Office and Professional Employees International Union - 2008 (local Union) Election

2008 (local Union) Election

In 2008, one of the international's local union offices, OPEIU, Local 30, had its first contested election (which become the most publicized election challenges in OPEIU's history due to the challenging candidate's web site, OPEIUVoice, their contacting the international union's president, secretary treasurer and each executive board member, individually, by postal mail and their contacting the United States Department of Labor). Candidates David Kessinger, Donald Murphey, and Dustin Teske vied for the positions of Executive Director, President and Executive Board (respectively) and challenged the outcome of the election based on numerous factors, the primary factor being that all of the incumbents were permitted to campaign on company property but none of the challenging candidates were afforded the same opportunity. In fact, each of the three challenging candidates on the "New Strengths, New Direction" slate were informed by the corporate compliance officer at their place of work that they were EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN from campaigning AT ANY TIME on company property, for the union positions for which they were running. In accordance with the international union's constitution and bylaws and national labor laws, the challenging slate appealed to the local union's executive board (and received no response), then to the international's executive board (and received no response), then to the international President and finally to the United States Department of Labor (DOL). The DOL completed an investigation and confirmed that the challenging candidates were told by the corporate compliance officer at their place of employment that they were not permitted to campaign AT ANY TIME, on company property and that the incumbents were permitted to campaign on company property (and did). However, the DOL refused to overturn the results of the election or order a new election as requested by the challengers. The entire process has been documented and is available here.