by David Bego
Based on the upsurge in union pressure and the fact that it had become “personal,” Gerald wrote, “This is getting to be difficult . . . I had no idea they would stoop to this level. I agree with your stance and I hate to see them get away with this type of action. Unfortunately, I have a responsibility to my investors which I am being reminded of more and more.” Closing the message, he added, “I am not sure what our next step will be,” providing me with a heads-up that he was about ready to say enough was enough, and drop us as their cleaning source. If he did so, would others follow causing a domino effect? Was the union on the brink of winning the war?
While I awaited Gerald’s response, letters to customers attacking EMS grew in their ferocity. Almost every one alluded to the NLRB filings, ones stating 1) EMS illegally threatened to fire janitors participating in efforts to form a union; 2) EMS illegally threatened the loss of janitors’ jobs if they choose to form a union; 3) EMS illegally threatened surveillance of janitors because they were supportive of the union; and 4) EMS illegally interrogated janitors because they were supportive of the union. Similar charges had been filed against other union holdouts, including Corporate Cleaning Systems and QBM. We noticed several similarities among the complaints indicating a cookie-cutter procedure by SEIU against those who supposedly thumbed their noses at union organizing.
At CCS, they also discovered later that the employee was a paid SEIU operative “salted” into the work force to be disruptive. Although our suspicion was we had similar occurrences at EMS, we had no proof of this. However, we did have one fellow called Daniel who ended up becoming a leader in the pro-union movement. We had problems with him not showing up for work on a consistent basis and with work performance to the extent that our customer asked us to remove him from the building. Instead of firing Daniel, we moved him to Market Tower to give him a second chance. But his attendance and performance did not improve. When a Bible was reported stolen from an office, he admitted stealing it and we had no choice but to terminate him. This was tough to do because Daniel had a wife and seven children with another on the way. After he was fired, the SEIU filed an NLRB complaint against us, but the union later withdrew it for lack of validity. Daniel and others like him, including an older gentleman named Hank, were easy prey for the SEIU and valuable because they provided secret information about EMS operations. Because we didn’t have anything to hide, the information was basically worthless.
Every time I read the list of allegations (never accusations), my blood pressure jumped into the danger zone despite the fact that eventually virtually every single allegation filed against EMS would be reconciled in our favor. Why? Because we had documentation proving our contentions and credible witnesses to account for what had actually happened.
Nevertheless, as I sat at my desk pondering what to do next, I realized none of these charges would be reconciled for months as the slow process continued through the NLRB hearing schedules. Meanwhile, EMS was being tortured with a thousand little cuts as one union observer had stated it. Punch after punch was being thrown at me and our company and, like a fighter who feels he better start throwing some punches of his own, I decided it was time to mount the full-out, full-blown blitzkrieg-like attack we had been working on since early October. Believing those who say the best defense is many times an overwhelming offense, I called my legal experts and together we finalized our strategy designed to hit Stern and the SEIU square on the jaw with the hope we might well discover the knockout punch necessary to make them leave me, EMS, my customers, and most importantly, our employees, alone. Timing was important, I knew, because with the end of the year approaching marking the two-year point of the campaign to make us buckle under and surrender, SEIU was under the gun to produce a signed Neutrality Agreement immediately, if not sooner. We knew this based on some documentation we discovered regarding the union campaign and its plans to spend up to 2 years attempting to unionize a company before moving on. The clock was now ticking on 2 years, one second at a time.
In spite of the fact that we were holding our own, it was time to launch a guided missile. Our weapon was to file 33 separate unfair labor practice charges, all based upon documented violations of law, against SEIU with the NLRB. And to do it with flair through an accompanying press release detailing exactly those charges for everyone to see. With this game plan in tow, at 9:00 a.m. on November 14, 2007, the media were advised of our intentions in a release titled, “Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Under Investigation for Multiple Labor Law Violations.” Just as Stern and the SEIU had sizzled me with allegations, we now turned the tables on them by doing the same thing. To emphasize the validity of the charges, we used a quote of mine: “We respect our employee’s rights under the law, including their right not be represented by a union if that is their choice. That is not a decision that either this company or the SEIU is going to make for our employees. EMS has repeatedly asked the union to agree to a secret-ballot election conducted by the NLRB, but the union refuses to hold an election.” Below this statement, we listed in summary several of our charges, including engaging in mass picketing and protests, releasing balloons, threatening to interfere with business investors unless customers agree to use a union contractor, threatening and intimidating employees, “trick or treating” at the home of an EMS customer, sending numerous letters to building owners and tenants making maliciously false and misleading statements, and conducting multiple protests and rallies against EMS without filing a petition for an NLRB election as required by federal law.
Emphasizing our position, the release closed with two important points. First, I was quoted: “The union’s claim that EMS keeps janitors in poverty is absurd. We pay our janitors a higher starting wage than the union-represented janitors in Cincinnati, plus we offer health care to our full-time workers. And we offer these wages and benefits without requiring our employees to pay about $40 per month in union dues.” Second, we noted, “The SEIU has come under scrutiny for its campaign tactics of harassment and intimidation in other locations as well. Last week, Wackenhut Corporation, a leading provider of security services throughout the United States, filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York City alleging racketeering and extortion by the SEIU in violation of the federal RICO laws in connection with a similar organizing campaign.”
