Hodgson v. United Mine Workers of America

344 F. Supp. 17, 80 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3451, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13221
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided June 15, 1972·No. Civ. A. 662-70·Published·Cited by 37 cases

Opinion

OPINION

BRYANT, District Judge.

This action was instituted by the Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, as plaintiff, under Titles II and IV of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (29 U.S.C. § 401 et seq.), hereinafter referred to as the Act, 1 for a judgment declaring the election held by the United Mine Workers of America, hereinafter referred to as the defendant or the UMWA, on December 9, 1969, null and void and directing the conduct of a new election under the supervision of the plaintiff, and for an order directing and compelling defendant and its subordinate districts to maintain records as required by Section 206 of the Act (29 U.S.C. § 436).

On January 17, 1972, the United States Supreme Court granted Mike Trbovich, a member in good standing of the UMWA, leave to intervene in the Title IV aspects of this action under Rule 24(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Trbovich v. United Mine Workers of America, 404 U.S. 528, 92 S.Ct. 630, 30 L.Ed.2d 686 (1972), and he thereafter fully participated in this action, through counsel, as a party plaintiff. Defendant, an unincorporated association engaged in collective bargaining, is an international labor organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce within the meaning of the Act, and maintains a principal office at 900 — 15th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C., within the jurisdiction of this court.

Structurally the UMWA is a three-tiered organization composed of the International, Districts and Local unions. It has twenty-three districts and between 1290 and 1300 locals, with a total membership variously estimated to be between 193,000 and 200,000 in the United States and Canada. Of this number approximately 120,000 are actively engaged in mining coal and the remainder are retired pensioners. At the International level the president shares the responsibility of general supervision of the union with the International Executive Board. The districts are intermediate organiza *21 tions having supervision over the local unions within their geographical boundaries, thus constituting a direct link between the International and the locals, inasmuch as the International Executive Board members are chosen from the districts. Of the districts, only four are autonomous; two are semi-autonomous and the remainder are provisional districts. In autonomous districts the local union members elect both the district officers and the International Executive Board members. In semi-autonomous districts the officers are appointed by the International President and the International Executive Board member is elected by the local union members. In the provisional districts, i. e., those in trusteeship, the officers are appointed by the International President and the Executive Board members are elected by the International convention. The International President appoints the nominating committee which presents the slate of candidates for the International Executive Board to the convention, and there has never been any opposition to the slate presented to the convention by the nominating committee. Thus it appears that for all practical purposes the International Executive Board members are chosen by the president. The authority to hire and fire most of the district personnel and International representatives puts almost complete control of the entire union in the hands of the president.

On December 9, 1969 the defendant held a regularly scheduled election of International officers, i. e., president, vice-president, secretary-treasurer, auditors, and tellers. The defendant’s constitution requires that the election of International officers be conducted in each of its local unions, and clearly indicates that the local union election officials are agents of the International in the conduct of the election and accountable to it for any misconduct.

W. A. “Tony” Boyle, President, George J. Titler, Vice-President, and John Owens, Secretary-Treasurer, were candidates for reelection. On May 29, 1969 Joseph A. Yablonski publicly announced his candidacy for the presidency of the union, and the subsequent election campaign was primarily a bitter confrontation between him and Boyle. The entire Boyle slate was successful, including the candidates for International auditor and credential committee and International tellers. The results of the election were: for president, Boyle 80,577, Yablonski 46,073; for vice-president, Titler 77,379, Elmer Brown 45,151; for secretary-treasurer, Owens 102,346. Owens had been unopposed for reelection.

Alleging numerous violations of the Act and also the UMWA constitution, Yablonski filed an internal challenge to the election results with the International tellers and notified the three principal officers that he intended to present his protest to the next meeting of the International Executive Board as a further step in exhausting his internal remedies as required by the Act (Section 402(a) of the Act) 29 U.S.C. § 482(a).

Joseph Yablonski, his wife and daughter were found murdered in their home on January 5, 1970.

On January 8, 1970 defendant’s general counsel, acting on behalf of the defendant, requested an immediate investigation of the election by the United States Department of Labor, waiving post election exhaustion of internal remedies required by Section 402(a) of the Act (29 U.S.C. § 482(a)). After the official report of the results of the election had been issued,'Mike Trbovich, a member in good standing of defendant, through counsel, filed a written complaint with the Secretary of Labor challenging the conduct of the December 9, 1969 election of officers in which he incorporated by reference the complaint filed on December 18, 1969 by Yablonski. Plaintiff, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, immediately conducted an investigation of the complaints and found probable cause to believe that violations of Title IV of the Act had occurred in the conduct of the election at all levels of the union, and had not been remedied at the time of the filing *22 of this action; and in addition that defendant had failed and was still failing to maintain records and to require its subordinate districts to maintain records on matters required to be reported under Title II of the Act (29 U.S.C. § 431 et seq.), which provides that labor organizations subject to the Act retain the necessary basic information and data from which documents filed with the plaintiff may be verified, explained or clarified and checked for accuracy and completeness as required by Section 206 of the Act (29 U.S.C. § 436). Thereupon this suit was filed.

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Hodgson v. United Mine Workers of America, 344 F. Supp. 17, 80 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3451, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13221 (D.D.C. 1972).

344 F. Supp. 17 (Hodgson v. United Mine Workers of America) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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