burned shortly after the election, and 3) adequate safeguards to insure a fair election as identified in 29 U.S.C. § 481(c) were not provided. The defendant agrees with the Secretary that the April 8, 1976 election was conducted in a manner inconsistent with the dictates of § 401 but for reasons described herein argues that the election should not be set aside.

Each party has moved for summary judgment. Before ruling on the motions, the history of the election and ensuing events can be stated briefly.

I. Findings of Fact

In 1970, James Balanoff ran for the Presidency of the Union and lost. In 1973, Balanoff ran for the Presidency against Henry "Babe" Lopez and again lost. The 1973 contest was relatively close. Balanoff was the leader and candidate of the Rank-and-File Caucus, a political organization of union members. The Rank-and-File Caucus had been in existence since 1958 and was quite active. Regular meetings of the membership of the Caucus were held, a Caucus newspaper was published, and candidates for union positions were slated and supported. Members of the Rank-and-File were often critical of leaders of the International.

Lopez was Financial Secretary of the Union from 1962 to 1973. In 1973, he headed the Combined Caucus and was elected as its candidate to the Presidency of the Union. The Combined Caucus was a collection of union members who had previously belonged to older caucuses. Among the organizations with which many Combined Caucus members had been earlier aligned were the Steelworkers for Progress, the Concerned Steelworkers, the Solidarity Slate, and the Unity Slate. The Combined Caucus and its predecessor organizations had often supported positions taken by the officers and district directors of the International, the United Steelworkers of America.

The hostility between the Rank-and-File Caucus and the Combined Caucus was exacerbated by the rise of Edward Sadlowski to leadership in District 31, the district in which defendant is located. In February, 1973, Sadlowski, with the support of Balanoff and the Rank-and-File Caucus ran for the position of District Director of District 31. Lopez and the Combined Caucus backed Samuel Evett. Evett won the 1973 election. The election was found to have been conducted in violation of § 401, however, and when the Secretary supervised a rerun election in 1974, Sadlowski won handily. In the rerun election, Balanoff and the Rank-and-File Caucus remained firm in their support of Sadlowski while Lopez with the Combined Caucus continued to support Evett.

In April, 1976, many of the incumbent Local 1010 officers were members of the Combined Caucus. In the April, 1976 election for Local 1010 officers, the Rank-and-File Caucus challenged the leadership of Lopez and those other incumbent officeholders who were members of the Combined Caucus. Each of the two caucuses ran a full slate of candidates. Sadlowski, then District Director for District 31 supported the Rank-and-File slate. A number of important employees of the International, including I. W. Abel, then President of the International, backed the slate of candidates put forward by the Combined Caucus.

A committee was chosen to supervise the election. While consisting of 87 members, those committee members loyal to the Rank-and-File Caucus numbered only about seven. The vast majority of the Election Committee supported Lopez and the Combined Caucus. From the Election Committee, a chairman, a vice-chairman, and a secretary were chosen. Martin Connelly was chosen to be Chairman of the Election Committee. At the time he was selected as Chairman, Connelly was the editor of the Union's newspaper. The editorship was a salaried, patronage position and one to which Connelly had been appointed by Lopez. Connelly regularly attended meetings of the Combined Caucus until he was named Chairman.

Woodrow Rancifer was chosen as Vice-Chairman of the Election Committee. Rancifer had been a member of the Combined Caucus since about 1976 and was a supporter of Lopez. Lopez had appointed Rancifer to the post of Chairman of the Local 1010 Committee on Political Education, a paid patronage job. While serving as Vice-Chairman of the Election Committee, Rancifer also served as Chairman of the COPE Committee.¹

Like Connelly and Rancifer, Loreto Gonzalez was a crony of Henry Lopez. In fact, Gonzalez was Lopez's brother-in-law. Gonzalez became Secretary of the Election Committee. Prior to the 1976 election, Gonzalez had run for union office as a candidate on the Combined Caucus slate.

Shortly after being chosen as Chairman, Connelly took charge of the election and told Rancifer that since Connelly would have to take responsibility for the election, Connelly would give orders and Rancifer was to obey them. Pursuant to this stated philosophy, Connelly selected without consulting the Election Committee, an election captain for each polling site.² Each election captain chosen by Connelly was a supporter of the Combined Caucus and of Lopez. Each election captain was charged with supervising the activities of the Election Committee members working at his or her site and with instructing the Election Committee members under his or her captaincy in such of their duties as related to voter identification and voting by secret ballot.

The bylaws of the Union prescribed that the Election Committee was to elect three individuals to a special subcommittee. The members of the subcommittee were to be in attendance at the tabulation of the ballots and thereby were to serve a watchdog function. Each candidate for President was given by the bylaws the right to nominate an individual to be a member of the subcommittee. Balanoff paid a personal visit to Connelly and told him that he wished to nominate a Mr. Carpenter to the subcommittee. Although the bylaws did not prescribe the manner in which a Presidential candidate was to exercise his or her right to nominate, Connelly required that a nomination be submitted in writing before it could be accepted. Connelly claims that prior to the meeting at which the Election Committee was informed of the nominees and was asked to select the subcommittee, he did not tell anyone that he required that nominations had to be in writing.³ Even so, Lopez submitted in writing the name of his nominee. Balanoff did not submit a written nomination. Lopez's nominee was named to the subcommittee. Balanoff's nominee was rejected.

On April 5, 1976, a meeting of the Election Committee and voting site captains was held. Storage of the ballots and the procedure by which votes would be identified on election day were discussed. Those present also determined that one voting booth would be installed at each voting site.

Over a period of twelve hours on April 8, 1976, the election of officers of Local 1010 was held. At the time of the election, Connelly and Lopez were both aware that the Department of Labor believed that federal law required that voting proceed in such a fashion that no voter be identified as the caster of any particular vote. Each was also aware that the failure to provide compartments at the polling sites into which individuals could go to cast their votes privately was one reason why the February, 1973 election for Director of District 31 had been overturned. Even so, at each polling site there was one voting booth at most and a number of tables at which votes could be cast. The membership of Local 1010 on April 8, 1976 numbered approximately 17,000.

Throughout the morning of April 8, 1976, many individuals walked into the voting sites to cast their votes carrying green cards on which the Rank-and-File slate of candidates was identified. At about one o'clock p. m. Dale Branson, a poll captain and a Combined Caucus enthusiast, spoke to Balanoff. Branson told Balanoff that Balanoff would win the election and then added:

Jim, you ain't going to be installed. The election is all screwed up already. We already have plans to go to the Labor Department. A new election is guaranteed.

At about three o'clock p. m., Henry Lopez confronted Balanoff at the North Gate at the Plant Number 2 balloting site. Lopez then told Balanoff that Balanoff would "never sit in the President's chair." Still later on election day, Raymond Lopez, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Election Committee, told Balanoff: "You might get in, but you will be out. This election is going to be out."

When the polls were closed, Connelly along...