4/27: "I Am In a World of Hurt"
2/2: "I Have No Use for the Union" writes reader
1/20: "Keep Fighting Them" writes reader
11/14: "I Am Disgusted" writes reader
10/14: Union should "go away"

The members of the Circle Group Truth web team get a lot of feedback from our web site visitors.

Some of it comes in the form of helpful suggestions. Sometimes we get a colorful rant. Lately, we've been getting something that's very disturbing:

Cries of pain from inside the netherworld of Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council union employees who've been run out of jobs.

As anyone who's ever worked for a union can attest, union headquarters' jobs are all too often run on politics, fear, and intimidation. Even those hardy souls who come to work for a union with the idea of serving a common good can be quickly ground down by the practiced intimidation and political tactics of a union thug.

What we've heard over and over again from dissident union employees is the psychological toll that bully tactics used in the Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council "corporate campaign" have taken on the internal morale of union employees.

How does this work? Imagine if your public image in Atlanta is defined by homeless paid-by-the-hour "demonstrators" screaming at office tenants in downtown Atlanta. Imagine if your public image in Atlanta is defined by these same demonstrators shouting at parents and loved ones trying to get into the Shepherd Center to see critically injured patients. Image if your public representatives scream "bitch" and "faggot" at passersby whose only crime is working in an office building the union has targeted.

Imagine if your job depends on your willingness to search through data bases to find out where the children of your organizing targets are attending pre-schools, and then send busses full of demonstrators to march in front of those pre-schools. Imagine if you go to work for a union hoping to do good and everything you stand for is sold out to an $8-an-hour hired screamer who's only being paid to act like an idiot because the real union members will have nothing to do with a sidewalk freak show.

Now, try to put yourself in the shoes of the man who wrote the below letter to our website. He's a man who's plainly hurting.

Sometimes, voices in the wilderness are painful to listen to. But in the end, those with compassion must listen.

The Circle Group Truth Web Team

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(editor's note: The identity of "Robert Montee" could not be confirmed. The letter below is unedited and in its original form.)

From "Robert Montee,"

address unknown, sent to The Circle Group Truth on April 18, 2009

Why, in the name of all that is good and holy, does Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council want to foster and intensify its drug-drenched drama of immorality? If you've ever wondered about the answer to that question, then read on. Read on, gentle reader, and hear what I have to say. It always looks the other way when one of its apple-polishers gets it in his head to create a system of sensationalism characterized by confidential files, closed courts, gag orders, and statutory immunity. Apparently, the principle laid down by Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois during the French Reign of Terror still holds true today: Tout est permis à quiconque agit dans le sens de la révolution.

This is a suitable place in the letter to explain how the union of theory and practice, in Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council's hands, becomes a union of pomposity and adversarialism. Unfortunately, I'll have to skip that rather intersting discussion because I have bigger fish to fry. In particular, I need to tell you that Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council is currently limited to shrieking and spitting when it's confronted with inconvenient facts. Within a short period of time, however, Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council is likely to switch to some sort of "support those for whom hatred has become a way of life" approach to draw our attention away from such facts. How dare Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council criticize my values when its are so obviously insipid? Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council must sense its own irremediable inferiority. That's why it is so desperate to put the worst sorts of profligate pillocks there are on the federal payroll; it's the only way for it to distinguish themselves from the herd. It would be a lot nicer, however, if Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council also realized that I oppose its prognoses because they are saturnine. I oppose them because they are detestable. And I oppose them because they will fill our children's minds with mealymouthed and debasing superstitions some day.

What is often overlooked, however, is that there are many roads leading to the defeat of Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council's plans to rouse the agitated petite bourgeoisie to chauvinistic fervor and hoodwink them into causing riots in the streets. I avouch that all of these roads must eventually pass through the same set of gates: the ability to do what needs to be done. Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council has it all wrong; its occasional demonstrations of benevolence are not genuine. Nor are Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council's promises. In fact, it definitely believes that genocide, slavery, racism, and the systematic oppression, degradation, and exploitation of most of the world's people are all utterly justified. What kind of Humpty-Dumpty world is it living in? There aren't enough hours in the day to fully answer that question but consider this: Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council's rank-and-file followers like to say, "Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council can walk on water." Such frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. If someone wants me to believe something careless like that, that person will have to show me some concrete evidence. Meanwhile, I intend to show you that it's arrogant for Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council to silence anyone whom it considers passive-aggressive. Or perhaps I should say, it's execrable.

That's just one side of the coin. The other side is that it's not the bogeyman that our children need to worry about. It's Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council. Not only is Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council more conscienceless and more vindictive than any envisaged bogeyman or bugbear, but if the past is any indication of the future, Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council will once again attempt to create new (and reinforce existing) prejudices and misconceptions. What we have been imparting to Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council -- or what it has been eliciting from us -- is a half-submerged, barely intended logic, contaminated by wishes and tendencies we prefer not to acknowledge. My argument gets a little complicated here.

