"Small business is finding itself increasingly vulnerable to a new union organizing campaign [involving] trumped-up lawsuits, harassment, and vandalism."
"The AFL-CIO's John Sweeney is making a lot of noise these days about the plight of the working family," reports Gary Hess, national president of the Associated Builders and Contractors trade organization. Hess argues that Sweeney's public support of "the little guy" doesn't count for much, however, because, "privately, he has declared all-out war on the little guy's employer." Idled workers will know whom to thank when the businesses that paid their wages are shut down.
In a recent Washington Times editorial, Hess provides details of the union's dirty dealing. "In the construction industry, where the overwhelming majority of firms are small and family-owned," he observes, "the AFL-CIO is 'field-testing' an innovative, yet contemptible strategy" for signing up new members. This scheme consists of "sending out thousands of union agents, each trained in the finer points of labor law, to infiltrate, disrupt, and sabotage open-shop construction firms. The idea here is to either hassle the company into submission so it signs a collective bargaining agreement, or . . . bombard the company with enough frivolous lawsuits so it can no longer afford to defend itself in court and is forced to declare bankruptcy."
The scheme can be put into operation in either of two ways. Under Plan A, a union agent engages in inappropriate behavior when applying for a contracting job with the targeted firm and "hopes he has sufficiently offended the employer so his application is immediately rejected. Once that happens, the agent files an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board." If Plan A fails and the employment application is accepted, the agent proceeds to Plan B. "If the organizer is hired, he then begins to look for ways to get fired," says Hess. Once fired, "he files an unfair labor practice charge, alleging that the business owner discriminated against him because of his union affiliation. It costs the contractor, on average, anywhere between $2500 and $10,000 just to have the charge dismissed."
How does the infiltrator get himself fired? "We routinely hear stories of union agents destroying equipment and property and intentionally creating safety violations," Hess confides. "Construction, because of the peaks and valleys in its hiring cycle, is fertile ground for the AFL-CIO's unique mix of organizing and terrorism," he continues. "We are beginning to hear, however, tales of similar organizing campaigns taking hold in other industries, particularly restaurants, nursing homes, and manufacturing."
Workers have every right to join a union. "But that's not what's happening here," Gary Hess insists. "Decent, hardworking men and women, who in many instances have spent a lifetime building a business, are being forced to hire individuals whose sole purpose in applying for work is to hurt the company economically. The practice is wrong," says Hess, "and deserves to be exposed."
