Michael Kinsman

July 9, 1992

Dissident members of a local labor union representing some 3,000 construction workers yesterday were defeated in a special election that they hoped would overturn a 1990 election that was ruled invalid.

Incumbent officers of Local 89 of the Laborers' International Union won re-election to all six disputed posts in the special mail balloting that began June 22, according to officials of the local. All four dissident members seeking election were defeated.

"We've done everything that we were asked to do," said Harry Jordan, secretary-treasurer for the local. "It was a very democratic election."

The special election was ordered in April by a federal judge who voided the local's June 1990 election over alleged improprieties. Members of the dissident Labor Reform Committee argued that they were denied access to the local's nomination process for officers and directors.

The dissident group claimed that in the election two years ago, the local violated the constitution of the Laborers' International Union of North America and the Landrum-Griffin Act, a 1959 labor law that provided safeguards for democratic methods in union elections.

Officials of Local 89 reported that 1,150 votes were cast, representing 38.9 percent of the total eligible to vote. The election process was supervised by the U.S. Department of Labor.

In results released yesterday, incumbent recording secretary Ernesto C. Marmolejo was re-elected. Marmolejo received 65.5 percent of the votes cast, compared to 27.9 percent for Charles Galvan of the Labor Reform Committee and 6.7 percent for Albert Ross, an independent candidate.

Two incumbents -- Armando Guerrero and Richard Scannell captured the two seats up for grabs on the local's executive board. Guerrero received support on 36.6 percent of the ballots cast and Scannell received 34.2 percent. Labor Reform Committee candidates Robert Ross and Mark Grund received 15.9 percent and 13.3 percent.

Re-elected as delegates to the Southern California District Council of Laborers were incumbents Scannell, Bill Smith and Otis L. Flake, each of whom received more than 25 percent of the votes. Grund received 11.8 percent of the votes and independent candidate Ivory Guess received 9.6 percent.

Russell Rock, area administrator for the Department of Labor, said election protests may be filed through July 20. Federal court certification of the results could take up to six months.