OLMS Election Decisions

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) establishes democratic standards for conducting union officer elections, including frequency and method of election, right of members in good standing to be candidates, rights of candidates, and voting rights of members. For further information concerning the LMRDA’s election requirements, please visit the OLMS Union Democracy page and the Electing Union Officers page.

Upon receipt of an actionable, timely-filed written election complaint from a union member, OLMS conducts an investigation to determine whether the union violated the election provisions of the LMRDA and related laws during the conduct of a regularly scheduled officer election and if any violation(s) may have affected the outcome of the election.  In some cases, following an investigation aimed at determining if a member properly filed a complaint, OLMS field offices issue Dismissal Letters that administratively close cases due to procedural deficiencies. 

If the member properly filed the complaint, but the OLMS investigation does not establish that there was a violation of the LMRDA that may have affected the outcome of the election, then OLMS issues a Statement of Reasons (SOR), which documents the agency’s reasons for dismissing the union member’s complaint, rather than taking enforcement action. See the below SORs.

If the Agency finds an election violation that may have affected the outcome of the election, it will seek a voluntary compliance agreement (VCA) from the union for a rerun election supervised by OLMS or other voluntary corrective action. Under these VCAs, a new election is held under OLMS supervision, avoiding any litigation. Most election complaints are resolved through these VCAs. Entry into a VCA is not an admission by the union that a violation occurred nor does it reflect a judicial finding of a violation. See the below VCAs.

If the Agency is unable to reach a voluntary compliance agreement with the union, the Secretary of Labor will file suit seeking a supervised election. See the below Civil Enforcement Actions.

In these election cases, the final agency action consists of agency Determinations certifying supervised elections conducted pursuant to voluntary compliance agreements, or – in the case of a successful lawsuit by the Secretary – Certifications of supervised elections conducted pursuant to a court order.

In the last ten years, of the over 7,100 elections that OLMS estimates unions hold annually, OLMS received fewer than 160 complaints a year and fewer than 50 of those elections had to be rerun.