WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A federal judge in Delaware has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor seeking to void a union election held by a local chapter of the International Longshoremen’s Association.
The judge ruled Tuesday that federal officials had sufficiently pleaded allegations in the complaint. He denied a motion to dismiss by ILA Local 1694 in Wilmington.
The challenged election was held in May 2019 for several leadership posts in the local, three executive board members, and three auditing committee members.
Federal officials said the union failed to provide sufficient notice that it would apply a bylaw stating that any person who had worked as a superintendent, foreman, or assistant foreman within the two years preceding the nominations would not be eligible to run for office. Officials said the bylaw had not been enforced in any of several prior elections after being adopted in 2010.
The union nevertheless disqualified four nominees as candidates based on the two-year rule, while qualifying three nominees as candidates who had worked as foremen during the preceding two years.
Federal officials say Local 1694 also improperly disqualified a nominee because he had been convicted of unlawful sexual contact in 2012.
Federal officials contend that the conviction was not a bar to holding union office because the offense was not the functional equivalent of the disqualifying crime of rape.
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