April 14, 2021

Article by: Robert Iafolla, Bloomberg Law

Lamb McErlane PC Partner Joseph R. Podraza, Jr. is the attorney representing Local 98, IBEW, in Walsh v. Local 98, IBEW, E.D. Pa., No. 21-00096.

(Bloomberg Law) — A federal judge threw out intimidation claims that were part of a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit filed against a Philadelphia-based union during the waning days of the Trump administration.

The Labor Department improperly included allegations of member intimidation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 that the union didn’t previously have a chance to address through its internal processes, according to the judge’s ruling Wednesday.

The claims appear to be an artifact of what some critics viewed as the Labor Department’s aggressive policing of unions during the Trump era. The suit was brought under the Labor- Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, a federal law enforced by the department’s union watchdog unit that the Trump administration staffed with anti-union activists.

The complaint stems from a Local 98 member’s allegations of intimidation related to an election last June for the union’s president and executive board. The union didn’t hold a formal vote because all seats were uncontested.

Charles Battle, who said he was pressured out of running for union office, filed an internal complaint with Local 98 claiming that the election process was rigged to guarantee incumbents remained in power. The union investigated and rejected his allegations. Battle filed a complaint with the Labor Department in August, triggering an investigation and the subsequent lawsuit filed in January.

The Labor Department claimed Local 98 violated the federal labor act by intimidating Battle and two other members, Timothy McConnell and Michael Coppinger, who were interested in running for office. It also accused the union of other unlawful actions to protect leadership from challengers, including a general pattern of interference and retaliation that went back to 2014.

Local 98 filed a motion to dismiss some of the claims in February, arguing that Battle didn’t exhaust internal union remedies related to those allegations as required before going to the Labor Department. The department’s allegations went beyond what Battle included in his internal complaint, the union said.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Philadelphia U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh ruled that Battle’s internal complaint lacked the details that would have allowed Local 98 to address charges of intimidation related to Coppinger.

McHugh also tossed allegations related to a specific incident to intimidate Battle and the general pattern of improperly protecting union leadership, neither of which appeared in his internal complaint.

The DOL’s Office of Labor-Management Standards declined to comment, spokesman Edwin Nieves said. The union’s lawyer, Joseph Podraza of Lamb McErlane, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case is Walsh v. Local 98, IBEW, E.D. Pa., No.21-00096, ruling 4/14/21.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Iafolla in Washington at riafolla@bloomberglaw.com To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jay-Anne B. Casuga at jcasuga@bloomberglaw.com; Travis Tritten at ttritten@bgov.com; Andrew Harris at aharris@bloomberglaw.com

Podraza is a partner with Lamb McErlane PC and practices in the specialties of complex civil litigation, commercial litigation, healthcare litigation, defamation law, insurance coverage litigation, and malicious prosecution litigation.