Teamsters won’t contest election for school staff

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.

Teamsters Local 14 officials said Wednesday that they would not contest election results that allow the Education Support Employees Association to continue representing 10,000 Clark County School District workers - even though the Teamsters received hundreds of more votes than the current union.

In a face-off with the association earlier this month, the Teamsters received 2,711 mail-in votes to the association's 1,932 votes.

But the plurality wasn't enough; new union representation would only be allowed if it received support from more than half of the employees eligible to vote, and not just a majority of the votes cast.

A Teamsters spokesman said Wednesday the union would not file an objection to the election, which awaits certification by a state agency.

A representative for the association could not be reached Wednesday. In an earlier interview, union officials said they would have preferred the support of the majority of the voters but the election results still translated into a victory .

More than 4,700 custodians, food service workers, bus drivers and office support employees mailed their ballots to the Nevada State Employee-Management Relations Board, which oversaw the election. But the turnout was less than half of the eligible employees.

In a nearly five-year legal battle that reached the state's highest court, the Teamsters argued that the "super majority" requirement was unreasonable and that winning a simple majority should be sufficient.

The Nevada Supreme Court disagreed, upholding the state board's earlier ruling that the "super majority" threshold must be met.

The election is expected to be certified at the state board's meeting next month in Reno, staff member Julie Contreras said.

The board is not likely to delve into the Nevada Supreme Court's ruling or its implications for the Teamsters and the association , Contreras said.

"All they're going to be focusing on is whether these results are true and accurate," she said.