Covering eight pages, the press release then listed the 33 charges with summary details. Anyone who read them would be well aware of the ruthless campaign waged against a company whose track record with employees was exemplary. How I wanted to deliver the press release personally to Stern, Dingow, Hanrahan, Rev. Cushman Wood, Rev. C. J. Hawking, and Father Tom Fox. “Take this,” I would have said while walking away with a smile on my face.
Someone said timing is everything in life, and our timing with issuing the press release was superb. In fact, we were told that the very same morning we took the offensive like Patton marching through Germany, the SEIU had its own press release ready to announce that the union was commencing contract negotiations with other cleaning companies that had signed the Neutrality Agreement. But first comes first, and when we filed our press release, they withdrew theirs. Later, we learned that SEIU’s local director Rebecca Maran was extremely upset her union had been scooped. When she was asked to respond by the newspaper reporter, she backpedaled a bit from her EMS accusations saying that maybe some of what we were stating was true. This was exactly what we had in mind, for now the union was finally on the defensive, having to explain itself as we had been forced to do for the past year-plus. Rebecca must have sent word to SEIU national headquarters in Washington D.C., that she needed reinforcements as we were not backing down and instead had taken the offensive with the multiple charges. This told us the union knew they were in trouble, on the wrong side of the gun barrel, and in bunker mentality. The effect was immediate—fewer union protests, fewer flyers, and fewer handbills being distributed—less activity overall. For the first time in a long time, I could actually concentrate on helping run
the company. What a relief this was for those in management who had been forced to do my job as well as their own.
How I would have loved to see Stern’s face when he learned of this new development. Perhaps his face turned as purple as his trademark shirt and tie. “Who is this guy?” he probably wondered. “Why won’t he cave in like all of the others?”
Divine Support
DESPITE THE APPARENT SLOW-DOWN OF UNION ACTIVITY, CONCERN FOR my own personal safety and that of my family continued. During the time when the fighting was the fiercest, I had insisted ADT install surveillance cameras at our home and that of my daughter. We notified the neighborhood security force of potential trouble especially after our neighbor was harassed at his home by SEIU operatives. I’ve never been a gun owner, but I became one after learning how to shoot so I could defend my family if need be.
Watching my back at all times was an eerie feeling. Even when I started the car, there was a hesitation, just a brief one, as my mind considered whether someone might have planted a bomb in retaliation for my opposition to the SEIU. I hated to even think that way, but I did, and still do. But my faith in God and my belief I was standing up for truth by defending employees who could not defend themselves, caused me comfort during the rough times. And Barb was always there with me, along with our small dog with the big heart. Playing with him and feeling the love he gave me at every turn helped during the evenings when I sat alone in my home office wondering what SEIU would throw at me next. Prayer was a constant companion as I asked the Good Lord to give me the strength to continue on. Perhaps my prayers had been answered, and due to our blitzkrieg offensive, SEIU would go away into the sunset. At least I could hope they would.
Replacing striking employees cut deep into my heart and soul as the holiday season 2007 approached. With 10 employees having decided to leave their jobs, we were forced to hire new workers to meet contract obligations. What hurt most was realizing that during Thanksgiving and Christmas when people needed extra money, the striking workers would not be paid by EMS even though the union was paying them the same wages they made at EMS with no benefits to strike, but with strings attached. While I respected the worker’s right to strike, I wondered if Stern and the SEIU hierarchy cared as much for employee welfare in the same way I did. This seems almost too ludicrous to consider as it was the union that was supposed to look out for them, but when I glanced into the faces of those striking, I felt sorry for them because I truly believed they were being used by the union for its own selfish purposes.
Nevertheless, our human resources person, in this case my daughter Kelly, had begun the replacement process within minutes after we were notified of the strike. And, in what I suppose is a tribute to the type of company EMS is, there were many, many to choose from, as EMS was known as a company that paid higher wages and benefits than our competitors. All Kelly had to do was check the database and, presto, she had a list of employees ready and willing to earn good wages, benefits, holiday and vacation days, if they worked for us full-time and for a subsequent period of time. One by one, after extensive background checks, we replaced the striking workers, including two more, Dana and Juan, after we received word from SEIU that they had joined the strikers. The process took most of the month of October. In all, there would be 12 on strike out of a work force of more than 400 in Indianapolis, meaning at least 388 had not. Most picketed nearly every day until the weather turned sour. Then fewer and fewer showed up.
Meanwhile, a few protests and demonstrations at customer buildings continued with foghorns, the weapon of choice, as those striking screamed in anguish about the evil EMS corporate hog. Union representatives joined the strikers, as non-striking employees were confronted entering or leaving various office buildings.
