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Nasty spat as U.S. to supervise Local 98 election

In a rare scenario, a union election Saturday for officers in the Electricians local led by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty will be supervised by the U.S. Labor Department.

John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty has had little to say about the vote in his union.
John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty has had little to say about the vote in his union.Read more

In a rare scenario, a union election Saturday for officers in the Electricians local led by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty will be supervised by the U.S. Labor Department.

The department's involvement stems from a complaint by two candidates for the executive board, Kenneth Rocks and Kevin O'Sullivan, who said they were unfairly denied the opportunity to run for two of five seats. The Labor Department agreed.

"The investigation of the challenged election disclosed that the union improperly determined that two nominees for executive board were ineligible to run for office," the Labor Department said Aug. 28, adding that Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had voluntarily agreed to the supervision.

The alternative would have been a federal lawsuit against the 3,828-member local union filed by the Labor Department.

Union locals - there are tens of thousands - regularly hold elections. It's unusual for the Labor Department to step in.

In fiscal 2013, according to government statistics, the department investigated 122 election complaints nationwide, filed suit in eight, and entered into 19 voluntary agreements, like the one this year with Local 98.

The election is a touchy subject at the union hall - where accusations of bullying and beatings are flying, along with a lot of unprintable language.

"I told you to look at the police records," Dougherty shouted at a reporter outside union headquarters on a balmy evening Tuesday as union members gathered for a regular monthly meeting.

But Dougherty, who as a board member of the Delaware River Port Authority has been an outspoken advocate for openness and transparency, had nothing to say about the election within his own union.

Contacted by phone multiple times afterward, neither Dougherty nor union spokesman Frank Keel and Dougherty's lawyer, Joseph Podraza Jr., would discuss the election.

Nor would more than 30 union members asked to comment about the election while waiting outside the union hall for Tuesday's meeting to start.

None would give their names, even those who said they supported "Team Dougherty."

"He's a bully," Rocks said Thursday, adding a few curse words.

They don't agree on much, but both Rocks and Dougherty say, not very politely, that reporters are trying to drag their union through the mud.

Union bylaws say that members with a "grievous assault" can't run for office. Rocks, 36, has a conviction for simple assault that took place in 2002. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

"It was a bar fight when I was a kid," he said.

O'Sullivan could not be reached for comment after calls to his home in Clifton Heights.

In May, O'Sullivan and Rocks sought nominations to run for election. Their nominations were denied. In June, union members received a letter, Rocks said, that Dougherty's executive board slate was unopposed, so no election was necessary.

That's when, after unsuccessfully appealing to union higher-ups, Rocks turned to the Labor Department. The department won't take action unless complainants go through internal appeals first.

Other than the vitriol, entries from Rocks and O'Sullivan on the Facebook Local-98-Elections page provide insight into the underlying dispute.

Based on information gleaned from government reports filed by the union, the men raise pointed questions on the Facebook page about union expenditures, including, for example, $151,385 for tickets at the Wells Fargo Center in 2009 and, in 2013, $92,500 to a construction consultant called "We Get It Right the First Time."

Dougherty "is threatened," Rocks said, "because I'm going to question his expenses."