This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Utah Transit Authority's TRAX supervisors voted this week against unionizing; at the same time, the agency denied an open-records request seeking to show how much taxpayer money it spent on "union busting" consultants seeking that result.
The supervisors rejected joining Teamsters Local 222 on a 25-16 vote held Monday and Tuesday. Other TRAX operators are already represented by the separate Amalgamated Transit Union.
Because the Teamsters alleged that UTA was spending thousands of dollars on consultants to dissuade workers from unionizing, The Salt Lake Tribune filed an open-records request seeking access to contracts with any such groups.
UTA did not meet the normal five-business-day deadline to respond to a news media request, which would have been Sept. 2, writing it needed another week because it was "experiencing a large quantity" of requests. It said it would respond by last Friday, but at that time, the agency declined to say what its decision was — and also declined to answer other questions about the spending. The newspaper reported that before the election began.
The newspaper received a written denial by mail Tuesday, the final day of the election, to see contracts or agreements with Labor Relations Institute or its employee Rebecca Marie Smith. The company's website says she is a former labor organizer who "warns the average employee is very unlikely to learn the truth about unions until it is too late. She explains how the union works in real life."
UTA denied the request because "the record not only provides information about collective bargaining strategy but UTA's strategy in pending litigation." The Tribune plans to appeal to seek the amount of public funds spent.
UTA said it had no records about other consultants that the union said the agency had hired.
UTA spokesman Remi Barron said Wednesday, "UTA responded to the Tribune's latest request on time and in full compliance with state records law. Most of the documents the Tribune requested do not exist. The records that do exist relate to a court battle with the Teamsters that, unfortunately, we expect to continue. For this reason, UTA declined the Tribune's request for protected documents relating to that litigation."
While the request was rejected in part because it shows "UTA's strategy in pending litigation," Russell Monahan, attorney for the Teamsters, said it currently had no litigation against UTA. He said the election was ordered by the courts after a 2½-year battle over whether the supervisors had a right to organize.
Meanwhile, Britt Miller, business agent for the Teamsters local, said UTA had a legal deadline to respond to its own open-records request for essentially the same information last week — before the election.
Miller said Tuesday it received only a letter from UTA saying it was "processing large-scale requests and couldn't generate a response until the 16th. Of course, the election ends on the 13th."
"I'm not surprised," said Spencer Hogue, secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters local. "They don't want the public to know they are wasting taxpayer money."
He said UTA used delaying tactics against the union for the past 2½ years. He said a majority of supervisors initially signed paperwork seeking to organize, but UTA challenged their right to do so — which led to a legal battle in state court.
With that delay, Hogue said, some of the workers who initially sought unionization changed jobs or retired. "So the attrition narrowed our support," he said.
Also, he said after UTA's efforts against the union, "some feared for their jobs. They feared retaliation."
About the election, UTA spokesman Barron said Wednesday, "UTA is happy and humbled that its valued TRAX supervisors voted to keep a direct relationship with the agency."