Publications

Election campaigning

The general provisions on the rights and the restrictions on campaigning for office in the local union can be found in Section 1 of Appendix D of the International Constitution. Basically, these provisions are as follows:

  1. No union funds can be spent in campaigning for union office.
  2. No publication of any kind, which is sponsored by or supported by the union, can make any endorsement or otherwise support any candidate for union office.
  3. Any member who has been nominated for office or who announces an intention to run for office has the right to one* mailing to the membership made through the union office before the election. This mailing is not to be made at the union’s expense.

It is probably this third provision that is the most misunderstood. Note that the right is “the right to mail,” not “the right to print.” The candidate must prepare the materials to be mailed, furnish the envelopes, do the stuffing and sealing, and put on the stamps or furnish the money to pay for the mailing meter charge. The candidate must, in effect, furnish everything but the names and addresses. All the union is required to do is address and mail the material. Even here, if there is expense connected with the addressing, it must be borne by the candidate or the candidate’s supporters.

Note also that the candidate is not entitled to a mailing list for the candidate’s own use.

It is understood that no campaign signs or leaflets may be displayed at the polling place itself. Locals may, of course, make additional rules on such matters as how far from the polling place campaigning can take place. The major tests of any additional rules the local may adopt are:

  1. Are the rules reasonable?
  2. Are the rules uniformly applied to all candidates and at all polling places, if more than one location is used?

* In local unions that include members employed by private sector employers, federal law requires that the union comply with all reasonable requests by a candidate to mail campaign materials to the membership. In those cases, the union cannot limit candidates to only one mailing.

Print Version