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"United and fraternal members  dedicated and committed to establishing and maintaining honor and integrity among our union brothers and sisters"

MEBA'S "LM-2" for 2007 is now available!

To access it 

Go To:  http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQry.do
 
1. Next to Union Abbreviation, select MEBA 
2. click Submit
3. click on the 2007 LM-2. (066-581)

Challenge To MEBA 2007 Election  Link

Dear MEBA brothers and sisters.  As there has been some speculation and discussion  concerning my challenge to our 2007 election, I will provide a link to my challenge for your review and information.

 
 I first want to make some statements concerning the overall administration of the election and vote count by the American Arbitration Association (AAA).  During the actual tally, the AAA excel spreadsheet formulas for recording the vote counts were not accurate and had to be corrected by the Houston member of the tally committee.  At the same time, it was discovered that the AAA employee was transposing tally numbers when he was entering them into the tally computer. 

  It was also discovered that AAA had sent out ballots to non members just for the asking.  This normally would not be a problem since a returned ballot would be checked against a member in good standing list, but if such a returned ballot contained the same return address of a valid member and any signature (members' signatures are not on file) then the member would be considered to have double voted and neither ballot would be counted and this came dangerously close to happening for one well known member.  Keep in mind that the control numbers on the ballot envelopes were stuck on the envelopes in label format and not printed on the envelopes.  Some envelopes were missing the control number (the labels apparently had fallen off) and AAA employees simply hand wrote the control number on the envelopes.

  In contradiction to the specific deadline requirements of the MEBA by-laws, ballots were accepted past the printed deadline.  As a matter of fact, one particular member actually voted his ballot the morning of the vote count at MEBA headquarters.

  As you will see in my  challenge, several referendum ballots ended up in the officer election depository and apparently, some officer election ballots ended up in the referendum depository.  At the same time, just like the election 3 years ago, several members in good standing had a great deal of difficulty obtaining a ballot in a timely fashion from AAA and only obtained a ballot after making several requests.

  I encourage all members to obtain a copy of the December 4, 2007 Tally Committee report from a local hall because you will note that none of the above mentioned items of concern appear in the committee report.  Future tally committee members must pay very close attention to detail and make a complete and accurate report of ALL details to the membership.

  Let me also remind all members that under the current method of conducting and reporting MEBA elections, there is no procedure in place that allows members to know if indeed their ballot was ever received at the depository or even if their own individual ballot was counted.  Also, members whose ballots were not counted (due to no signature or dues in arrears) are never notified that their ballots were not counted due to specific eligibility deficiencies.

  We also just received confirmation (Jan 30th) from the Washington DC Postmaster that the post office (just as I have stated in my challenge) is still in possession of "a number of pieces of mail" from the MEBA election post office box depository.  I will keep everyone updated when I obtain more information concerning this latest development. 

  Please take time to carefully view my challenge and email me directly at mebaunited@aol.com if you have any specific questions or comments. 

  Thank you again for all the great support and encouragement that I continue to receive.

In Unity,

Mike