The effort by the Teamsters to "take over" the New Mexico Transportation Union started in the late summer of 2003.  Some of the NMTU members, saying they were dissatisfied with the progress of the Union in securing its independent status from the United Transportation Union, Local 1745, contacted the local Teamsters chapter, Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union 492, and soon secured the assistance of an organizer, Moises Ortega.  With Ortega's help, they began the attempt to get signed "place cards" by soliciting signatures at the Transit Garage.  Teamsters' pins and leaflets began to appear.
  
By October, 2003, Teamsters began claiming they had a majority of the membership signed up, however the present leadership strongly disputes the Teamsters contentions, claiming that some of the cards were signed under the pretense that the employees were only seeking information about the possibility of other union representation.  It is apparent that none of the card signers were aware of or informed about the City's Labor-Management Relations Ordinance, which provides a one-year period of decertification and which prohibits presentation of any demonstration of support outside a 30-day "window" falling between 90 and 120 days before the expiration of the contract.

By the time the Teamsters began writing and formally claiming the right to representation of the bus and van drivers, more than a year had passed since the window period, and the NMTU contract had long since expired.  The first move was apparently a trip to Santa Fe, where Teamster representatives mistakenly approached the State Labor Board, only to learn that the State Labor Board had no authority over the older City Labor Board.  The next move by the Teamsters was apparently a November 19, 2003, letter to Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez.  In that letter Ortega advised the Mayor that the Teamsters had been authorized by the bus and van drivers "to represent them on all matters pertaining to their wages, hours of work and other terms and conditions of employment with the City of Albuquerque."

      Claiming to be the "exclusive bargaining agent," Ortega requested that the Mayor meet with him "for the purpose of negotiating the terms of a labor agreement."  Ignoring the expired contract and ongoing bargaining efforts between the City and the NMTU, Ortega requested that Mayor Chavez "contact us as soon as possible to set a mutually agreeable schedule for the purpose of contract negotiation."

In a terse response, City Employee Relations Officer Barbara Martinez-Keiser informed Ortega by letter of November 24, 2003, that "all collective bargaining activities within the City of Albuquerque are governed by the City's Labor-Management Relations Ordinance."  She told Ortega and the Teamsters that they "must follow the procedures set forth in the Ordinance."

 The Teamsters responded on December 1, 2003, writing to the Labor Board.  In a letter addressed to "Esteemed Board Members," Ortega said that since the City's response did not "answer to our request for recognition . . . we urgently seek the Board's attention in this matter."  A month passed, and at some time the Teamsters apparently had a meeting with the Mayor, and were referred to the City's Boards and Commissions Office and the Employee Relations staff.  

A few Teamsters representatives appeared at a Labor Board meeting on January 9, 2004, where they were greeted by a much larger number of NMTU members.  Chairman Robert Gutierrez and attorney Paul Livingston asked the Board to acknowledge that they lacked jurisdiction to proceed to hear the Teamster representatives, Moises Ortega and Paul Froonjian.   The Teamsters were not on the agenda, so the Board was not authorized to hear them at that time.  Nonetheless, the Board invited Ortega to speak, despite objections from the NMTU. The Labor Board heard from its attorney, John DeBois, who failed to mention the "window"  requirement, and from City negotiator Paul Broome.  Gutierrez and Livingston read to the Board the provision that precludes such takeovers, and Paul Broome raised six or seven questions that would have to be answered.  Over the NMTU's objections the Labor Board agreed to hear from the Teamsters again at another meeting, after they were placed on an agenda.

 On January 12, 2004, the Labor Board Chairman, Patrick Halter, wrote to Ortega and Keiser, advising them that the next Labor Board meeting was January 23, 2004, and asking for "a letter to the Board by January 15, 2004, explaining (the Teamster's) position in the questions surrounding the representation of bus drivers."  The Labor Board Chairman asked the Teamsters to "identify issues and/or requests from the union to the Board," asking that a copy be served "on the management representative so a response to the union's letter can be filed with the Board by January 19, 2004.  According to Halter, the "Board will have these materials prior to the meeting which will help its members determine how much time to allot to this matter at the meeting."

 On January 14, 2004, Paul Broome, wrote to the Director of the State Public Employee Labor Relations Board, Juan Montoya (who is the past Chairman of the City's Labor Board and Patrick Halter's predecessor) explaining that the Teamsters' issue had been addressed by the City Labor Board at its December 23, 2003 and its January 9, 2004, meetings, but that the Teamsters had not been present.  Broome, who calls himself the City's "Employee Relations Consultant" apparently wrote in response to Montoya's attempt to intervene on behalf of the Teamsters.  He advised Montoya that the Teamsters would be on the agenda of the Labor Board's January 23, 2004 meeting.

Also on January 14, Moises Ortega wrote to Patrick Halter, informing him that the Teamster's "position is very simple, we are seeking recognition as the exclusive bargaining agent for the City of Albuquerque Transit Department Drivers and Chauffeurs."  According to Ortega, "since there is not a collective bargaining agreement currently in effect . . . we feel that our request for recognition is valid."  He claimed that he "will be prepared to present our authorization cards" and answer the Board's questions at the hearing on January 23.

When the Labor Board called the Teamsters on the agenda on January 23, 2004, however, Ortega and Froonjian were nowhere to be found.  Over Robert Gutierrez's objection, Chairman Halter said he would place them on the agenda for the next meeting, scheduled for March 1, 2004.

On January 20, 2004, City Employee Relations Officer Barbara Keiser wrote to Chairman Halter stating that "(t)he City does not have a 'position' on this matter.  She stated that "The New Mexico Transportation Association is the non-supervisory transit employees exclusive representative even though the Association's collective bargaining agreement with the City has expired."  Kaiser informed the Board that it would "need to address a number of questions related to this matter, including the question whether a decertification election may be conducted at this time and whether the employees will be denied the exclusive representative for one (1) year if the teamsters are successful with it's (sic) decertification initiative."  She enclosed the City's certification of the NMTU "as exclusive representative."

On Friday, February 27, 2004, NMTU attorney Paul Livingston wrote to the Teamsters' officials, President Pete Castanuela and Secretary-Treasurer Robert D. Younger, to demand that they stop their "unlawful and disgraceful raiding of our Union membership" and advising them that he would take "all necessary action to halt that activity in the event you refuse to voluntarily desist."  Livingston told the Teamster officials that they "should be aware and have absolutely no doubt that it is the New Mexico Transportation Union and its leadership that will prevail and will continue to exercise its organizational mandate on behalf of the City's bus and van drivers."

The Teamsters' response from Secretary Treasurer Robert Younger stated that "my organizer will be at the meeting before the Labor Board and furthermore, do what you think you are capable of because we are going forward."