Joy Tiz
©2010
It was a nasty, ugly, three-year, million-dollar war I did not ask for, but had to win. Otherwise, the business I loved would be infiltrated by a scheming labor union determined to undermine employee privacy rights and destroy my version of the American Dream.
-David Bego
In The Devil at My Doorstep, David Bego chronicles his long and fierce battle with Obama accomplice, Andy Stern, and the SEIU thugocracy. Bego is the archetype of the American Entrepreneur, which makes him an Enemy of the State far more menacing than a nuclear Iran.
Bego’s company, Executive Management Services (EMS) grew from nothing to 5000 employees in thirty-three states as a result of hard work and a dedication to quality service that is in the molecular structure of Americans like Bego. EMS provides commercial cleaning services, facility maintenance and security. Thus, EMS employs janitorial workers, making Bego an irresistible target for Stern and SEIU.
One theme emerges from Bego’s story that dominates the narrative: his genuine love for his employees and his company. Even those workers who succumb to the siren song of phony promises from SEIU get Bego’s compassion as he watches those same workers tossed aside when they are no longer useful to union thugs.
EMS, prior to the assault by SEIU, ran efficiently and productively. Employees were paid higher than industry average and were offered excellent benefits. It’s part the nature of Bego himself as well as his business acumen. Winning the confidence of Fortune 500 companies requires above average workers and above average performance. The EMS motto is: “We don’t just clean, we manage.” EMS clients properly expected the workers to be well trained and conscientiously screened.
To round out the picture, EMS ultimately became a true family business with the hiring of Bego’s wife, daughter, son, son in law and even Bego’s own father. In other words, EMS is precisely the kind of entrepreneurial success story that could only happen in America. So true to the American Dream is EMS that it almost sounds like a cliché. Yet, we should all take comfort that Bego proves the Dream can still be realized.
Assuming, however, your business can withstand a full scale jihad launched by White House-friendly union bosses.
If you can imagine this scenario, then try to imagine what it was like when one day this peaceful world was interrupted by the knowledge that EMS was about to be invaded by an outside adversary threatening to turn this world of ours upside down. One minute, we were enjoying the fruits of our labors minding our own business, and the next attacks begin lambasting the company as a ‘rat contractor’ that cleaned buildings dubbed ‘Houses of Horror’ for janitors who were exploited, intimidated, threatened, and abused all in the name of corporate greed. For the first time in our history, multiple National Labor Relations Board filings, frivolous charges with questionable evidence, would be filed against us for employee rights violations and for firing union supporters as the EMS image was dragged through the mud.
Once the shock and awe of the SEIU assault had EMS reeling, the union offered up a way out of the siege. All Bego had to do was sign a “Neutrality Agreement”, which is Newspeak for crushing his employees’ rights to vote for or against unionization by secret ballot.
Upon his signature, EMS would be magically transformed from Rat company to honorable and respected contractor.
At no time had Bego ever suggested to his employees that he would discourage union membership if they so chose. In fact, EMS is meticulous about following the rules.
Nor did anyone at SEIU bother to tell EMS employees that the contracts the unions had negotiated for similar companies actually resulted in lower wages and less benefits than EMS was currently offering.
As for me, I would be called deceitful, greedy, anti-union, and downright evil as noisy demonstrations and protests began popping up at buildings across the country where we managed the cleaning process. Letters packed with insults were sent to customers telling them is characterizations, imagine if you will, how you would feel when a sledgehammer begins to pound at your very being and you realize a large headache is about to infiltrate your brain for a long time to come. If you can imagine this situation, then you can relate as to how it felt when a super-charged, powerful, politically-connected, well-funded labor union, specifically the Service Employees International Union (the SEIU), decided to target us and wage war with a company that for almost twenty years had treated its employees with respect and dignity and those employees, with few exceptions, to a person, wanted no part of union organization within the company. Clergy groups, activist organizations, and even the Islamic community would enter the fray in support of our enemy, armed as they were with less than the truth but a belief we were the bad guys and not the union. News of the war would spread to London and beyond as the battle escalated by the day.
Through the entire blitzkrieg, Bego holds onto his certainty that his employees were treated better by EMS than they would be by SEIU; at the same time, he makes it plain that his employees are free to join the union. The only hill he’s willing to die on is secret ballots.
Bego exposes every sinister step in SEIU’s offensive against EMS; most poignant are the stories of EMS workers betrayed and exploited by SEIU. Bego forgives them, placing the blame squarely on SEIU. Devil at My Doorstep is much more than a modern David v Goliath saga. In a perfect world, it would be required reading in high school civics classes. Bego’s narrative is a grand expose of SEIU’s modus operandi and a cautionary tale to all spirited American entrepreneurs.
And finally, words from the man I was about to wage war with, SEIU president Andy Stern: ‘Today I send this message to every emerging global corporation: justice, family community, and union are the same in every language and, wherever you go and whatever you do, a new global labor movement is coming to find you.’
