In Response to Dottie

Dottie,

First, I appreciate you having the ‘intestinal fortitude’ to use your name.  You are a good American for standing up for what you believe is right and my hat is off to you!!  But the fact is that unlike you I can NOT use my name.  If you post something that others disagree with you won’t get a brick through the windshield of your truck.  You won’t receive threatening phone calls from other members.  You wouldn’t have the Union retaliate unfairly against you or your company for speaking up.  Nor would you worry about your home or office being vandalized, or burnt to the ground for that matter.  Unfortunately, I don’t have this luxury so I must remain anonymous or the safety of my family or business could be jeopardized.  Ask Nick from Dominion Mechanical what happened to him in the bathroom at the last union meeting after he said what he thought.  It’s sad but the 1930’s “union mob rule” days are still alive in the 21^st century.

As far as the $1.25 hour wage is concerned, this 2.4% increase more than doubles the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the last 12 months.  In the last 3 years 602 wages went up over 18% while the CPI hovered around 9%.  Union members keep crying foul and saying that they are being robbed and abused but these cries are unfounded.  The members need to understand that there is a “real world” out there and that 90% of the country is not union workers.  Many of them understand the basics of capitalism, the reason the US has been at the top of the food chain for all these years.  When “demand” is high and the “supply” is low the price goes up (e.g. bottled water was selling for over $20 at ground zero on 9/11/01).  Inversely, when the “supply” is high and the “demand” is low the price goes down (e.g. HDTV’s, computers, etc.).  The beauty is when the “demand” is high and the “supply” low, others will get into the market to get some of the profitable action.  Eventually the “demand” will be satisfied and the price will drop until those in the “supply” chain decide to get out because they can’t remain competitive enough to continue.  This cycle goes back and forth, correcting and balancing itself naturally.  It’s a wonderful system and we are blessed to live in a country that still uses it.

Right now, and I don’t care how you want to look at it, construction in our area is down.  However, it is still higher than most other parts of the country so we are seeing more and more ‘out-of-towners’ coming into our area.  Currently “supply” is high and “demand” is low so this is not the time for us to get carried away.  And believe it or not most contractors feel that once all the bills are paid if they can net a 2-3% profit at the end of the year they are happy, especially in these times when any positive number is good.  When the union calls for more money the contractor is forced to raise prices, which makes us even less competitive.  When we don’t have the work (because of lower demand) then we must cut back on costs to survive, which includes our workforce.  When people aren’t working the benefits aren’t being paid into the union benefit plans which means more of the money people normally put in their pockets needs to pulled out to make up the shortfall … and if you continue the cycle you should get the bigger picture.  It’s very similar to the “tax and spend” policies of our government.  Not good!!

Regarding the $5 cut in pay topic that keeps reappearing let’s set the record straight.  I attended the MCA meeting prior to the first negotiation where everyone stated their concerns.  Money was not the main topic but one person brought up that we should ask for money back like they had done in other regions.  That individual was immediately ostracized by the rest of the group with everyone agreeing this would not serve any useful purpose.  When I first heard the $5 cut in pay dialogue coming from the Union I was livid and immediately called the MCA office.  I was told that the reduction in pay comment was a first offer to position the contractors where their membership wanted them to end up, zero.  It was a positioning offer just like the ludicrous first offer made by the Union, which was $3/$3/$3 over the next three years (a 17.2% increase).  Neither side comes into the negotiations with their realistic offer first because then the settlement ends up between the ridiculous on the one side and the realistic on the other side so both sides start at the extreme.  This “propaganda” has been used to incite the members and personally I think there are a few people in 602’s leadership that invite a strike because that keeps the spotlight on them.  Give it some thought before promoting these people’s agenda and look a little harder to see if you can’t see what I am telling you.

