Dispute over union rep clouds workers' future

La Crosse Tribune, Apr 05, 1999

Stroh Brewery Co. workers are worried about whether they'll have jobs next year, but they're also concerned about who's leading them at this crucial time.

Members of Brewery Workers Local 1081 are calling last December's election for union officers unfair because the popular choice for business agent was kept off the ballot on a technicality.

The business agent, also known as secretary-treasurer, is a key position in any Teamsters union local. Elected for a three-year term, the BA runs day-to-day union operations and deals with the company on everything from resolving minor grievances to negotiating labor contracts.

The BA is also involved in negotiating a severance package with Stroh, which announced in February it plans to sell its labels to Miller and Pabst. Unless Stroh can find a buyer, it also plans to close the La Crosse brewery by the end of the year.

Until Jan. 1, Local 1081's business agent was Dale Lawrynk, 50, who has worked at the brewery , since 1967. He'd been BA since 1996, when he ' defeated 14-year incumbent Ron Buschman by a 2-to-1 margin.

"When I got into office I was so open with members and told them what's happening," Lawrynk said. "They feel if I'm in there I'll be more open with them."

After members nominated Lawrynk for a second term, he learned he was ineligible to run under Teamsters election rules. The reason: 24 months earlier, he was five days late paying his union dues.

That left union members with one candidate: Buschman.

In a brief interview with the Tribune, Buschman called the dispute "an internal union matter. They have the right to file an appeal, but until there's a ruling, there's nothing to say."

When Lawrynk's supporters learned he was ineligible to run again, they rallied behind him, flooding the Washington, D.C., offices of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with calls asking acting General President Tom Sever for help.

They also gathered hundreds of signatures in two petition drives.

"We circulated a petition at work, and 320 of 350 people signed the petition to reopen the nominations. It was phenomenal we got that many signatures within 24 hours," said Mike Durand, a brewery maintenance worker and Lawrynk supporter.

The petitioners wanted either Lawrynk on the ballot or the chance to reopen nominations. Members say they got conflicting signals from the international's legal department. At the time, the international was in the midst of its own election for international officers, including president. In December, James Hoffa Jr. won that post, but he wasn't sworn into office until late March.

Before the election in early December, Local 1081 executive board members got a letter from the international saying they had to decide whether to reopen nominations. The board decided to reopen nominations and postpone the election. But later, Lawrynk said he spoke to a Teamsters lawyer, who told him the board must decide to hold the election as originally scheduled.

"Most people were upset. The international made all decisions to the detriment of what the majority of members wanted," Lawrynk said.

When nothing else worked, Lawrynk's supporters decided to write in their candidate's name.

In all, 298 members cast ballots, with 41 voting for Buschman.

Of the remaining 257 voters, Lawrynk's supporters believe 90 percent cast-write-in votes for Lawrynk. Local 1081 President Marv Bakalars sat in on the ballot counting, and said that whenever the counters had a ballot with a write-in, they would say "skip."

"I heard 'skip' so many times I thought, 'Skip's going to win this election,"' Bakalars said.

But Buschman won the election because Teamsters election rules don't allow write-in candidates.

Jim Skoy, a former president of Local 1081 during Buschman's tenure as BA, said there was nothing wrong with the election, including having just one candidate.

"That's happened numerous times," said Skoy, who was reelected president of Local 1081 the year Lawrynk beat Buschman, but then resigned. "Everything was done by the bylaws."

"There are rules in everything you do, and Dale Lawrynk didn't follow the rules," said Dale Thesing, a brewhouse worker and Buschman's nephew. "It's his job to check candidates' eligibility. Lawrynk was found ineligible. That's nobody's fault but his own."

Thesing said questions about the election "shouldn't be in the media. It's an internal union matter. It will be handled by the Teamsters general council. And we have more important things to worry about in terms of our livelihood and our future."

Even though the election was four months ago, the issue hasn't died.

"I hear about it all the time," Bakalars said. "Some people are as concerned about this as they are about their jobs. They have not forgotten. They want Dale Lawrynk there during this critical period."

Durand, a maintenance worker at the brewery, is more blunt.

"Buschman was BA for 14 years, and during that time we've never gotten a straight answer from him," Durand said. "Now that Stroh has sold the labels, we don't want Buschman negotiating anything for us."