Each candidate must be treated equally with respect to the expense
of such distribution. Thus, a union and its officers must honor a
candidate's request for distribution where the candidate is willing and
able to bear the expense of such distribution. However, should the
candidate be unable to bear such expense, there is no requirement that
the union distribute the literature of the candidate free of charge. In
the event the union distributes any candidate's literature without
charge, however, all other candidates are entitled to have their
literature distributed
on the same basis. Since labor organizations have an affirmative duty to
comply with all reasonable requests of any candidate to distribute
campaign literature (at the candidate's expense), a union rule refusing
all such distributions would not be proper, even though applied in a
nondiscriminatory fashion. In view of the fact that expenses of
distribution are to be borne by the candidate a labor organization may
not refuse to distribute campaign literature merely because it may have
a small staff which cannot handle such distribution for all candidates.
If this is the case, the organization may employ additional temporary
staff or contract the job to a professional mailer and charge the
expense incurred to the candidates for whom the service is being
rendered. The organization may require candidates to tender in advance
the estimated costs of distributing their literature, if such
requirement is applied uniformly.
