Kahele still Teamsters' sole election candidate

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A federal judge yesterday declined to order the local Teamsters Union to include the name of Anson "Slim" Ilae as a candidate for president of the labor organization on ballots that are to be mailed to union members beginning Friday.

Barring any further legal challenges, the decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway means the ballots that will be sent to the Teamsters members in Hawai'i will list only incumbent Mel Kahele's name as a candidate for the union's top office, assuring his reelection.

After a two-hour hearing in front of Mollway, Ilae's lawyer, Michael Green, complained bitterly that Kahele had engaged in a "set-up" by assuring Ilae that he was eligible to run for union's top post and then telling him at the last minute that the union had reversed its position.

Last night, Green said he plans to be back in federal court this morning with a new request for a restraining order to keep the Teamsters Union from sending out ballots that do not include Ilae's name.

"They know if he runs against Kahele, (Kahele) is done," Green said. A strike by O'ahu Transportation Services bus drivers represented by the Teamsters Union has entered the fifth week and the decision to go out on strike now appears ill-advised, resulting in a weakening of support for Kahele, Green said.

But Sean Kim, the Teamsters Union lawyer, said that a "reassessment" of Ilae's eligibility was done after he filed to run for union president and it was discovered that Ilae's dues payments to the union were not up to date. "If an ineligible candidate was allowed to run, the Teamsters would have to rerun the entire election," Kim said.

The dues problem began in October 2002, when Ilae filed a worker's compensation insurance claim and was out of work for several months. Ilae discovered in November 2002 that his employer, the Budget car rental company, was not automatically deducting his union dues from his check.

Ilae said he went to the union hall to pay his dues in cash and to make sure his dues payments were up to date. He said he received letters from the union through the first half of this year telling him everything appeared to be in order, but got a letter from the union last Saturday telling him he was ineligible to run for union president.

Ilae said he now finds himself in virtually the same position he was in three years ago when a different federal judge declined to order the union to put his name on the ballot as a candidate for Teamsters president.

In that case, union officials determined that because Ilae had worked for the Unity House, a labor support organization, for a period leading up to the 2000 election, he worked in a job that did not call for Teamsters Union representation.

"Every three years its the same thing," Ilae said.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.