On November 9, a surprise occurred when an unannounced OSHA official visited Market Tower. Our building manager was quick to request that an EMS management representative be present, and within minutes, our safety director Terry Snyder was on the scene.
Safety director, you might ask? Yes, despite SEIU claims to the contrary, EMS had then, and has now, an entire department dedicated to nothing but employee safety. In fact, we had no real choice in the matter because federal regulations were quite clear in this area—requiring us to make certain employees worked in safe environments where there was no chance of harm. Many companies in the industry do not have such safety programs, but EMS had created a program years earlier when it recognized employee safety, even in the relatively safe cleaning environment where we operated, was paramount. Also, as we grew through acquisitions across the country, some more dangerous environments meant paying even more attention to the safety issue. The solution: We hired an expert from a Fortune 500 company. His responsibility simply was, and is, to make sure all management and employees are dedicated to an injury-free work environment every day. The department has been instrumental in developing safety programs that are at the forefront of the industry. Every employee is trained in safety; we leave nothing to chance.
Despite the existence of the safety department, SEIU never mentioned this in any of its scathing letters, press releases, or flyers during their war. No, they left all this out as well as other programs we had installed specifically to benefit workers. Good news like this was not of interest to the union. They wanted to paint a bleak picture of EMS as a “rat contractor,” paying poverty wages and forcing employees to work in hazardous conditions with inadequate safety equipment . All of this was part of the campaign to smear us, to make us look like a greedy, non-caring corporation, part of the dreaded corporate America only interested in multimillion-dollar profits.
As I awaited word of OSHA’s inspection at Market Tower where complaints had been filed, I was conf dent we would pass with the proverbial flying colors. And we did, of course, because the complaints were a bunch of baloney—none of them valid in any way. The best the union could do was to point to a couple of improperly labeled bottles and a frayed extension cord, hardly earth-shattering evidence of incompetence on our part. In fact, there were never any penalties or fines imposed on EMS indicating the small nature of the complaints. But this did not keep the SEIU from sending out flyers and letters with allegations that EMS had major violations and used hazardous chemicals despite both union and non-union buildings around the country having many of the same minor violations that we experienced, and in many cases much worse.
Despite our innocence, the strike continued. Flyers imprinted with such phrases as, “Janitors On Strike,” “Unfair Labor Practice Strike,” and “EMS Janitors have faced threats, intimidation, surveillance, interrogation, and firing for union activity” were in view for all to see. Others stated, “EMS. Can’t Take It No More” followed by a quote from an EMS employee: “EMS has gotten away with paying us next to nothing and giving us broken and sub-standard equipment.” Nothing could have been further from the truth, but the union didn’t care. All they wanted was to dirty our name with accusation after accusation intending to draw sympathy from customers and the media at large. How I hated for my customers to endure such a disruption, but so far they had stayed the course with me through this difficult time.
SEIU had also taken our fight to cyberspace with the introduction of a website called www.EMSexposed.org. One of the headlines, along with photographs of SEIU demonstrations, read, “How Cleaning Firm Executive Management Services is Hurting Hardworking Families in the Midwest” (claims that were fabricated and blatantly untrue). Ouch!
To add to the pressure being exerted on customers, during the middle of December, local clergy requested a meeting with officials of a state university we cleaned in Cincinnati. Simultaneously, protests were being held in that city and Indianapolis where strikers sang Christmas songs using protest-type language. And a new flyer appeared with the caption, “All We Want For Christmas” followed by a list, “EMS Janitors’ Christmas List—End to Unfair Labor Practices, Respect, Justice.” To accentuate their cause, Christmas baskets containing vinegar, rags, and gloves
were left at the doorsteps of various building businesses, an apparent ploy to make those business owners feel guilty about the poor workers being treated like dirt by EMS. The truth is that vinegar is a terrific cleaning agent, we gave our workers plenty of rags, and the gloves were first-rate especially because we owned a supply company known for its first-class products. But I should not have worried as the business owners knew better, and so did the union. We treated the employees with respect and nearly 5,000 of them could testify to that if given the chance.
Those who say the Good Lord works in mysterious ways must have been referring to a blessing occurring on December 19, just six days before Christmas. All along I had wondered about the long list of clergy names (125 in all) attached to Rev. Cushman Wood’s letters. I finally received my answer when Rev. Msgr. Joseph Schaedel, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia (the Archbishop’s right-hand man) wrote a letter to Rev. Hawking. And what a letter it was.
Rev. Schaedel began by explaining that although Rev. Hawking had asked the Archbishop and him to support the Interfaith Worker Justice cause on behalf of EMS employees and their right to organize, he had taken some time to investigate before making a decision. He told Rev. Hawking first that “Persons familiar with Catholic Social Teaching know that the Church supports the rights of workers, including workers’ rights to organize into labor unions in order to negotiate with employers.” He also admitted “It seems to me that our Catholic Social Teaching would support the principles espoused by Interfaith Worker Justice: It is our calling to keep before this city a vision of God’s justice and mercy.”