 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 Home |
Contact Us | |||||||
|
||||||||
|
Why We're Fighting Back
At The Circle Group, we've developed a successful business during the past 15 years by living up to this Mission Statement:
Provide interior construction services to our clients that are superior in all respects through a commitment to professionalism, service, quality, integrity and safety.  Our success is also due to the loyalty and support we practice daily to our clients, suppliers, and, most importantly, our outstanding and dedicated employees. It is because of these accomplishments that we take pride in being ranked the top wall/ceiling specialty contractor in the Southeastern United States by McGraw Hill's respected trade magazine, Southeastern Construction. Presently, we have been targeted by the Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council in Atlanta. We didn't start this fight. They came to us aggressively looking for one. Maybe they thought The Circle Group would be an easy target, one that would cut and run from their attacks, which have included harassing children outside a pre-school, stealing the identity of the 74-year-old co-owner of the company, paying downtrodden homeless citizens in Atlanta to harass our customers, sending union thugs to harass our neighbors, and bombarding our stakeholders with false and defamatory information. At the end of the day, we could try to ignore the harassment and retreat -- let someone else take a tough stand against the bullies. Pass the buck, one might say. But, in this case, ignoring the union's flagrant acts and running would be wrong. We have laws and rules in the state of Georgia, and we respect them. Right on the Georgia Secretary of State's website is one of them: UNIONS The National Labor Relations Act provides for employee rights to organize, join unions, and engage in collective bargaining. It is unlawful for an employer to interfere with an employee's right to join a union and engage in union activities, including discharging or otherwise discriminating against employees because they engage in union activities. Employers also are required to bargain in good faith with a union. Georgia has a "right to work" law which prohibits interference with employment to compel any person to either join or refrain from joining a union. Georgia is a "right-to-work" state, and has been since 1947. That means that neither we, or anyone else, can make our carpenters join a union, and we cannot stop them from choosing either to be in a union or not to be union. In Atlanta, most carpenters have chosen not to be in a union. It's their choice, and all we can do at The Circle Group is offer the carpenters who work for us a good wage, health benefits, and a retirement plan.  It's a fact: Atlanta is not a big "union" town, and the state of Georgia is far from being union-friendly. So why is the carpenters union agitating in Georgia?
Over the past few years, unions have invested unprecedented amounts of money trying to achieve a high level of union "density" in labor markets they target. In essence, "density" is code for a monopoly position in the labor market. According to the unions, achieving high union density allows them to dictate labor rates. This then eliminates the ability of customers to search the market for lower cost alternatives: The union's density strategy makes sure that those alternatives will no longer exist. (High union density can also, in our opinion, inhibit the desire for professional growth by insuring that everyone is paid at the same rate regardless of ability and skill - a profoundly un-American tenet.) If the union is successful in its campaign, it would mean that costs would eventually increase for everyone. If The Circle Group gives in to the Southeastern Carpenters union's demands, the union will simply find another company to target, and the cycle will continue until the unions achieve their monopoly position in construction. We will always challenge the unions' anti-competitive and often illegal behavior in non-union "right-to-work" states, so that we can continue offering our customers the quality and cost-effective work that they have come to expect, as well as providing opportunities for advancement for our wonderful employees based on their performance and dedication. We are deeply proud of all that's been accomplished at The Circle Group since its founding in 1993. To those who want to harm us and destroy our reputation, we suggest you look at the values we live by at Circle Group. Professionalism. Service. Quality. Integrity. Safety. To those who want to take those values away, we have this message: Those values aren't for sale. Count on it. |
Interesting Links
Union Facts
|
|||||||
| Copyright 2008 | ||||||||
The Circle Group