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Speaking from the bench, those were the words U. S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten used on June 20, 2008, to describe the conduct of the Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council in Atlanta.
"They sent picketers to a pre-school," he added, and you could hear the scorn in his voice.
The judge was talking about the carpenters union campaign against The Circle Group and the family that owns it, the Marchellettas.
Despite the fact that The Circle Group pays excellent wages and provides great benefits and has built up a loyal and long-term core of employees, the carpenters union has been conducting an "area standards" campaign against the company.
What we want to talk about here are Jimmy Gibbs and the Southeastern carpenters union's dirty tricks, the tactics the Judge called "shameful."
The union's campaign started typically: picketers holding up banners at various locations around the city. It took a quick turn for the worse.
A Chase Through the Neighborhood
Some picketers were holding a "Shame On You" banner just down the road from the home of the company's president, Jerry Marchelletta. A couple of Mr. Marchelletta's neighbors approached one of the picketers to ask the reason for the banner. The man in charge of the picketers started shouting at them and threatening them with legal action. Thinking the man was either crazy or, at worst, potentially dangerous, they decided to leave. The Southeastern union boss followed them to their car and reported their tag number to whomever he was on the phone with and stated. "Good, we've got it." The couple left and went to a shopping center across the street.
Later as the couple left the shopping center, they noticed they were being followed by the union boss. A chase through the subdivision ensued. Somehow they lost him and managed to get home, where they called the police. While on the phone, they looked out and noticed the same man careening through the neighborhood, apparently trying to spot their car.
Then the union took the picketing to a new and even nastier level.
They Even Target Children
Mr. Marchelletta's sister, Joyce Laidler, is The Circle Group's office manager. She is the mother of three young children, all under the age of 6.
One day while at a day care center when their mother was at work, the children looked across the street from the day care center and saw men carrying a huge banner that screamed this at their Uncle Jerry: "Shame On Jerry Marchelletta."
Joyce was confronted by the day care directors about the banner because the directors were concerned for the safety of her children, as well as the others enrolled at the day care center. That night their parents had to explain to the tearful and frightened children why men holding a banner were marching outside their school, shouting and waving a banner with their family name on it.
Mr. Marchelletta's children became targets of the union as well. On Valentine's Day, his 10-year-old son Jerry came across an envelope in the mail addressed only to the "Marchelletta's" (sic.)
Thinking it was another Valentine's Day card from his grandmother, he opened it.
What he found inside was an official state change-of-name form and a note that said: "Ashamed of the Name?"
Identity Theft
The union's next attack hit a new low, even for a bunch who aren't embarrassed to harass children.
Jerry Marchelletta Sr., the company's CEO, is 74-years old and a devout Catholic who takes his faith seriously.
One day this religious man opened an envelope to discover a certificate showing that, without his knowledge, he had been ordained as a minister in the "Universal Life Church," along with a flier from the Southeastern carpenters union headed: "Ordained Minister or Saint Marchelletta?'.
He later learned that the flier and copies of the certificate had also been mailed to his neighbors. He further learned that one can register or "ordain" oneself as a "minister" online for $10.
We can now add cheap tricks to the Southeastern carpenters union tactics. Tricks like this make Judge Batten's characterizations of the union's tactics seem mild.
A Footnote
As the Southeastern carpenters union continues to march with its banners, there's something that everyone should know about the picketers carrying the signs: Many of them aren't union members at all.
Instead, they're homeless people the union hired out of homeless shelters for $8 an hour. The union limits their work week to 20 hours to avoid having to provide benefits.
We're tempted to ask if that $8 an hour the union is paying meets "area standards."
For more on what the union is all about:
A Democratic Union?
Douglas McCarron takes over the UBC
A History of Corruption
Rats, hacks, and finks at the carpenters union
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