As far as women in management roles is concerned, I will only say that you have a valid point.  However, if you look at the statistics, which clearly show that the female membership in our local is less than 1%, I can’t say that I am surprised.  My question to you is what was the response from your boss when you went to them about taking on more responsibility?  Did they outline specific things that you need to do or work on?  Did they tell you specific skills that you should learn?  Credentials you should get?  You may not know it but we actually have a couple very successful ladies running union companies in our local.  I also know that the MCA sponsors student chapters at the University of MD and Virginia Tech where women with degrees are getting the type of jobs you are seeking.  I can assure you that with your practical experience, if you were to get a business or engineering degree, demonstrated a strong work ethic and adequate knowledge of the industry you would be in very high demand.  Better yet, do like I did and take the risk and start your own business.  While there shouldn’t be, there are many entitlement programs and being a woman owned business is a slam dunk in our industry!  What male owners typically spend in marketing you could put in your pocket because it wouldn’t be necessary.  The work WILL come to you!!

In closing I will say that out of professional courtesy I am not going to incite anyone by posting my comments on the 602 blog or John’s Facebook page.  It probably wouldn’t get posted but even so my ethics and upbringing wouldn’t allow me to do so regardless.  However, I hope you would invite some of your colleagues to visit my site as I would be more than delighted to debate anyone on this page in hopes that rational thinking will always prevail in the end.  I look forward to your response.

Respectfully,

Joe The Contractor

PS – I have read Sullivan’s Facebook page and commend you for taking the time to research the IRC, hence my reason for challenging you to think rationally.  I thank you for the extra effort that most others fail to make!  If the tentative agreement now on the table (as of  Tuesday night) isn’t acceptable, instead of striking and hurting OUR UNION by publicly making a spectacle out of ourselves, why don’t we put it into the hands of rational people (the IRC) who completely understand our industry and let them come up with a fair solution … without all the emotional baggage involved?  Again, think about it!!

Who is spinning who?

I have read the letter posted for our 602 brothers and sisters.  I find the writing curious.

The leadership does use some facts to present their case but again they fall short of full disclosure.  They never mention the $1.00 offer by the contractors with renegotiations in years 2 and 3.  The offer you never fully laid out for our brothers and sisters before you had it shouted down because you did not want arbitration.  Oh wait, it did not contain arbitration, it was tied to the IRC (see the contractors letter you received for an explanation of the IRC).  Forgot that did you?

Then, you talk of the plumbers and how you are “reluctant to criticize the Plumbers in any way. They are our UA brothers and we wish them well.”  Then you go on to say “It is also common knowledge (it isn’t), as admitted by the MCA negotiators (they didn’t), that for various reasons the profit margins on plumbing jobs are razor slim. But we are not Plumbers.  Far from it.”  Sounds to me you just slammed the plumbers, our UA brothers, yet again.  In addition, I doubt you heard the MCA Negotiating Team state “the profit margins on plumbing jobs are razor slim” since three of the negotiators bid full mechanical jobs and don’t break out plumbing separately and would therefore have the same slim margins on HVAC work.  The fourth member does not do plumbing work.  You have again either misunderstood or are attempting to spin language to suit your need.

You go on to cite other locals whose fitters make more than the plumbers but you neglected to give specific locals.  I know from attending MSCA conferences that the UA representatives have talked about locals whose wage for service techs is below that of the pipefitter.  Should we compare 602 service techs to those locals?  I think not.  You only want to look at a very narrow group of statistics because only the narrowest group supports your position.  You want to compare yourselves to other locals yet you don’t want other local officials to help resolve this dispute.

It is interesting the spin you put on your actions.  You honestly believe that you have been flexible while the contractors have not.  You believe that good faith negotiations include raising your offer once it was made with no other changes in your offer?  The contractors did lower their offer of $1.00 down to $.95 in the first year and $.55 in the second year when you made them remove the idea of resolving the impasse by using the IRC.  At least when they went backwards on an offer it was because something else in the offer had changed.  The IRC had value.  Your backwards move had NO OTHER CHANGE in the offer.  You just went up.  No facts, no figures, no reason, just an increase in the offer. 

