DISTRIBUTION OF CAMPAIGN LITERATURE AND CANDIDATES' RIGHTS

A.         INTRODUCTION

         At least every two years, each Local Council and each multi-council MEC nominate and elect their officers.  In addition, at each regular Board of Directors meeting, the Delegates, in their respective Election Caucus Groups, nominate and elect the Executive Vice Presidents.  At every other meeting, they nominate and elect the President, First Vice President, Vice President-Administration/Secretary and Vice President-Finance/Treasurer.

B.      ALPA GUIDELINES FOR CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE

1.      The ALPA Guidelines will be binding on all candidates for office.

2.      The use of ALPA facilities for the distribution of campaign literature on behalf of an ALPA member who is campaigning for a Local Council, Master Executive Council or National office will be governed by Article I, Section 19, of the Constitution and By‑Laws, applicable provisions of ALPA Policy and the applicable provisions of the LMRDA of 1959 as amended.  Campaign literature will be distributed by ALPA at the candidates' cost and without discrimination as provided by Article I, Section 19, which states:

Article I, Section 19 provides:

         "a.     The Home Office shall comply with all reasonable requests of any candidate for Association office to distribute by mail, or otherwise, at the candidate's expense, campaign literature in aid of such person's candidacy to all members in good standing entitled to vote in such candidate's election or who are included in the constituency of the delegates voting in the particular election.  There shall be no discrimination in favor of or against any candidate with respect to costs or the use of lists of members and whenever campaign literature is distributed, by mail or otherwise, on behalf of any candidate, similar distribution at the request of any other bona fide candidate shall be made, with equal treatment as to the expense of such distribution.  The cost of distribution of all campaign literature shall be borne by the candidate or by any member or a group of members acting in a candidate's behalf.  Nothing in this Section shall imply the Association is responsible for the production of campaign material."

         "b.      Prior to distribution, by mail or otherwise, of any campaign literature, the candidate, or member, or group of members requesting such distribution, will be furnished with the estimated cost by the Home Office.  In any case, the individual acting as spokesman for such request will agree to assume the actual cost of such distribution prior to such distribution taking place."

3.      a.         ALPA publications at the Local Council, Master Executive Council or National level shall not be used to disseminate campaign material, provided that the editor, under the authority of the President/MEC Chairman/LEC Chairman, of any particular ALPA publication may make space available for the publication of candidates' biographies, submitted by or on behalf of the candidate, in which case such space shall be made available to all candidates on an equal space and timely basis.  Such publications may contain lists of members who have announced their willingness to serve in office, and candidates' biographical data, provided that all candidates are given equal opportunity to submit such data. These biographies must be factual, shall not be used to state positions on issues and may not attack other candidates.

         b.         Should one or more candidates, given equal opportunity to submit biographical data, choose not to do so, or fail to meet the deadline established by the editor for submission of material which complies with the requirements of paragraph 3a. above, this will not prohibit the publishing of such material received from the other candidate(s).

4.      Should one or more candidates, given equal opportunity to submit biographical data, choose not to do so, or fail to meet the deadline established by the editor for submission of material which complies with the requirements of paragraph 3a. above, this will not prohibit the publishing of such material received from the other candidate(s).

5.      The fact of endorsement or support by any Local Council, Local Executive Council or Master Executive Council of ALPA may be published in ALPA publications and distributed by ALPA in accordance with Communication Procedures as set forth in ALPA's Administrative Manual, except that, if the text of the resolution of support or endorsement is to be printed in ALPA publications, the adoption of supporting resolution and its publication shall be preceded by an opportunity accorded to known candidates to appear and be heard; provided, however, that candidates may independently, at their own expense, distribute such resolutions of endorsement.

         The Department of Labor, in reviewing this guideline, stated:  "This item should emphasize that, if candidates or their representatives are not afforded equal access to membership or representatives meetings at which resolutions of support or endorsement may be adopted, ALPA funds are not to be used to publish the text of such resolutions."

6.         Candidates who are active on a full or part‑time ALPA paid basis as ALPA officers or representatives may not campaign on time normally required and used for the discharge of union activities.

7.      No ALPA facilities, other than the Home Office as described herein, shall be used for campaign purposes.  It is a prime objective of the LMRDA that all union members, including members of the governing body of the union, are to have the opportunity for a free, fair and informed expression of their choices among candidates seeking office.  Accordingly, every candidate for office must be treated exactly the same, with policies and procedures applicable equally to all.  Under this concept, the use of MEC or LEC offices to type campaign literature, produce copies thereof and to prepare political material for distribution is prohibited since members belonging to a Local Council not part of an MEC or LEC office do not have this opportunity.  Therefore, any ALPA offices, such as MEC offices, LEC offices, etc., and their facilities may not be used to process, and ALPA employees located in such facilities may not be used to type campaign literature, produce copies, prepare mailing lists, or engage in any other activity on behalf of any candidate for Local Council, Master Executive Council or National office.

8.      Neither the ALPA voice mail system nor ALPA message bulletin boards may be used for any political activity as described herein.

9.      Any ALPA representative who, by virtue of his official position, receives a membership roster or a roster of the members of the Executive Board or Board of Directors, may not use, nor allow such roster to be used, directly or indirectly, for campaign purposes for ALPA office.

C.      USE OF ALPA FACILITIES FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF CAMPAIGN LITERATURE FOR ANY LOCAL COUNCIL OFFICE OR NATIONAL OFFICE.

1.      If ALPA facilities are used, only the Home Office can be used for the preparation or distribution of campaign literature.

2.      Any candidate or member(s) acting on behalf of a candidate may submit printed or email campaign literature to the Home Office Printing and Mailing Department for postal mail or email distribution or may use the Home Office facilities to do the typing, printing and mailing.

