If you need a current example of how entrenched union leaders hold onto power and stack the deck of candidates, despite the wishes of the union membership, the Washington Post includes a good description of how ATU Local 689 President Jackie L. Jeter was “reelected.” The violations were so egregious that outgoing DOL head, Tom Perez, was forced to order a new election. According to the Post,
In a 35-page report, the department says a confluence of factors combined to invalidate the results of election: the union mailed election notices only 14 days before the vote took place, in violation of its bylaws and a 15-day notice provision of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act; that the union allowed any member whose dues payments were less than two months late to remain in good standing, in violation of an established provision; and that the union held “secret” payment standards for members who were more than two months late on their payments. The union “unreasonably applied a conflicting set of unpublished, alternative standards which were not announced to the Local’s membership,” the filing reads. “These alternate standards were spread, at best, by word of mouth. Members who happened to learn of them could try to take advantage of them. Members unaware of them could not.”
