to LIUNA members.
LIUNA Independent Hearing Officer/Election
Officer
Peter Vaira, Esq
LIUNA GEB ATTORNEY
AUSA David Buvinger
DRAFT Complaint
DOL-OLMS (Cleveland) by Fax
Re: request for mail in ballots for Local 423
Dear Mr. Vaira;
On behalf of Robert Bush, member in good standing of local
423 now in a nursing home recuperating from injuries suffered
from a fall from a scaffold, I hereby request that you issue an order
to local 423 to provide an absentee mail in ballot to Robert Bush and
to any other member of 423 who states that he desires to vote by
absentee
ballot. (Especially the 4% who Pat Fox of OLMS states live more than
100 miles from Columbus- recent elections in 423 have been decided
by 17 votes and 4% of 1700 can decide an election)
LIUNA's constitution and election rules provide that any member shall be
permitted
to vote by absentee ballot shall be permitted to do so if:
1) Such member is unable to vote in person on election day during voting
hours
due to such member's work or vacation schedule , illness, injury, or
obligation
to serve jury duty or fulfill military obligations;or
2) Such member lives and works more than 35 miles from the polling place:
or
3) For any other reason that the Election officer determines to be
appropriate:
I hereby serve notice that your election orders of November 25, 1998 and
Dec 4, 1998
will be appealed as well as the election procedures established and
mandated by
the Department of Labor-Office of Labor Management Standards in that they
violate
LIUNA's constitutions, Title 1 of the LMRDA, the due process clause of the
14 th
amendment of the U.S. States Constitution, numerous U.S. Supreme Court
opinions
and are violative of the terms of the "Operating Agreement"
signed Feb. 13. 1995 wherein
the U.S. States and LIUNA agreed to "institute other
reforms".
The contingent consent decree outlines the reforms LIUNA is to implement,
one of which is
the use of mail in ballots for union elections. As third party
beneficiaries of this contract
between the U.S. DOJ and LIUNA, I , Robert Bush, and other members of LIUNA
expect
specific performance of the agreed upon reform objectives.
The electoral politics of Local 423 are controlled and influenced by
members of
organized crime.(Peter Fosco) Members of the existing General Executive
board consist of
persons who have been convicted of murdering a local 423 union member in
the very
hall where you propose to conduct an election without threats,
intimidation,perceptions of fear.
Check with the Department of Justice and you will discover that Donald
Haynie, Executive Board
member on the same June 1998 electoral slate as convicted felon Murphy, is
such a murderer.
Both Haynie and Murphy were inserted on orders of Peter Fosco,
an associate/member of organized crime . Having Murphy and Haynie on the
same
slate adversely Al Dunning's electoral chances contrary to what you found
.
Contrary to what you assert in your November 25, 1998 order, neither Al
Dunning or Darryl Smoot never retracted his complaint that Murphy was a felon
and never stated that Murphy's conviction had only been
a misdemeanor. Darryl Smoot states on oath that he provided the election
officers with a copy of the
court transcript that clearly showed Murphy's felony conviction and that
Peter Fosco as well as his international representatives were likewise
advised.
Contrary to your findings of fact, Article VI, Sec 4(b) does not cover
special meetings of a local's general executive board for combining positions of
Secretary/ treasurer and Delegate to the district council. That is covered by
Article VI, sec 4(d). DOL-OLMS investigations will show, we contend, that the
minutes were"doctored" similar to the doctoring performed by Hugh Arnold for
Chicago Laborers District Council in the phony election for Joseph A. Lombardo,
Jr.
Recently, LIUNA and DOJ extended the monitorship period. Reform minded
members of LIUNA demand free, fair, honest elections and we formally request you
to issue an order to DOL that absentee ballots be provided in a local union
where the concept and practice of "Union democracy' is dead (Professor
Summers testimony "Chicago Laborers District Council Trusteeship
Hearings". Check out the attendance records for a local with more than 1700
members and you will be fortunate to have more than 50 members attending any
meeting- a practice which suits organized crime just fine because the less the
members know how organized crime rapes the union, the less likihood they will be
caught.
It is our position that the only officer automatically elected as a
district council delegate is the local's business manager. Combinations of
office have to be clearly announced to and voted on by the membership. This was
not done at the nomination meeting of local 423 on April 29, 1998.
Local 423 disregarded your order of November 25, 1998 that the membership
is to be notified of the rerun election for delegate to District Council, unless
you call posting your order on a door nobody goes through notification. None was
told the reason for the rerun election (because organized crime inserts
ex-felons
on local 423's executive board and because reformers like Smoot, Motil, and
Dunning caught them)
