TWU to Hold Re-Vote
Car Equipment Race Goes Back to Shop

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The election monitor for Transport Workers' Union Local 100 has ordered a re-vote for vice president of the union's Car Equipment Division, nullifying previous results that gave the hotly-contested seat to the One Union slate candidate over a Rail and Bus United challenger.

BARBARA DEINHARDT: Reconsiders ruling.

Neutral Monitor Barbara Deinhardt issued her decision after investigating claims made by Rail and Bus attorneys that several Car Equipment Division members were erroneously allowed to pick up paper ballots at the American Arbitration Association's headquarters in midtown Manhattan.

No Hand-Outs Allowed

The union had previously stipulated that its election was going to be done by mail. No ballots should have been handed out by AAA or left at its headquarters in lieu of mailing them, opposition attorneys argued.

Ms. Deinhardt in her ruling stated that she discovered three Car Equipment Division members had picked up ballots at AAA and voted with them.

"As those ballots should not have been counted, and they are determinative of the CED Vice-President election, a re-run election for CED Vice-President is required," she wrote in her report to Local 100 attorneys. "All other elections [except one] are hereby certified."

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Bid to consolidate power.

A re-vote must also be held for vice president and five other seats in the Westchester Division of Private Bus Lines. Although a clear VP winner emerged early in election tabulations - Rod Bailey of Rail and Bus United - Ms. Deinhardt later discovered that hundreds of eligible Local 100 members didn't receive ballots because their addresses weren't on the voting roster.

May Not Alter Outcome

Mr. Bailey's closest contender was from the Fresh Start slate, followed by the candidate from One Union, the slate headed by Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. Sources said it was possible that Mr. Bailey could lose in a re-vote, given that approximately 700 names have been added to the eligible voting list and his margin of victory was around 500 ballots. But most insiders felt such a result was unlikely.

"He is expected to retain his seat," said one official.

The Private Bus Lines clerical error affected only those who work in the Westchester Division, so Queens-based members will not be able to re-vote.

Unlike the Westchester results, no clear winner emerged in the race for vice president of Car Equipment.

After several post-election recounts, only a few votes separated the top two candidates: Nelson Rivera from the One Union slate, and Rail and Bus United's Richie Rivera.

New Life for 2?

After three hand-counts failed to reveal a definitive win for either, Local 100's Election Committee ordered a final recount Dec. 22.

Ms. Deinhardt told the union executive board that if neither candidate emerged with at least a two-vote lead, a second election should be held and include the trailing candidates from the Union Democracy and Fresh Start slates.

She subsequently ruled that Mr. Rivera of One Union held a sufficient lead to declare him the winner. Rail and Bus attorneys unsuccessfully objected to some of the decisions to discount or include certain ballots in the race.

That would have given Mr. Toussaint's slate a fourth vice president seat; its supporters already head the TA Surface, Rapid Transit Operations and Stations Divisions.

Rail and Bus United won the vice presidents seats in Maintenance of Way and Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, and is likely to prevail at Private Lines.

Could Tighten Hold

Mr. Toussaint will retain a majority on the board even if his candidate loses Car Equipment because of the positions that he and Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt and Recording Secretary Darlyne Lawson occupy.

But maintaining his hold on four vice presidential seats - and possibly gaining one from Private Bus Lines - would consolidate his power from the top down.

Ms. Deinhardt in her Feb. 22 report noted that she had qualified her initial election certification to accommodate a complaint from a Rail and Bus attorney about hand-in ballots in the Car Equipment Division.

After uncovering evidence that several employees had picked up and dropped off Local 100 ballots, she decided a re-vote was required.

She noted: "RBU argues that many members were advised that they could not pick up ballots in person, and so allowing some members to do so unfairly prejudiced others. It has presented an affidavit from one member who states that she would have gone to AAA pick up a ballot and vote, had she known she was able to do that."

There are numerous other challenges to election procedures and certified results currently being considered by Ms. Deinhardt, and in the case of appeals, the International TWU.

Final appeals may be brought to the Department of Labor later, sources said, if attorneys have exhausted all internal procedures but still feel their clients' right to fair elections has been denied.