The Devil Wears Purple

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.

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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.’