In a rare scenario, a union election Saturday for
officers in the Electricians local led by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty
will be supervised by the U.S. Labor Department.
The department's involvement stems from a complaint by
two candidates for the executive board, Kenneth Rocks and Kevin O'Sullivan, who
said they were unfairly denied the opportunity to run for two of five seats.
The Labor Department agreed.
"The investigation of the challenged election
disclosed that the union improperly determined that two nominees for executive
board were ineligible to run for office," the Labor Department said Aug.
28, adding that Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
had voluntarily agreed to the supervision.
The alternative would have been a federal lawsuit against
the 3,828-member local union filed by the Labor Department.
Union locals - there are tens of thousands - regularly
hold elections. It's unusual for the Labor Department to step in.
In fiscal 2013, according to government statistics, the
department investigated 122 election complaints nationwide, filed suit in
eight, and entered into 19 voluntary agreements, like the one this year with
Local 98.
The election is a touchy subject at the union hall - where
accusations of bullying and beatings are flying, along with a lot of
unprintable language.
"I told you to look at the police records,"
Dougherty shouted at a reporter outside union headquarters on a balmy evening
Tuesday as union members gathered for a regular monthly meeting.
But Dougherty, who as a board member of the Delaware
River Port Authority has been an outspoken advocate for openness and
transparency, had nothing to say about the election within his own union.
Contacted by phone multiple times afterward, neither
Dougherty nor union spokesman Frank Keel and Dougherty's lawyer, Joseph Podraza
Jr., would discuss the election.
Nor would more than 30 union members asked to comment
about the election while waiting outside the union hall for Tuesday's meeting
to start.
None would give their names, even those who said they
supported "Team Dougherty."
"He's a bully," Rocks said Thursday, adding a
few curse words.
They don't agree on much, but both Rocks and Dougherty
say, not very politely, that reporters are trying to drag their union through
the mud.
Union bylaws say that members with a "grievous
assault" can't run for office. Rocks, 36, has a conviction for simple
assault that took place in 2002. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
"It was a bar fight when I was a kid," he said.
O'Sullivan could not be reached for comment after calls
to his home in Clifton Heights.
In May, O'Sullivan and Rocks sought nominations to run
for election. Their nominations were denied. In June, union members received a
letter, Rocks said, that Dougherty's executive board slate was unopposed, so no
election was necessary.
That's when, after unsuccessfully appealing to union
higher-ups, Rocks turned to the Labor Department. The department won't take
action unless complainants go through internal appeals first.
Other than the vitriol, entries from Rocks and O'Sullivan
on the Facebook Local-98-Elections page provide insight into the underlying
dispute.
Based on information gleaned from government reports
filed by the union, the men raise pointed questions on the Facebook page about
union expenditures, including, for example, $151,385 for tickets at the Wells
Fargo Center in 2009 and, in 2013, $92,500 to a construction consultant called
"We Get It Right the First Time."
Dougherty "is threatened," Rocks said,
"because I'm going to question his expenses."
Source: Philly.com
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