The Devil at My Doorstep

by David Bego

  When Kelly was charged, this was certainly one of the darkest days of the war. I had spent years building a business, a reputable one, and in the process, creating jobs for employees who really wanted to get ahead. And so many of them did, that I felt good at the end of the day; I was truly helping people. No, I couldn’t pay these hardworking people sky-high wages, but I could pay them as much as possible according to industry standards while still permitting EMS to be competitive. Ninety-nine percent of the employees realized this but two disgruntled ones caused us to defend ourselves. All the while I never received any correspondence, telephone call, or any other communication from an employee asking me to recognize the union or telling me that they wanted to organize. And why should they when deep in their heart each knew EMS treated them better than any other company in our industry—bar none.

  Regardless, having explained as best we could to customers and employees alike our position, I could only hope our plan would succeed. If we could knock SEIU out of the box, then EMS and its employees could declare a victory, one for the little guy fighting the big union boss and his vast number of union organizers. Only time would tell who would win the war, but I was confident that EMS could hold its own with Stern and the SEIU, if we stayed on course and never backed down.

  To their credit, the union kept up the relentless attacks. At one point, organizers attempted to embarrass me during a golf tournament at a local course. Several appeared with signs stating “Shame on EMS” while chanting “EMS Must Go, Dave Bego Must Go.” If Stern had been with them, he would have become target practice for some very unhappy golfers including me. Hopefully all of those disturbing the day were truly union workers, not shills as was the case in downtown Indianapolis. I did not recognize any EMS employees; this was reassuring. On the drive home from the course, I was thankful for the support from the course members, but upset over being verbally assaulted in front of my friends.

  Meanwhile, SEIU organizers appeared at a large EMS pharmaceutical customer of ours and attempted to speak to employees as they arrived for work or as they left at the end of their shift. They were escorted off the grounds by the company’s security. Next, the organizers chose Indianapolis Power and Light’s corporate headquarters on the circle in the downtown area to distribute handbills. Simultaneously, protesters distributing flyers stood outside Market Tower, the building later shown on a Lou Dobbs CNN special about Stern, the SEIU, and our company. None of those protesting or distributing handbills were EMS employees. One of the handbills included the language, “EMS keeps janitors in Poverty and has sought to prevent them from exercising their rights.” EMS employee Daniel was quoted as saying, “Working at EMS I feel like I am being used for my hard work rather than appreciated . . . I do not have health benefits working with EMS . . . the wages are not enough to support a single person, let alone a man with a wife and six children . . . .” Little did those who saw the flyers realize that Daniel, like so many other unsuspecting workers, was being used by the SEIU. How I wished I could get a bullhorn and scream the truth so our side of the story could be heard.

  No one listening or watching the demonstration knew that Daniel had an extremely poor attendance and performance track record and was eventually terminated for theft, factors undoubtedly influencing his comments. We also eventually learned he had been hired as an SEIU organizer. I suspect poor Daniel’s performance problems and eventual termination were all pre-meditated, staged acts encouraged by the union so they could file unfair labor practices against EMS and use them to defame the company in flyers and letters. This also positioned them for a last desperate act to force me to sign a Neutrality Agreement.

  Meanwhile, the war continued. On March 13, as spring began to peek out with warmer temperatures, SEIU organizers solicited EMS employees in front of a customer’s building in Cincinnati before their shift telling them the union could get them “12 to 15 dollars per hour,” a totally bogus guarantee. A day later, approximately 8 to 10 organizers protested. To make a media splash, several organizers appeared five days later and demonstrated using a jail cell type prop. Inside the cardboard box painted to look like a jail cell, they had positioned a person wearing an EMS shirt. Emblazoned on the front were the words, “EMS Poverty Prison.” One handbill read, “Janitors Sentenced to Life in Working Poverty by EMS Janitorial.”

  Hearing of these incidents and reading the handbills and flyers was difficult because I knew they were based on untruths. I kept trying to be calm, but when my blood pressure rose to the level where I wanted to march down to a building and shout out the truth for all to hear, prayer comforted me. Seeing workers used for union purposes hurt the most as I knew these workers did not realize they were being used. They were simply pawns in a chess game Stern and the SEIU were playing in the hope that I would cave into their demands. Tears came to my eyes when I thought of how hard I had worked, how hard all of us at EMS had worked to build a quality company with an unblemished track record of caring for our employees. Now mud was being slung at us from every corner, and all I could do was hope my customers would remain loyal and not dump us, and that friends and colleagues who knew me would stand by our side based on knowledge that EMS was the victim of unwarranted character assassination. But Stern and his union organizers didn’t care what I thought; they didn’t care at all about any of that.

