Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993                   TAG: 9310300096
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LOSERS FILE PROTEST IN TEAMSTERS ELECTION TOO-STICKY STICKERS BLAMED FOR

In mail balloting earlier this month, Jim Guynn Sr. was re-elected to his sixth consecutive three-year term as president of the Western Virginia local, based in Roanoke. Until this year, Guynn, 61, of Roanoke, had run unopposed since his first victory in 1978.

The candidates who opposed the slate headed by Guynn say 161 mail ballots were voided and not counted because they were returned in envelopes that did not have required stickers showing the voter's return address.

But the return-address stickers that were provided with the ballot envelopes could not be peeled from an accompanying letter and some union members did not know what to do with them, said Roosevelt Via of Roanoke, a United Parcel Service driver who ran for local trustee on the opposition ticket.

Opposition candidates asked to watch the preparation of the ballots for mailing, Via said. "We were given the runaround; they made up the ballots without us."

Roughly half of the local's 1,200 members cast votes that were counted. Guynn defeated Berkley Newbill of Roanoke, a Kroger driver, 347-229. Six other candidates on the ballot with Guynn also won, including Secretary-Treasurer Jim Sherwood, who beat Edward Whisnant, a Kroger driver, 358-216.

Under union rules, the protest is filed first with Teamsters Joint Council 83 in Richmond. Guynn, president of the council, said he will play no role in hearing the protest.

Opposition to Guynn was based on his support of R.V. Durham, who ran against national Teamsters President Ron Carey, and criticism that he has failed to represent union members aggressively in grievance cases, including those related to several recent firings at UPS, Via said.

Guynn seemed surprised by that criticism. It had never been mentioned either on the union hall floor or in opponents' campaign literature, he said.

Guynn said he expects the election protest to be denied at every level.

"It's a frivolous protest," he said. Without the return addresses on the ballots, there was no way of knowing if they were cast by legitimate union members, he said.

"There was absolutely nothing wrong or against the law with the way the election was conducted, and that will be proved," he said.