The Devil at My Doorstep Read online

  The Devil at My

  Doorstep

  How I Survived a Three-Year War with

  Big Labor and Protected My Employees

  and Business

  David A. Bego

  “Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern is the drama queen of Big Labor.”

  Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2008

  “Our priority should not be to make unionized employers noncompetitive by raising the wages and benefits they offered their employees over the non-union company’s wages in the market. Instead, our priority should be to contribute to our employers’ success by organizing all their competitors.”

  A Country That Works

  “We like conversation, but we embrace confrontation.”

  SEIU Executive Contracts Administrator

  Dennis Dingow to EMS President Dave Bego

  Copyright ©2009, David Bego

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9841457-0-6

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2009931822

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system. EMS employees’ and others’ names have been changed by the author to protect their privacy.

  Beginnings

  IT WAS A NASTY, UGLY, 3-YEAR, MILLION-DOLLAR WAR I DID NOT ASK FOR, but had to win. Otherwise, the business I loved would have been infiltrated by a scheming labor union determined to undermine employee privacy rights and destroy my version of the American Dream.

  What is this Dream? Some may say it is a matter of freedom that allows every citizen in America the right to pursue a good life through free choice and hard work. Others use the term “equal opportunity” to describe the Dream—that all people should have the same chance to compete for any job without prejudice or threat. In this way, talent and skill become the tools of those who may succeed and discover peace and tranquility in their lives through a loving family, a comfortable wage, a nice place to live, and lasting friendships. Such a meaning coincides with the first use of the term by James Tousle in his 1931 book, Epic of America—“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

  Perhaps the Founding Fathers explained the American Dream best through the words, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Such is only possible when no restrictions occur regarding any sort of class system, religious affiliation or the lack thereof, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity. Absent also must be the evils of greed, force, and power, for such things inhibit everyone’s chance to live the Dream. This is why some sort of spiritual foundation is important because it permits a standard with which to evaluate conduct. This allows moral and ethical benchmarks to guide one’s behavior, whether it involves personal choice or business decisions.

  During a time of economic strife, many lose their belief that the American Dream is even possible based on several factors including loss of hope and lack of faith. Polls conducted by Business Week and CNN during the past two years or so indicated that from 50 to 66 percent of those polled believed the Dream was not achievable. Based on these perspectives, politicians during the 2008 Presidential election seized on the term, with the-then President-elect Barack Obama mentioning it often during the campaign, and at the Democratic Convention by comparing the phrase to basic “promises” with each person having the “freedom to make of our own lives what we will” while treating “each other with dignity and respect.” Referencing businesses, he said, “[They] should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.” I couldn’t agree more.

  Whatever standard is used to define the American Dream, my station in life as the year 2006 rolled around certainly qualified me for having achieved this Dream as one who had played by “the rules of the road” in the true spirit of entrepreneurship. Starting with no customers, no office, and little capital to support the venture in 1989, I now own a commercial cleaning, facility maintenance and security business (nearly 5,000 employees in 33 states), Executive Management Services (EMS), based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Customers include nearly 50 Fortune 500 companies. Times were good as I enjoyed a loving wife and family including three children, a warm and comfortable home, good friends, and terrific relationships with both our company management team and the hourly-wage employees, 70 percent of whom were full-time. We provided workers with above-scale wages, vacation and holiday pay, and covered 80 percent of their health care costs while combating the hiring of illegal aliens with a strict background check system.

  My spiritual compass was provided through my Catholic beliefs as a member of Holy Spirit at Geist Parish and a personal code of conduct—Christ-like in nature. I was involved in our local community as a volunteer and financial supporter for various charities including Indianapolis’s critically acclaimed Children’s Museum as well as the Special Olympics. EMS held an annual company golf tournament to raise funds for the YMCA’s “Kids under Construction” project, St. Mary’s Child Center, and Autism Advocates of Indiana. A second tournament called The Pete Dye Classic benefited the nationally acclaimed Riley Hospital for Children.