You believe filing papers with the NLRB showed continued support for the process?  Those elections are intended for organizing non-union companies.  Who is surprised that you won overwhelmingly?  100% of the votes are cast by our union brothers and sisters.  How hard was that to win?  What is sad is that we did not get 100% of all votes cast voting for unionization.  Even a small percent voting against being represented by the organization that represents them is disturbing.

You instituted one day spot strikes to show the MCA how serious this was.  I understand from one contractor that his employees were heckled by passersby, saying that all they wanted was a job and you are striking for more money?  I don’t think there will be much sympathy for striking workers who are striking for MORE wages when so many just want to work.  Especially when they find out you were offered a raise greater than the cost of living increase.

Then, you tout your “unprecedented step to pre‐ratify” a contract offer that was nothing like what you discussed with the contractors, and was against the advice of the contractors.  Now you have boxed yourselves in a corner.  The contractors cannot accept such actions because it sets a precedent that would change the negotiations forever.  Legally it may be inside the bounds of bargaining in good faith but do you truly believe it is bargaining at all.  Having your body vote on an offer not presented by the contractors is one sided bargaining.  It takes two sides to bargain effectively.

You say you did this because “Faced with continual carping from the employers that prior contracts had been turned down by the membership”.  I believe the negotiating committee was probably complaining about believing they had an agreement with the union committee only to find out that members of the committee changed their minds and didn’t support what they previously had given their word to support.  The membership has the right to vote up or down.  It would be nice if they got that chance in a secret ballot to vote for one of the contractors proposals.  You might be surprised.  Our brothers and sisters are more up on the economy than you are apparently.

Your closing remarks are the most curious of all your remarks.  You claim “Expect dirty tricks, intimidation, threats and every ploy imaginable by the contractors to try to break your resolve. They cannot help themselves.”  I believe the only intimidation and threats have come from your president and members of the union against other union members.  Can you name one contractor that has done any of what you accuse?

Stop the hype and lets get this done with what is actually needed for the funds and get everyone working!!!

A Contractor's Story

Dear John,

You don’t yet know who I am but maybe you will by the time you finish reading this.  I am writing you because I don’t understand why you say the things that you do and am hoping that maybe we can have an open, honest dialogue so that I can better understand your perspective.  To help you understand me and who I am, I will begin by explaining where I come from.  You know me well.

I am a proud Union Local 602 member, a Brother to my many UA Brothers and Sisters.  Many years ago, like most of my Brothers and Sisters, I attended the union apprenticeship school taking all of the required classes and fulfilling all of my obligations to graduate and become a proud Steamfitter journeyman.  During my entire career I have NEVER once been late with my dues or assessments as I take my role in our Local seriously.  I understand our Local depends on me and all my Brothers and Sisters to stay in existence.

After becoming a journeyman, I continued my education by taking advantage of the journeyman classes on Saturday mornings, one that was actually taught by you.  Thank you for sharing your knowledge!  I wanted to be the best Steamfitter I could because I was taught in apprenticeship school it was my obligation to be better than our non-union competition.  I felt doing my small part would make our Local stronger and that concept is still important to me today.  I worked hard, was dependable and always tried to do my very best and am proud to say that I was never once laid off or fired while providing the skills I had learned for my employers.  My employers gained trust in my abilities and later allowed me to run jobs, holding me accountable for my crew’s performance and craftsmanship.

Several years after graduating and getting married, my wife and I discussed taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities this great country has to offer.  After serious consideration I decided to go into business for myself, anything that any of my Brothers and Sisters can do for about $500 and an investment of a few hours time.  You can do this too John if you desire!  It is simple and is one of the best things about being an American.  There are no limitations in this great land!

