Last week, Judge George B. Daniels denied in its entirety a motion for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by Local 100 member John Samuelsen against Local 100 and several of its top officers. Samuelsen had filed the lawsuit, called Samuelsen v. Toussaint, et al, the previous week in federal court in Manhattan. The ruling rejecting the preliminary injunction in its entirety suggests that the court may have questions about the merits of the lawsuit.

By prevailing in court, Local 100 won a round for members’ rights to privacy.

Samuelsen had asked the Court to order the Union to give him and his slate of candidates, “Take Back Our Union,” access to the Union's lists of member telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. The Union opposed this invasion of the members' privacy and insisted that if candidate had a right for campaign literature to be distributed to members by e-mail and robo-calling, it had to be through a vendor that the Union trusted to keep the members' personal information confidential. The Court agreed with the Union and denied Samuelsen's motion.

Samuelsen also asked the Court to order the Union to let him send an unlimited number of e-mail messages to members using the Union's e-mail list. The Union opposed this and told the Court that the members should not be inundated with an unlimited number of e-mails on union-related matters. Again, the Court agreed with the Union and denied Samuelsen's  motion.

Samuelsen further asked the Court to order the Union to let him send to members e-mails containing an unlimited number of  “links.” It is well known that links can result in the e-mail recipient's computer becoming infected with a virus, worm, spyware or other kinds of malicious software. The Union argued that the members should not be subjected to this risk. Yet again, the Court agreed with the Union and denied Samuelsen’s motion.

When he filed the lawsuit against the Union last week, Samuelsen stated that he expected to collect $15,000 in attorney's fees from the Union through this litigation. However, in order to be entitled to fees, he had to win his motion. Because every single one of Samuelsen's requests for relief was denied, he will not be collecting any money from the Union.