The International union has issued a Notice of Referendum for the ABF contract, which locals are to post on union bulletin boards. The ballot materials will be mailed on Thursday, April 19 and received soon afterward, so voting by internet and phone is just days away.

Photo: Dennis Fraevich, Flickr Creative Commons

As in prior national contract votes since a court case was won in 2003, the counsel for Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) has secured independent observers for the vote. We have three independent, reliable observers recognized for the ABF vote.

In the past, observers have gone to Washington DC to observe the pick-up of ballots from the post office, sorting by local union, and then the counting. This time, observing the count will be complicated by the electronic vote procedure. We are working to get a secure and transparent process that ensures secrecy and ballot integrity.

You can read more about BallotPoint and the ABF vote here.