After starting my own business I quickly learned that there was more involved than first meets the eye.  I needed to open accounts with suppliers to purchase materials and was surprised to learn that they just don’t give credit to anyone unless that person is willing to show that they are truly serious.  I was asked to sign personal guarantees stating that if my new company failed to pay its bills that I would promise to pay with my own money, even if it required selling everything I owned to do so, including the biggest investment I had ever made, my home.  Since I didn’t always have enough money to buy what I needed for the job I decided I had to take the risk and signed my life away betting on my company’s success, because I was dedicated, well-trained and knew I was good at what I did.  I was younger then but I never dreamt that the risk would become even greater in the years to come.

However, the financial risk was only part of my investment.  The bigger investment came from my time.  I would get up early to get the materials I needed for the day so I could show up to the job prepared to give my customer (boss) a good days work for a good days pay.  Many times to keep all of my customers happy I would work through lunch and coffee breaks to ensure that they were pleased and would call me again the next time they needed the services I could provide.  After work, which sometimes was at the end of a 10-12 hour day, I would go home and do the bookkeeping, invoicing, bill paying, planning and scheduling for tomorrow and the rest of my week.  I would also take time to price new work, write proposals and thank you notes in hopes of keeping a steady paycheck.  I learned to live on just a few hours sleep and was grateful some nights that I got to sleep at all.  I was even more grateful when I got a paycheck because sometimes my customers didn’t pay me fast enough and there were many weeks, sometimes several in a row, where I had to live off my meager savings to feed my family and make my mortgage.

But this still wasn’t the biggest sacrifice I had to make.  The real sacrifice came from what was lost in my personal life while I worked to create a strong, solid business.  I can’t tell you how hard it is when at the last minute I had to call my lovely bride to tell her that we will have to reschedule celebrating our anniversary until later because I had another call to catch.  Or the times I had to tell my children that Daddy would be back as soon as he could and that he was sorry he couldn’t make their birthday party, school play or championship game.  There were times where on Christmas day I had to postpone celebrating the most important day of the year with my family to go jump in the truck to fix a leak or get the heat back on so that others could enjoy their special day.  The sad looks on my family’s face when I walked out the door still resonates in my heart today.

The story doesn’t stop here however.  The good news was that my hard work, risks and sacrifices began to pay off and it wasn’t long before my list of customers grew.  This was great because this meant that I needed to hire some of my Brothers and Sisters to help me, creating additional jobs for our Local which I knew only made it stronger and better.  So I continued to take only what I needed investing the rest back into the company to become even better, creating more opportunities for those who had come to work with me.  The rewards back then weren’t monetary but instead from the satisfaction gained from watching the personal growth in those I had hired (many who have since retired from our company or still work with me) as we built a company with a great reputation.  After all, I knew what we were building was OUR future and would one day be the most important part of our retirement plans.  I only wish everyone in our Local could have shared in the satisfaction we all received back in those days.

As the company grew we recognized that at any point we could have said that this was a good stopping point, that we didn’t need any more.  But deep down I know we all shared the same understanding that what we were doing was not just about us.  I truly believe that we were making our Union stronger and I know we were creating opportunities for anyone looking to create a better “way of life” and future for themselves by simply giving a good days work for a good days pay, and showing a little integrity along the way.  While we have made mistakes and are by no means perfect, these are values we still hold dear and the things that have allowed us to continue through the tough times where so many others have failed.

As I read through your blog and look at your Facebook page to say I am disheartened is an understatement.  Somehow you have made me out to be a greedy villain trying to rob my Brothers and Sisters of their pay and benefits.  This is simply NOT true!  Most everyone who works with me receives more than we have bargained to pay in both wage and benefits.  And I am even more offended when you call my Brothers and Sisters, the ones who built this company and many like it, the ones that make it possible for our Local to even exist by paying their dues, “bootlick lackies”, “apologists” and “company men” as though working for the wage and benefit we have agreed to is some sort of transgression.

You continue to give them half of the story, spin the facts and take topics out of context to mislead them.  Shame on you John Sullivan!  You are supposed to be their leader and serve them, not put them down and try to create a revolt.  I can only wonder what your true intentions really are as these tactics serve no one!