  On the employee front, EMS hired mentally challenged people from Goodwill Industries and helped to fight muscular dystrophy resulting in our receiving the Golden Handcuff Award. Along the way, in 1995, Senator Richard Lugar recognized EMS as one of the fastest-growing companies in Indiana, and the City of Indianapolis honored EMS with the Eagle Award for its keen foresight and powerful wings that made it a success story. One year, I was a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, an honor I sincerely appreciated because being an entrepreneur who started a company with nothing and helped it grow and sustain was indeed a special honor in itself.

  Another benefit of owning our own business was the chance to incorporate family into the equation. One by one, those we loved had joined EMS in some capacity. These included my wife Barbara, brother-in-law Ray, sister Nancy, son Mark, daughter Kelly, son-in-law Matt, and even my father Robert. We were truly a “family business” in any sense of the term and this family extended to our management colleagues and front-line employees.

  While we were proud of our achievements, EMS was certainly not going to change the world, but we were doing our part as a quality company with the motto, “We don’t just clean, we manage.” The big shot in our industry was ABM, and we were never going to topple them from power. In fact, we didn’t want to do so. Instead, we concentrated on our focused businesses, cleaning services for buildings and plants, distribution of Barrett Supplies and Equipment (high-quality chemicals, equipment, and commodities) for 50-plus years a star in that industry, and security deployment through Delta Security Services. With offices in such states as Missouri, Georgia, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, we were proud of our customer service and spotless record as a provider of an important service to building and plant owners around the country.

  Perhaps my proudest achievement aside from working with top management people who had been with the company an average of 15 years was the special relationship with EMS employees. Many of them did not have the chance to obtain university, college, junior college, technical, or even high school education, but they were good workers who believed in quality and hard work. How pleased I was that EMS could provide them with good-paying jobs and benefits fostering loyalty—since many of the employees had been with me for several years. It was never an “us” or “them” situation with me; it was “us” and “them,” because
we could not be successful without their help in providing the top customer service we rendered on a daily basis. EMS became known as a good place to work where employees received a square deal.

  Since its creation, EMS had been union-free. In fact, the employees and I worked in an environment where freedom was the priority. I could run my company as I saw fit with input from both management and colleagues, and the employees could work in a free choice atmosphere without any threats to their security or safety. Even after nearly 20 years of being in business, I had not even considered the possibility that our employees were interested in a third-party representative (a union), as I had never been approached about any such development. If there had been interest, I would have gladly worked with the employees under the time-tested and preserved right to vote in secret with no threat of repercussion based on an employee choice. This is how general elections are held. Why should a union election be any different? Soon an interloper (the SEIU) would appear that believed the basic American right to vote privately was unfair—to the SEIU’s financial well being!

  Together, employees and management co-existed in our little corner of the world with wages a dollar an hour more than the union was providing its members and benefits fair to everyone. We did our best to do a good job for our customers and used the money we earned to pay our bills, educate our children, provide for our families, and help those who were experiencing difficult times. A simple situation really, with management and employees happy and carefree, living at least what many would call the American Dream.

  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 began 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 alleged employee rights violations and for supposedly firing union supporters as the EMS image was dragged through the mud.

  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 what a scoundrel I was, one who profited from paying poverty wages. Based on these 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 20 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. News of the war would spread to London and beyond as the battle escalated by the day.

  But wait, during a war dubbed by the union as a “Corporate Campaign” against EMS that would last three years and more, there was a ready aspirin-like remedy possible to cure this headache of mine. All I had to do was cave in to the union’s demand that I sign a “Neutrality Agreement” indicating my agreement to “establish a recognition procedure for all of the company’s non-supervisory janitorial employees.” Even though this sounds innocent enough, it would have eliminated my employees’ ability to vote through the historically important American right to the secret-ballot election. Instead, the procedure dubbed “card check” would have been used to determine if a majority of the employees (50 percent + 1) wanted union representation. In essence, the Neutrality Agreement was simply a precursor for something called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the legislation currently under consideration by Congress.

