No Trustee Run-Off
To all local 4304 members,
During the previous general election in 2018, run-off elections were required to elect three trustees with a majority vote per the December 2013 ‘Unifor Policy Regarding Local Union Elections.’ This policy from the National Union forms part of our Local’s constitutional requirements and governs how elections are run for any Unifor Local’s that don’t have their own separate set of National-approved election rules in their by-laws.
However, In February this year, the National Executive Board amended the ‘Unifor Policy Regarding Local Union Elections’ such that we no longer require a run-off for the Trustee positions in THIS general election; a copy of the new policy was just provided to our Local. The new policy regarding Trustee run-offs reads as follows:
33. The three Local Union Trustees will be elected at the same time and there is no distinction between the three offices. The membership is instructed to vote for no more than three candidates. In the election of the three Trustees, the majority is determined in the following manner:
(a) Where there are less than seven candidates, the three candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
(b) Where there are seven or more candidates, the majority point is determined by adding the total votes cast for the office of Trustee and dividing by 3 (which is the number of positions to be filled). This number is divided by 2 to determine the 50% mark. The next highest number above the 50% mark is the majority point. Example – 480 votes cast for Trustees, divided by 3 = 160. Further divided by 2 to get the 50% mark = 80. The next highest number above 80 is 81. Trustee requires at least 81 votes to receive a majority.
(c) If more than three candidates receive a majority vote, the three candidates with the highest majority shall be declared elected.
(d) Where there are seven or more candidates and no candidate receives a majority, the run-off is confined to the six candidates receiving the highest number of votes. The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
(e) Where there are seven or more candidates and only one candidate receives a majority, the run-off is confined to the candidates receiving the second, third, fourth and fifth highest number of votes. The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
(f) Where there are seven or more candidates and only two candidates receive a majority, the run-off is confined to the candidates receiving the third and fourth highest number of votes. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.
You can download your own copy of the new February 2021 policy HERE if you wish.
Per the new policy, since there were only five trustee candidates in the current general election the top three are declared the winning candidates. Therefore the new Trustees will be Mark Cosgrove, Tyler Kress, and Lesley Clark and no run-off for the trustees will be on the ballot on Thursday, June 3rd.
Yours in solidarity,
Warren Schnurr
Recording Secretary
Unifor Local 4304
Posted in: Elections
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