LANDOVER, Md. — The president of the United Food and Commercial Workers international union has ordered a new election for officers of Local 400 here following an investigation of alleged improprieties that may have affected results of an election held in October.
In a letter to Local 400 candidates, Joseph T. Hansen said an investigation into the election found merit in claims that a slate of candidates including incumbent president Tom McNutt violated union bylaws governing distribution of campaign literature and use of union resources during the campaign that may have impacted the election. The determination and remedy mirrored a decision Hansen made a week earlier governing a disputed election at UFCW Local 5 in San Jose, Calif.
The Local 400 allegations were made by Ralph Ramirez, an opponent of McNutt’s for president who finished third in the October voting. Hansen said his investigation found several additional charges by Ramirez to have either no merit, insufficient evidence and/or were judged not to have impacted the election even if true.
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As reported previously by SN, McNutt was elected to a three-year term as Local 400 president in October but subsequently resigned. Local 400’s executive board then appointed Mark Federici as the union’s new president. Hansen said Federici and other officers would remain in their current roles until a new election is held, no later than April 30.
Local 400 represents workers at supermarket chains including Giant, Safeway and Kroger in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.
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