Officials of Teamsters Joint Council 16 have ordered a re-run of the officers’ election for Local 707, which represents truckers and Nassau County Off-Track Betting workers.
The results of the Nov. 2 election “were extraordinarily close, with all races being decided by margins of between three and 24 votes,” according to the council’s decision, which was sent to the two candidates for president on Dec. 18. More than 600 mail ballots were submitted.
Challenger’s 6-Vote Edge
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The incumbent president, Kevin McCaffrey, who is also a member of the Suffolk County Legislature, lost by six votes to retired challenger John Kelder, the decision said.
Mr. McCaffrey unseated Mr. Kelder in 1994 and has beaten him in elections since then.
At a hearing conducted by the council Dec. 10, Mr. McCaffrey said that 92 employees of two ambulance services were never included on the mailing list of eligible voters. Their employers did not provide signed dues-checkoff authorizations to the union until the last week in October and sent some but not all of the withheld dues, according to the decision. The employees’ names were not entered into the Teamsters computer system until after the ballots were mailed, the council said.
“McCaffrey contends that the employers are the principal culprits in causing the disenfranchisement because they attempted to hide these employees from the union,” the decision said. “The Joint Council believes that Local 707 knew or should have known about these employees well before the election and with ample time to allow them to participate…”
Looking for Bail-Out?
“In short,” the ruling continued, “this is a case where McCaffrey seeks relief from a disenfranchisement that occurr­ed because he and the remaining members of the Local 707 Executive Board failed to keep track of new members.”
The Local 707 election rules state that no member whose dues have been withheld by his employer after he or she has signed a checkoff authorization can be forbidden from voting or otherwise participating in elections, the decision said.
The council found that failure to provide ballots to the 92 employees was a violation of election rules, and added that given how close the races were, those 92 employees could have affected the results if allowed to vote.
Mr. McCaffrey also complained that Mr. Kelder’s supporters had broken election rules by campaigning for him during work time. Allegations were made that members wore anti-McCaffrey pins, campaign shirts and other paraphernalia while working and posted campaign material on bulletin boards.
Kelder’s Rebuttal
Mr. Kelder testified that he took steps to stop supporters from violating the rules. But he also said that Federal labor law allows people to wear campaign material at work and use “general-purpose” bul­le­tin boards for campaigning.
“After Kelder agreed to future compliance with the disputed election rule, he and/or his supporters disregarded that agreement and in doing so violated the rule against campaigning at work,” the decision said. “Moreover, given the tightness of the election results, the Joint Council finds that these violations could very well have affected the outcome of the election.”

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