3.      Home Office facilities will be made available for typing and printing campaign literature or distributing campaign literature by email on a normal schedule, uniformly applied to all such requests.  The candidates, or members acting on the candidates' behalf, will receive an estimated cost for approval prior to the requested typing, printing or distribution and will be required to assume this cost prior thereto.

4.      Any campaign material being distributed will be mailed as submitted by the candidate, with no changes or alterations except with the expressed written concurrence of the candidate.

5.      Without prior arrangements, all campaign literature to be sent using postal mail service will be mailed First Class, in accordance with Post Office regulations.

6.      The distribution of campaign literature shall be made to any group or reasonable sub-group of ALPA members entitled to vote in the respective election as designated by the candidate. 

7.      The ALPA logo or letterhead shall not be used so as to give the appearance that campaign material is an ALPA authorized communication. 

8.      The printing and/or mailing by postal mail or email of campaign literature shall not take precedence over the regular ALPA business being done by the Printing and Mailing Department or other Departments, but will be placed into the normal schedule in a manner uniformly applied to all such requests.  If the candidate or members acting on the candidate's behalf require services over and above the normal schedule, the Home Office will engage an outside firm, or will hire temporary workers to accomplish the necessary service with the full cost being charged to the candidate or to the members acting on the candidate's behalf.

9.      No requests made to the Home Office or to any Association office for postal or email address lists, labels, or pre‑addressed envelopes for distribution of campaign literature will be honored.

10.     Each and every candidate for ALPA office will be treated exactly the same, with policies and procedures equally applied to all, and every candidate will be afforded equal treatment as to the use of the Home Office facilities, and all costs will be charged in a nondiscriminatory fashion.

11.     ALPA does not express any opinion concerning the form or content of any candidate's privately funded campaign material.

12.     The foregoing policies will be applicable, as required, to reasonable requests of any candidate for distribution of campaign literature by email using those email addresses on ALPA's then current list applicable to the particular election.  A candidate selecting distribution by email may choose to distribute campaign literature only to those members with email addresses on file or to distribute campaign literature by email to those members with email addresses on file and by postal mail to other members.

13.     The Executive Council may, in its discretion, establish reasonable limitations on the number, frequency, type and size of email campaign distributions by a candidate.

D.         INSPECTION OF MEMBERSHIP LISTS

1.      Any candidate for Local Council office has the right, once within 30 days prior to the mailing of election ballots, to inspect the mailing list for that Local Council which contains the names and last known home addresses of those members to whom ballots will be mailed.

2.      This right of inspection does not include the right to copy the list but does include the right to compare it with a personal list of members.

3.         Arrangements may be made by any candidate through his Local Council Chairman or his designee, or through the Vice President-Administration/Secretary, to inspect said list.

E.         OBSERVERS

1.      In any secret ballot election, all candidates are allowed to have an observer present at the preparation, printing and mailing of the ballots, the pickup and transportation from the post office lock box, and during their validation, opening, tallying, and certification.  The Membership Services Department (703-689-4212) should be contacted for the scheduling of any of the above operations.

F.         DISTRIBUTION OF POLITICAL MATERIAL AT BOARD MEETINGS

1.      Though Article I, Section 19, of the Constitution and By‑Laws, with respect to distribution of campaign literature, makes references to the "Home Office" complying with reasonable requests from candidates, many of these provisions are equally pertinent to requests for distribution of political material at Board of Directors meetings and receipt of requests for reproduction of such material during a Board of Directors meeting may be anticipated.

2.      With respect to complying with all "reasonable requests" to distribute campaign literature, and the statement in Article I, Section 19, that ALPA has no primary responsibility for the production of campaign material, every effort will be made to cooperate with candidates or those acting on behalf of candidates seeking production of campaign material during a Board of Directors meeting.  In this respect, "reasonable requests," is contemplated to be one which will not interfere with the normal Board of Directors business.  To meet this requirement, Agenda Office facilities or personnel may not be used in processing campaign literature.  All requests must be submitted to the Pilot Office for processing.  The person initiating the request will be advised of the policy with respect to publication and distribution of campaign material and the cost factors involved.

3.      Because the Pilot Office has been established to assist Local Council and MEC officers in the conduct of their Local Council or MEC affairs while attending the Board of Directors meeting, production of campaign material must be fit into the office work schedule, with the requesting party furnished an anticipated time by which the material will be ready.  The requesting party shall be advised that he must leave the work for reproduction.  Operation of the Xerox or the reproduction equipment by the pilot representative is not permitted.

4.      The staff administrator who manages the Pilot Office during a Board of Directors meeting will have cost data for use in preparing invoices for any political material produced at the Board of Directors of Directors meeting.  This data will include cost of Xerox copies, labor costs for typing (cost per minute); labor costs for Xerox operator (cost per minute), and any other appropriate cost factors to simplify and facilitate the preparation of invoices.

5.      Because of the volume of documentation distributed to delegates at their table location with respect to official agenda items and other activities associated with their attendance, it is administrative policy not to permit political material to be distributed to the delegates inside the meeting room.  This policy ensures that delegates, or other members who have access to the floor of the Board of Directors meeting, do not derive a special advantage in making handouts over persons who do not have the privilege of free movement on the floor of the meeting room.  This policy also reinforces a delegate's understanding that all material he receives at his table in the meeting room is of an official Board of Directors meeting purpose, and that such material should be incorporated in his agenda notebook.

6.      To make availability and accessibility of political material equal to all, a table location will be provided outside the meeting room.  This handout table shall be suitably identified as to its purpose.  Nothing in this policy is intended to restrict members from physically handing out such political material outside of the main meeting room should they not wish to leave their supply unattended or distribution left to chance.