My purpose here is not to encourage open, civic engagement. Well, okay, it is. But I should point out that if we don't remove the Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council threat now, it will bite us in our backside sooner or later. Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council is not interested in what is true and what is false or in what is good and what is evil. In fact, those distinctions have no meaning to it whatsoever. The only thing that has any meaning to Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council is insurrectionism. Why? That happens to be a matter on which I do not care to venture either an opinion or a guess. I do, however, feel that I should state that Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council has recently been bouncing around like a kangaroo trying to resort to ad hominem attacks on me and my family. This is equivalent to saying that it's causing all sorts of problems for us. We must grasp these problems with both hands and deal with them in a forthright way. I have now said everything there is to say. So, to summarize it all, when lying and evidence-tampering fail, Southeastern Regional Carpenters Union Council usually turns to outright intimidation to regulate vandalism.

April 18, 2009

Recently, one of the men in the field sat down to let us know what is on his mind. Here's the result:

Dear Circle Group Truth:

I have no use for the union.

Many of our supers and others were members of the Atlanta carpenters union in the past. I know these guys share my opinion.

In the early '80s, most of the large contactors separated themselves from solely contracting with the unions. Then the unions made concessions, and they promised their members there would be work.

After the $1.50-per-hour cut in pay, there were still few union jobs to be found, even as the Atlanta building boom was starting. There were buildings going up everywhere, but they were open shop, and the union members had no jobs. So many became disgruntled . . . feeling they had been lied to by the union leaders.

They sought jobs wherever they could find jobs with the best opportunities. Those aforementioned supers and others, through time and fate, eventually came to Circle with the dream of finding an employer that could provide solid employment, and opportunities to better themselves.

They were no longer in a union shop where they were laid off the moment work dried up, even though they had logged substantial time with that company. Finally, these men had found, at The Circle Group, a place that cared for them and their hard work.

I tell you I speak for those guys. We love Jerry Marchelletta.

Long live The Circle Group.

Sincerely,

Steve

Recently a letter came in to our website. Here it is.

Your Name: Michael Fulgaro
Your e-mail: mfulgaro@comcast.net
Phone number:
Questions or Comments: My drywall company, Fulgaro Interior, has recently come under attack from the carp. union. I like your web site. Keep fighting them. What they are doing is wrong. Sincerely, Mike Fulgaro, Salem Oregon

Below is yet another letter that's come into this web site since its August launch. We have removed the letter writer's last name for her own protection. We at The Circle Group are well aware that the union not only monitors this site, but, whenever possible, has also inundated everyone who has publicly supported The Circle Group with many, many hateful mailings. We salute the wonderful residents of Alpharetta who have expressed support for the families of The Circle Group, and we hope to personally thank each and every one of you this holiday season. God bless you.

Dear Circle Group:

As a resident of Alpharetta, I am disgusted with the attempts of a union to compromise your company by sending outsiders into our community to hold signs.

I just think it's wrong and against the American way to try to embarrass someone at their home in a way that has nothing to do with the issue at hand (organizing workers).

I was a member of a union years ago, and let me tell you, my union would have never stooped to the level that this union is doing. If you can't organize the workers, admit it, move on, and come back when you can organize. Acting like children in our wonderful community and hiring non-union members to hold up signs is not the way to gain support.

Please tell these people that all their sign waving in Alpharetta just makes the union look bad.

Betty, a proud Alpharetta resident

Below is just one of the email letters of support sent to us from a concerned resident of Alpharetta. Thank you RG and to everyone that is showing their overwhelming support. It is greatly appreciated and please continue to send us your concerns and thoughts.

Dear Circle Group Truth:

From a Concerned Alpharetta Resident

As a Newport Bay neighbor, I recently received and read a letter from Ms. Joyce Laidler about the Southeastern Carpenters Union and The Circle Group (Jerry Marchelletta).

Unbelievable! I wish continued success and good things for Mr. Marchelletta, his family and his Company ... and for the Union - "go away". You are obviously not wanted and certainly not needed.

There was a time in our history where unions were necessary and important to the workforce. But in 2008, and in this case, a union adds nothing to the well being of the workforce or the marketplace. It appears to me this union is a self indulgent predator that is more motivated by potential revenue instead of really looking out for the workforce.

If the union was really interested in looking out for the workforce, they would listen to the collective workforce - and the workforce is clearly saying "go away". So go away. Your childish behavior is a poor reflection on you and the community - think about it - if you came here from another state and you were driving down the road and saw your immature sign on McGinnis Ferry Road being held by a collection of low life looking people, would you want to buy a home in Alpharetta ?

So to the Southeastern Carpenters Union; go away and take your stupid sign with you and find a company that has a real need that you can fill.

RG, Alpharetta, GA

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