  This was proven when the union filed charges against our company with the NLRB. They included allegations at Sallie Mae for forced removal of union buttons, interrogation, impression of surveillance, and for threatening employees with job loss. In quick succession, SEIU told our customers we were “under investigation,” terminology designed to scare the customers into canceling contracts with us. If they did so, and others followed, there would be the choice as to whether to sign the piece of paper agreeing to be bound by the Neutrality Agreement, or face possible loss of the business if things progressed to that point because of loss of necessary revenues. EMS was also leaking money through retention of attorneys providing expert advice as to how to deal with Stern and SEIU. How I hated to approve hefty checks for attorney fees and other costs needed to fight the union. But I refused to give up everything I believed in and let my company and my employees down. This would never have been necessary if Stern’s appointed organizer Dennis Dingow had provided me with proof that the SEIU could truly be a partner in helping my employees instead of starting a war to destroy the company or force union recognition on my employees through manipulation and intimidation. At least nearly all of the EMS employees understood the threat and proved it by not signing union cards.

  To take advantage of the NLRB f lings and their potential impact, about a dozen protesters gathered on two occasions outside a customer’s building in Cincinnati. They blocked the sidewalks while carrying flyers with new inflammatory language: “Charges at the National Labor Relations Board include allegations of EMS Management: Threatening and Intimidating janitors to coerce them from exercising their rights, Interrogating janitors in violation of their protected rights, Retaliating against janitors for participating in protected activity.” When I saw this flyer, I had to take my hat off to the SEIU strategists as without a whiff of proof regarding any of the allegations, just posting them made us look guilty despite the fact the allegations were completely baseless, containing not a shred of truth. This was in line with the union’s smart idea to “allege” but never “accuse.” How I wanted to reciprocate, but this is what they wanted from me—reactions further blemishing our company’s image. I was not about to give them that satisfaction or stoop to their level. I was determined to remain professional.

  On March 22, the protesters appeared and were removed by security guards at the pharmaceutical company again. The intensity of the protests continued with organized demonstrations at IPL, Sallie Mae, and in Cincinnati.

  When I believed the war could not become more bizarre, it did. Without warning, SEIU filed an OSHA complaint in Cincinnati against EMS. This government agency, the Occupational Sa
fety and Health Administration, establishes and enforces protective standards designed to prevent work-related injury illnesses and death. The complaint charged that EMS employees were carrying human body parts out in bags at the university; that there were hazardous chemicals and dust in the bio lab, and that people were getting nose bleeds from the poor conditions. Then the SEIU sent out handbills and letters alleging that EMS was being investigated for OSHA violations at the university. Using the word “investigated” had its obvious repercussions, a crafty move by the union. Of course, when the truth was revealed, it became known that the lab in question was a regular biology lab anyone in college might experience. There was no dust found, no hazardous materials of any kind, animal parts from dissections existed, but no EMS employees touched or disposed of them.

  The university’s own investigation confirmed these facts, and their independent report was forwarded to OSHA. It promptly dismissed the charges. Regardless, SEIU had used a completely innocuous situation and filed trumped-up charges against EMS in order to defame our company and the university. When I thought of what had occurred, I wondered whether people like Stern and his band of thugs had any sense of shame. Apparently they did not, and realizing this, we decided to confront any and all of the accusations against EMS by suggesting a meeting between Cincinnati’s Mayor, Deputy Mayor, the Cincinnati City Council, customers and everyone concerned including the SEIU, and me. But being held accountable at a public forum was not something the union was interested in and they canceled the meeting. Working in the shadows was one thing, but having to defend their positions in the light of day in front of God and everyone was quite another.

  Such a meeting was necessary, I felt, as the customer was in the midst of attempting to construct a new building, a project requiring Cincinnati city council approval. The deputy mayor and some members of the city council had been besieged with union propaganda about how EMS was low on the wage, benefit, and hours worked front. We were also accused of underbidding union companies because of our non-union status. Regarding this latter charge, the SEIU would have been crucified as I was prepared to relate the details of the cleaning contract just awarded at Cincinnati International Airport. The incumbent, ABM, was evidently failing because it paid such low wages that it could not keep workers on the job despite a nearly 1,000,000 dollar-a-year contract. When bidding opened for a new agreement, EMS was asked to bid, and we did, but ended up in the middle of the pack behind three union contractors including a regional contractor, the eventual winner. Our bid was rejected because we factored in higher per hour wages for workers in the range of nine-plus dollars compared with the winning contractor using the proposed union scale range of seven dollars to seven dollars and 50 cents per hour. This was the amount the union would end up negotiating with contractors who signed the bargaining agreement with the SEIU in Cincinnati.