Do you know who I am yet John?  You should.  You know me well.  I am 90% of the contractors that you continue to put down as though we are the enemy.  We are NOT!  We are on the same team!  We need our good Union members as much as they need us.  Without the members we are nothing.  But remember without the contractors the members are just numbers sitting on the bench.  The enemy, if there truly is one, is the non-union pipefitter and HVAC tech who accepts lower wages, benefits and standard of living.  They ride our coattails every day to determine their salaries and rob us of our work by undercutting our prices.  And you of all people are enabling our enemies by publicly ridiculing us all.  Our enemies are watching our every move and you can trust that they are taking advantage by pointing out to our customers that while we may do good work, we are expensive, out of control and could at any minute leave them hanging as we stand in front of their buildings with our picket signs protesting instead of taking care of their needs and meeting their critical deadlines.

What are you doing John?  And better, WHY are you doing this?  I am looking for a fair resolution so that we can continue creating opportunities for everyone while you promote your objectives by any means possible including “agitation”, “cartoons” and “songs” as weapons.  This is NOT a game John and the way you are playing it there can be no winner … unless you are for our non-union competitors.

I look forward to your response as I can’t meet you in the middle of the road when I don’t even know where the road is.  Please tell me John, why???

Sincerely,

Joe

Your Most Important Ally

Unions Protecting the workers

“A union brings collective bargaining, democracy on the job, protections for whistle blowers, rising standards of living, stronger tax base for the community, and much more. Overall, the standards unions negotiate help build communities up. The economic impact for the family and the community are clear. Workers who have a union receive fair pay and benefits and they have a voice on the job. They are protected against unilateral management action. When you have a collective bargaining agreement (a contract) in place, you know what your raises are going to be, and you know what your health insurance premiums are going to be – you can spend accordingly and plan your life. More tax money goes into local communities. But there’s more. Unionized workers are more stable, more productive, and produce with higher quality. Unions help train and educate workers, and the protections provide a workforce with the freedom to act without recrimination. The protection a union contract provides results in a workforce empowered to blow the whistle when necessary. That means they can perform as effective worksite stewards, and therefore as effective environmental stewards.

If we want the benefits of green jobs to be sustained, we should make sure they are union jobs.”

This is an excerpt from the UA web site summing up why Green Jobs should be union jobs.  As a contractor I agree.  But who is protecting the union member from threats from within the union?  Who protects the worker that wants to standup and have his or her ideas heard in a union meeting?  The yelling, and degrading comments made and the outright threats bring fear into the members.  Fear of those that were elected to protect them.  When the president of the local writes “If they fail to keep up their additional payment for their dues they will be forced out of the Union and loose their medical and pension.”  How do you legally take away someone’s pension who is vested?  Apparently the rule of law does not matter.

Who am I?

Who am I

I am a proud UA member who happens to own a mechanical contracting business.

I'm the guy whose employees belong to 602 and who service commercial office buildings in downtown Washington.  The same guy the property manager told "my occupancies are down. I have had to renegotiate my leases in order to keep tenants. So what are you going to cut from your maintenance contract price to help me out.  You cannot cut your service just your price." So I did to keep my people working.

I'm the guy that had to cut his Best and Final offer on that new building below the open shop.  I dropped my price to keep my employees working.

I'm the guy whose equity in his house is owned by the bank through my company line of credit.  That line is what allows me to pay my employees while I wait 60, 90, or 120 days to get paid.

I'm the guy who thought in good times his employees deserved a better than Cost of Living raise and gave it to them.

I'm the guy that thought in bad times his employees would see and help.  I guess I was wrong.

I'm the guy, with my fellow contractors, thought we had a partner in Local Union 602.  Now I find you see us as "the enemy"

You seem to be fighting an enemy that didn't even know it was at war with you.  I always thought we were on the same side fighting the non-union competition that works to cut us out of a job.

I guess I was wrong.