April 27, 2006
To the Editor
Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132
Sent via email to: heralded@herald.com
I have been following the situation at the University of Miami involving the SEIU with great interest. My interest stems from the fact that I am a 1992 graduate of the University, and the Chief Operating Officer of a corporation in Palm Beach Gardens, Wackenhut Services Incorporated (WSI). Like the University of Miami, WSI has been under siege by SEIU for over two years because we will not sign an exclusive representation agreement that we believe is illegal. Signing an exclusive agreement would by-pass fair and free elections and do away with our current unions.
My sympathies go out to the UM President Donna Shalala. She has done a remarkable job of defending her school in the media. At first, she did what a lot of people do when faced with an unreasonable demand - she tried to respond to the aggressor by making what most people would consider a reasonable compromise.
Ms. Shalala and UM set new standards for their contractors which meant that workers received significant raises, affordable health care, free English and computer classes as well as one-on-one assistance with healthcare access. Any sensible person concerned with the plight of service workers would applaud those moves and declare victory.
But, like most bullies, SEIU was not satisfied with a logical solution. Protecting workers no longer seems to be the goal of this union. Rather, their goal is to do whatever they feel necessary to recruit members, and they’ll resort to any kind of tactics and spend millions of dollars of dues money to do just that.
The pattern has been the same across the country. SEIU has been using ridiculous and dangerous media stunts like the current "hunger strike" at UM in an attempt to ruin the reputation of whatever company they seek to organize. SEIU even crosses legal and ethical lines by tricking and coercing members of other labor unions into signing their membership cards.
Even though my company, WSI, is currently union-organized by fifteen security officer unions and our officers are the best paid and best trained in the business, SEIU has demanded that we sign an exclusive representation agreement with their union. Why? It’s simple... money for them via dues. Coercion can be a great means of organic growth if you subscribe to it.
SEIU is also demanding that we allow a "card check" instead of a free and fair secret ballot election, just as they are doing at the University of Miami. As SEIU Local 32BJ President Mike Fishman told The Wall Street Journal last August, "We don’t do elections." That just sounds un-American to me.
WSI has a good working relationship with our current union representation. We said no to the SEIU, in part because, we also agree with what President Shalala wrote in The Miami Herald on April 19th, "The University of Miami - no university, for that matter - could ever argue against an uncoerced election for all workers ... To deny them the opportunity to exercise the fundamental right of an election would be unconscionable."
President Shalala is correct. This will not end soon - for either UM or WSI. The bullying, protesting, harassment, contrived events and demands will continue indefinitely because the union has millions of dollars in dues money from hard working janitors and other service workers which can be spent on ruining the reputation of businesses instead of bettering the lives of those workers that contributed.
One of the most famous lines ever spoken by a U.S. President was uttered by Ms. Shalala’s former boss, Bill Clinton, who said, "I feel your pain." I can honestly say to her as we both forge on through the SEIU attacks, "Ms. Shalala, I feel your pain." But, it’s a pain worth fighting for.
Sincerely,
PAUL DONAHUE
COO
Wackenhut Services Incorporated
7121 Fairway Drive
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
(561) 472-3606
Wackenhut Services Incorporated (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 our troops in Iraq. We have been based in Florida since our founding over 45 years ago. Our company is built upon the principle that we are Americans Protecting America.
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