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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2006
Contact:
David W. Foley
Wackenhut Services, Inc.
(561) 472-3635
dfoley@wsihq.com
THERE THEY GO AGAIN - PART III
SEIU FINDS THE TRUTH INCONVENIENT, GETS IT WRONG YET AGAIN
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida - For the third time in as many weeks Wackenhut Services Incorporated (WSI) must correct false and misleading statements by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), this time about WSI’s contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) at the Oak Ridge Reservation.
WSI President, Dave Foley, said, "I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The real issue here is that SEIU is running an organized smear campaign designed to force Wackenhut to sign an exclusive - we believe illegal - representation agreement. This agreement would by-pass all elections and would do away with our current unions."
"SEIU workers would be better served if their national officers spent union resources serving the needs of their members, rather than spending millions of dollars of their dues money on campaigns like they have waged against WSI for the last two years," Foley continued.
The SEIU press release claims that WSI is under a new investigation by the DOE Inspector General for falsifying training records at Oak Ridge. Answering the charge, Foley said, "SEIU should get their facts straight. The IG finished the investigation and issued this report almost a year ago. We have been through three extensive inspections since that report and passed with no issues."
Correcting other misinformation in the SEIU release, Foley said that, "Security officers at Oak Ridge were properly trained. WSI trains to standard not to time. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) agreed that this standard is the accepted methodology and that all DOE sites use the same criteria."
Foley went on to explain that training to standard means that, "We train a person until they are proficient in a task. Sometimes it takes more time than listed on the schedule and sometimes it takes less because our trainees come to us with different skill sets and backgrounds."
Pointing to another section of the IG report Foley pointed out that the National Nuclear Security Administration which has federal oversight for the Y-12 Wackenhut contract, disagreed with the IG’s basis for the inspection that generated the report. The NNSA stated, We understand that this inspection was based on an allegation that a security police officer at the Oak Ridge Reservation was given credit for training that was not received. After reviewing the report and the comments that have been submitted to us, we do not believe that there is any basis for the allegation.
Foley continued, "The last nine DOE performance ratings for WSI at the Oak Ridge facility have been 93% or higher, with an average score of 97% since WSI assumed the security contract. We provide DOE with outstanding security and have an excellent working relationship with them. It is evident from our performance scores that WSI has done its job well at Oak Ridge."
The SEIU has been engaged in corporate campaigns against several companies and used unscrupulous methods to try and organize those companies. The current campaign against WSI has been ongoing for over two years. Some of the dirty tricks the union has used against WSI include harassing our employees, intimidating our clients, sending false and misleading statements to the media, recruiting and coaching senior citizens to call congressional offices with false accusations about WSI, demonstrations outside the sensitive facilities WSI protects and running a multi-million dollar smear campaign against WSI in the media.
"The SEIU is trying to coerce WSI into signing an exclusive representation agreement with them. They will use any means at their disposal to bully us and intimidate those that we do business with. But we will not turn our backs on our employees or the legitimate unions those employees have already chosen to represent them," concluded Foley.
WSI is the United States government’s largest contractor for professional security services, with 8,000 employees protecting key sites in the U.S. and abroad. We are Americans Protecting America. For additional information about WSI and this issue, please visit www.wsihq.com
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a mixed union that represents service workers such as janitors, cemetery workers, bus drivers and home care workers. They are currently trying to increase their membership through "corporate campaign" tactics such as picketing, hunger strikes, harassment of target companies’ customers and other unconscionable tactics.
The unprincipled reputation of the union and its officials includes:
- SEIU filed a lawsuit, post 9/11, to try and overturn the law requiring federal baggage screeners at airports to be U. S. citizens.
- SEIU officials have been indicted or convicted of embezzlement of union funds.
- A former SEIU Local 99 president has been charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy and 17 counts of embezzling union funds as a result of an investigation into former Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow.
- The New York Sun business reporter said,"SEIU now seems to depend more on corporate intimidation rather than recruiting."
- The director of strategic research for the AFSCME union said, "UDW-AFSCME home-care workers across the state were tricked and coerced into signing membership cards with [SEIU] Local 434B."
For more information on the "corporate campaign" tactics and reputation of SEIU, please visit //www.wsihq.com/SEIU.asp and www.unionfacts.com
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