  The winning contractor’s proposal was almost sixty thousand dollars a year less than the incumbent, and 250,000 dollars less than EMS’s bid. The hours required to complete the job were mandatory and because this was a public bid, all the figures were available to the public. When they were exposed, it was clear that the SEIU was not at all interested in doing the right thing for the employees but instead committed to an employer that paid lower wages only because that employer was a so called “responsible contractor,” meaning a union contractor. When the SEIU realized we were going to destroy their untrue claims in a face-face confrontation, union officials decided to cancel the meeting. Allegations were one thing—proof quite another.

  At the end of the month, about 30 people protested at a Cincinnati customer’s building, making loud noises, banging on drums and things of that nature. Handbills were distributed stating, “EMS: The Cleaning Company with DIRTY Secrets.”

  Losing bids to union companies was commonplace, not the exception, as the SEIU portrayed it. A perfect example occurred when a prominent Indianapolis Developer asked us to bid. They were a huge developer with more than three and a half million square feet of space in the Indianapolis area. I told the executive that EMS didn’t stand a chance as companies like ABM would submit much lower bids based on lower worker wages and reduced hours. But he wanted us to bid, and so we did, but our bid was about a third higher than the winners, ABM, One Source, and another local company, a tenant.

  When the executive called me with the expected bad news telling me “reputable companies” had prevailed, I asked him if this meant that they would not steal from them. Before he could answer, I also asked the question as to whether these companies could provide the type of detail, hours and wage rates, to support their claims of performing the specifications in the request for pricing. He assured me all was well, and we were left to see what might develop. Unfortunately, it seems they made a decision based not just on price, but on the fact the SEIU had threatened them with bad publicity. I empathize with their plight.

  Almost a year and a half later, one of our managers was asked by one of their tenants to clean a building temporarily until some significant problems (worker theft and illegal aliens on the crew) were resolved.

  While our manager and her crew were cleaning the facility, several important facts were discovered. First the building condition from a cleaning perspective was sub-par. Second, time sheets revealed that upon calculation, the building was being cleaned almost a third faster than normal for that type of facility. It was now easy to understand why EMS was outbid by almost 30 percent as the winning bidder had reduced the hours spent to clean the building by the same amount. Also, the wages were at the union negotiated level of seven dollars to seven dollars and 50 cents per hour compared with EMS’s 1 dollar more per hour.

  On March 30, the union rolled out another disturbing tactic designed to make me sign the Neutrality Agreement. Officials sent a letter to several of our customers alluding to the NLRB and OSHA charges. A portion read, “EMS is facing increasing scrutiny for charges it engaged in unlawful labor practices and violated federal law. The charges are part of a growing case against EMS that raises questions about the impact of the cleaning company’s business and labor practices on workers and the community.” The charges referred to were, of course, the very ones the SEIU themselves, not our employees had filed, not out of conviction for the truth, but for the sole purpose of pressuring EMS into submission.

  In the end, these charges against us would amount to nothing with dismissals all around or settlements where we admitted no wrongdoing in the interest of moving on. But this did not stop the SEIU bandwagon from marching forward. At the beginning of April, three men boldly attempted to walk into the university President’s office saying they had issues with the health and safety of janitorial workers. The President’s secretary and another employee stopped them, and they were escorted away. To his credit, the President never bowed to union tactics. He was loyal to our cause as so many others would be. Thank God for them since they recognized the truth and decided to do the right thing.

  * * *

  1 To protect the identity of EMS employees and others, alternative names have been used in this book.

  Harassment on All

  Fronts

  ON APRIL 6, AS EMS EMPLOYEE PEARL STEPPED OFF A BUS ON HER WAY to work at a building in downtown Cincinnati, two SEIU operatives fell in beside her. Startled by their presence and how close they were to her, she tried to get away from them. Despite asking the two men to leave her alone, they continued alongside, talking at a fast pace about the union. When they arrived at the building door, they stopped her, looked at her face, and one said, “EMS is going to be a part of the union, no matter what, and the union will remember who helps them.”

  This obvious threat disturbed Pearl and was typical of the lengths to which SEIU would go to get their way. If EFCA is passed, imagine how much pressure, intimidation, and threatening behavior will occur if employees lose their right to private, secret-ballot elections. Senator Arlen Spector, the Pennsylvania Republican turned Democrat, appears to be one who underst
ands how this type of intimidation will occur if the card check process becomes the law of the land. Hopefully his switching parties will not change his position on this issue as he is right, dead right.

  When I think of this poor woman, a woman who just wanted to be left alone so she could do her job, it makes me wonder about the ethics of the SEIU. And how so many who are pro-union simply do not know the truth about how these organizers work—how they don’t give a damn while trying to impose their will on someone like Pearl a good worker who was scared for her life. But some people just don’t get it, especially those with good intentions but confused ideals, agendas, and attitudes.