8 Comments
wow people sure are ridiculous. why the union has to get people to sign cards? because the labor board wont let just anyone just have a union. they have to see that enough people do want to see it happen. and of course those cards dont count as votes. they have to have an election because its what the law says about employees rights to form a union, once theres a majority then the workers can have a union, dont be misinformed by obvious people trying to make a buck by selling a book about a unions “thug” tactics. does tupac or snoop dogg work for seiu? dont think so. those are thugs. please people educate yourselves and make informed decisions before you start spouting off fox news politics.
Dear Anonymous,
If you truly believe what you have posted, and are not simply advancing your own agenda, then I fear you have an uninformed view of who the thugs really are. You mistake them for altruistic people standing for employee rights, when the true motives of many are nothing more than power and greed. It is also abundantly clear you have never read a neutrality agreement, or if you have, are naive as to the intent of the agreement and the extent union organizers will exert harassment, coercion and intimidation to achieve their goals!
Let’s review some of the more onerous terms of a neutrality agreement:
1.) The neutrality agreement eliminates any petition for a secret ballot election and resorts to recognition via card check. Why would the unions seek to force a company to recognize a signature card, rather than engage in a private election? It should be obvious to any unbiased person the only reason this would be necessary is because the union knows it cannot win an election, and is determined to impose it’s will through forced unionism. The secret ballot which we use in our government elections, and which is administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for union recognition, is the only means of guaranteeing an uncorrupted election free of influence from either party. The Taft-Hartley Act passed in 1947 instituted the secret ballot election following years of corruption, union intimidation and coercion of employees! In our case we offered the SEIU the opportunity to have an election on many occasions, and in each instance they declined. Despite ruthless intimidation tactics used throughout the corporate campaign process in an attempt to force us to sign a neutrality agreement, the SEIU was only able to obtain 10 signatures out of 400 potential employees.
Language from SEIU neutrality agreement: “Employer will not file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for an election in connection with any demand for recognition by Union during the term of this Agreement. By entering into this Agreement, Employer acknowledges that it has waived any right that it may have during the term of this Agreement to file a representation petition in response to nay demand for recognition by Union pursuant to this Agreement.”
2.) The neutrality agreement requires the employer to provide, within five (5) business days of signing, a list of the names and addresses of all employees. Now lets use a little common sense. If the employees were the ones who were behind this initiative why would the union need their names and addresses? The answer is that the employees never invited the union. The union needs the information so they can send their thugs to peoples homes in order to intimidate them into signing union cards!
Language from SEIU neutrality agreement: “Upon Union’s request, Employer shall provide within five (5) business days a list of the names and addresses of all Employees within classifications subject to this Agreement.”
3.) The neutrality agreement requires the employer to commence bargaining. If no agreement can be reached, the parties agree to participate in arbitration.: Why would the unions want this language? Because it guarantees them a contract! Remember that the National Labor Relations Act as it currently exists only requires employers to bargain, not to enter into an agreement!
Language from SEIU neutrality agreement: “The parties agree that any disputes . . . shall be submitted to expedited arbitration before an impartial arbitrator.”
The neutrality agreement is not just a means to approach employees, it is a means to forced unionism. The truth is unions as supported by NLRB statistics win about 64% of the elections. Company intimidation of employees is not the unions problem, because companies understand they need to take care of their employees and employees today have many government options such as the EEOC, DOL, NLRB and Wage and Hour to resolve grievances. In today’s age the problem unions have is they have nothing to sell!
You’ve over simplified the neutrality agreement . It exposes employees to coercion & physical threats . SEIU has been known to ” assist ” people by filling out the ballots themselves . The country was built on secret ballot elections . If the Union is so certain that they are what is needed ; why not educate & allow free choice ?
Why do the generals of business inist on protraying themselves as heroes, the neutrality agreement simply means a right to approach the employee without the company thugs brainwashing and intimidating their employees.
I continue to find it fascinating how FEW people in this land give any thought, whenever there is an opportunity to exert selfcentered influence over someone else’s existence, to that list of instructions called: The Ten Commandments.
Union bosses have a LONG tradition of looting their pension and health care funds, now they are next in line for HUGE taxpayer bailouts (biyon$$$$). So they can continue this practice, and continue LARGE kickbacks to their political toadies.
“I hate the company, they will fire you… but I fear the union, they will KILL you”. Unknown WV coal miner.
Unions are still perceived by far too many people as those of the early 19th century when workers were oppressed and having a union did mean you had a chance if you joined…but, in short order, the lure to the mob of all that dues money with so little cost of goods sold was too great and the unions were taken over…and so it goes to this day.
Consider that the SEIU gets $10/week per member. Now at over 2,000,000 members, that is $20 million each WEEK. All collected and paid to them by their ‘partners’, the businesses they took over. This is only possible when your other big partner is the political party you choose to pay to advance your cause with both direct contributionsnUNLIMITED, by the Democrats under the Disclosure Act.
SEIU, Teamsters, UAW…all are in on the corruption and profiting greatly by it. If you read one other book on the horrible cost and corruption entailed, PLUNDER by Steven Greenhut will richly inform you. There, the cost of the Public Unions and their entanglement with the State politicos will or should, enrage you.
David Bego is a true American Hero. I hope his book is read by every single person who believes in free enterprise and capitalism. You will need his philosophy and principled application of his values in order to be as successful as he.