Teamster Candidate Can Visit Workers

Reacting to an intimidation complaint, the National Labor Relations Board has ordered the Teamsters Union local in Ventura to notify a former top official that he can visit workers on the job without fear of being physically removed.

The new labor board ruling directs Teamster Local 186 to notify its former secretary-treasurer, Martin Fry, that he will not be ejected from work sites for advocating union policy changes or promoting his candidacy for union office.

Those activities are within Fry’s rights under federal labor law, the labor board ruled last week.

The NLRB upheld the ruling of an administrative law judge who found that the local’s business agent, Lyle Barnett, threatened Fry with physical removal from work sites at a meeting in 1992. At that same meeting, the local’s top official, Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Shaw, authorized Barnett to carry through on the threats, according to the administrative judge.

A statement posted this week by Local 186, which represents about 2,000 workers in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said:

“We will advise Martin Fry, in writing, that we will not threaten him with physical retaliation or physically retaliate against him for visiting job sites . . . to solicit other members/employees to support changes in the local’s policies and practices or to support his campaign for the office of secretary-treasurer.”

Shaw, of Oak View, and Fry, of Ojai, union allies in the 1980s, have been rivals for the local’s $52,000-a-year top job for several years. Fry has filed complaints about the union’s operations under Shaw.

Just last month, the U.S. Department of Labor filed suit to void the local’s election of six top officials in 1993, charging that dozens of eligible voters were not properly notified.