  If I signed the document placed in front of me, I would instantly be transformed in the union’s eyes from an ogre and threat to the union movement to the best friend of the union President, Stern. In effect, the union would view me as one who truly cared about and loved his employees, characteristics that were already true despite allegations to the contrary. No longer would I risk losing customers and ultimately be forced to lay off management and valued employees, or even potentially face bankruptcy because of lost revenues. Sign the paper and cave in to union demands as many other businesses had done during the SEIU’s assault on our industry, and my troubles would be over. I would become a member of the “responsible contractor” family, the union’s euphemism for a union contractor.

  Yes, just a signature on a piece of paper, just one stroke of the pen, and my American Dream could continue without interruption. No more threats, intimidation, sullying of my reputation or the company’s, no more filing of unwarranted complaints with government agencies such as the NLRB or OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration), and no more angry words with union leaders as the SEIU could attempt to organize my employees using the card check method. All I had to do was say, “yes,” but I couldn’t simply sign that paper because doing so would have been against everything I believe in as an American citizen in a democratic country governed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If I signed, I knew I would lose every bit of respect for myself, and the respect of those who knew what kind of a true patriot I was. With this in mind, I said “no,” and shortly thereafter the war began in earnest, an ugly, costly, nasty, demeaning, no-holds-barred war threatening to ruin the company I loved. Yes, at risk was my American Dream; everything I had worked for from the day I started with nothing more than a willingness to work hard. Threatened with destruction of that business, I decided to fight back against the devil at my doorstep.

  Labor History

  ANYONE WHO CALLS ME ANTI-UNION SIMPLY DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HE or she is talking about. Labor unions are an important part of American industry, and when their leaders truly are interested in the welfare of workers, the positives may outweigh the negatives. A step back into the past reveals many strong arguments in favor of union existence, and I am one who has always believed in learning from the past.

  Rev. Martin Luther King believed the union movement had earned high marks.

  • • • • • • • • • • •

  History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the standard of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.

  • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

  Two Presidents—one from each political spectrum—agreed with Dr. King’s view. John F. Kennedy wrote, “The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.” Dwight D. Eisenhower believed “only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.”

  And finally, words from the man I was about to wage war with, SEIU President 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.”

  As I soon learned Stern meant what he said, that he and his union organizers were coming after me and my un-suspecting employees, and although most folks might be more familiar with th
e AFL–CIO, or the Teamsters Union made famous by their infamous leader James Riddle Hoffa, the Service Employees International Union had at least four important elements necessary to launch its crusade to infiltrate every global company: strength, power, money, and perhaps most importantly as I took them on, political power. Was I truly the “fool” President Eisenhower described above? Was I being foolish in trying to dodge the SEIU, to keep them off our property and out of our business, to deny them what they believed was their right to unionize EMS? When organizers first contacted me in 2006, these were questions I asked with no clear answers readily available.

  To better understand why I made the choice I did, one must understand how unions evolved in this country and what they were established to represent. Once this is clear, then focusing on the SEIU, their evolution, and their march toward power and political influence follows.

  To be certain, labor unions were the product of the endless relationship between workers and management stretching back to the early seventeenth century when English planters founding Jamestown complained about the lack of laborers available for duty. In 1786, just a year before the Constitution was adopted, Philadelphia printers staged a strike over lack of a good wage. A few years later, carpenters from the City of Brotherly Love did likewise based on their desire for a 10-hour work day “bill of rights.”

  Unions were first formed about this time, but they didn’t band together in force until after the Civil War with the formation of the National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor. In 1886, London-born Samuel Gompers organized the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and fought to secure shorter hours and better pay for members through organization and collective bargaining. By 1904, more than a million seven hundred thousand members belonged, including those with various occupations including building laborers, musicians, electrical workers, and other skilled crafts.