VIA Electronic Delivery March 16, 2011
Matt Rector, President Guam Federation of Teachers, Local 1581 153 Seseme Street / P.O. Box 2301 Hagatna, GU 96923 Elections Committee Guam Federation of Teachers, Local 1581 Re: Request for AFT Investigation by Carol Somerfleck Dear President Rector: AFT has received a request to investigate the recent internal elections as the Guam Federation of Teachers from a member and candidate for office in the most recent internal elections, Carol Somerfleck. A copy of that request is attached. AFT requests that GFT and the Elections Committee respond to the allegations in the request for investigation. The basis for the AFT’s authority to investigate an internal election in one of our affiliates is set forth in Article VI, Section 14(b) of the AFT Constitution. This section of the Constitution provides that an AFT investigation is appropriate where a local internal “election appears to have been conducted in violation of the local or state federation constitution, the AFT Constitution or applicable federal law.” The first step in AFT’s consideration of such requests is to conduct a preliminary investigation of the merits. At this stage, our goal is to determine whether there are sufficient unresolved material issues regarding the request to warrant forwarding the matter to the AFT Executive Council for a full investigation and live hearing. As part of this preliminary investigation, we will review the request itself and the GFT response to that request. The GFT response should address each of the allegations made by Ms. Somerfleck. To the extent that there are timeliness arguments raised by GFT, those contentions should be supplemented by
RECTOR/ELECTIONS COMMITTEE /Page 2
substantive response to the individual election challenges raised by Ms. Somerfleck. Ms. Somerfleck should be provided a simultaneous copy of your submission to AFT. If at all possible, your response should be submitted by March 31, 31 , 2011. 2011 Sincerely,
Antonia Cortese Secretary-Treasurer AC:DJS:od Enclosures cc:
Carol Somerfleck Sol Smith