Gettin' Screwged

by Mike Blain and Doug Collins

illustration by Jenny Schmid

The Free Press

It was not surprising that many of our ultra-wealthy nominees were also virulently anti-union corporate executives. In the end, we realized our votes just had to go to a member of the Bellevue elite who stomped on the union janitors that once cleaned his buildings. So, the envelope please . . .

'By day, Bellevue Place is a luxurious building. At night it is a sweatshop for janitors who earn poverty wages and have no health benefits.' - Service Employees Union

One union press release described the situation this way: "By day, Bellevue Place is a luxurious building in which to do business for tenants such as Microsoft and Seafirst Bank. At night it is a sweatshop for janitors who earn poverty wages and have no health benefits."

Freeman has been awarded "Turkey of the Year" two years in a row by Local 6 for his anti-union moves. Local 6 has been picketing and leafletting at the site for two years, as well as at two other Bellevue buildings that dropped their union janitors.

Bellevue Place manager Jeff Iles told The Seattle Times in 1992 that management had switched companies because the union janitors were doing sloppy work.

Union rep Gilman said, however, that while the degree of cleanliness may have fluctuated on occasion, as with any janitorial service, the real reason for the switch was so Freeman could save money. He pointed out that the difference in medical coverage amounted to huge savings for Freeman.

We're not accountants, but let's do a little math. Gilman told us that Freeman had paid between 80 and 90 cents an hour, in addition to the hourly wage, toward the union workers' health plans. About 20 union janitors lost their jobs when Freeman switched to the non-union company, according to the union. So, using 80 cents an hour to be on the conservative side, you can figure that Freeman would save about $640 a week with 20 full-time janitors. Multiply that out over a year using, say, 48 weeks to account for vacations and holidays and again be on the conservative side, and you can see that using a non-union company saved Freeman at least $30,000 annually.

To deny that the savings in medical coverage was not the reason for switching to the non-union company is the same as U.S. corporations saying the wages paid in Mexico have no influence on their decisions to close shop in the U.S. and move south. It's blatantly dishonest. It's cheap. It's greedy. It's Scroogy.

Although Ebeneezer Freeman felt hiring non-union janitors and not giving them full family medical coverage was justified by the savings, he obviously spares no expense with his own family. The developer owns an enormous house in Bellevue with a 1993 assessed value of $576,500. According to the county assessor's office, the house has over 5,800 square feet of living area, and there is a swimming pool in the backyard.

'[Freeman] has consistently ignored us. He's simply not willing to share it with janitors.' - Union Rep Dan Gilman

Not only does Freeman live in a mansion and own Bellevue Place, he also owns Bellevue Square mall, reportedly one of the most profitable malls in the country. And, in March of 1993 (the most recent figures we could find) he and his family owned 18.6 percent of the shares of First Mutual Savings Bank, the largest block held by any single shareholder. So this guy is rolling in millions, but he cuts corners on his janitors' health care. What kind of person is he?

According to Gilman, one who doesn't give a damn about the people who clean his buildings. "He has consistently ignored us," says Gilman. "He's a very rich developer with lots of money. He's simply not willing to share it with janitors."

Prior to a successful vote which brought in the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), Local 9, to represent the workers, raises were arbitrary and few and far between, say employees. Workers told us that wages at the company were five years behind those at similar companies, and that Ambrose favored only certain people with decent pay raises.

"We were getting paid squat," said one employee, who said he had to remain anonymous to protect his job. "Someone who was friends with the guy who did the hiring would get hired on at two dollars more an hour." He added that the raises given to other people were ridiculously small. At their annual reviews, he said, "People who were good workers were getting 14 cent raises."

Before the union organizing effort, that same worker was making $7.54 an hour. Now, less than a year later, he says he is making $9.65 an hour under a union contract.

Employees of HBI tell us that prior to the successful organizing effort, Ambrose had threatened to fire anyone who attempted to unionize. (Once workers sign cards calling for a vote on whether to bring in a union, it is illegal to fire workers for union activities, although it still can and does happen.) Workers say they knew they were risking their jobs if Ambrose found out they were talking with a union, so they did all of their organizing behind his and management's back.

Once they signed cards, Ambrose brought in a union-buster, who met with employees several times and tried to dissuade them from voting to join the ILWU. Ambrose also began showing up at worksites and talking with workers, even though he had rarely, if ever, done so before. (Buddy up, show them the boss is a real human being - a standard union-busting ploy).

The employee quoted above says the company has around 30 to 80 employees, depending on the time of year. During the union campaign, he said, Ambrose came up to him one day and said something like "You're new here, you must be confused by all of this union stuff." The worker turned to Ambrose and told him he'd been with the company for more than five years and wasn't confused at all.

At the same time he was trying to buddy up with his workers, said that same employee, Ambrose was hiring people with no experience at wages higher than those of workers who had been with the company for years. When he was making around $7.50 an hour, that worker said, new people were being hired on at $10 an hour.

And, as with Kemper Freeman, Ambrose certainly spares no expense when it comes to himself or his mansion. In the summer of 1992 he bought a waterfront home on Lake Washington. The 1993 assessed value of the 2,900 square foot home is $1,178,000. HBI employees say they heard he paid more than half the price of the house in cash, although we were not able to confirm this.

• Bill Crumbaker, president and CEO of Daniel Smith, a Seattle-based art supply company. As we reported in our September 1993 issue, Crumbaker led a successful union-busting campaign against his employees who were also trying to unionize under the ILWU, Local 9. Although he paid thousands of dollars to a high-powered California union-buster, the company quibbled with workers over promised paid time off that amounted to a couple hundred dollars. This Scrooge candidate appears to have had some change of heart, say workers. Since the union defeat, some workers have gotten dollar an hour raises and Crumbaker has ventured out of his executive offices and been seen working in retail sales and in the warehouse alongside his workers. But, like most of our Scrooge candidates, Crumbaker certainly doesn't scrimp on himself. He owns three homes in King County. One has a 1993 assessed value of $192,500; another has a 1993 assessed value of $178,900; and a third comes in at $88,800.
• Media Technologies, Inc. of Bothell, a software packaging firm, was cited for turning away temp workers it had ordered from temp agencies. On some days, temps made their appointed journey to the company only to discover that the production line was not running, and there was no work. An excellent arrangement for the company: if the software doesn't arrive to be packaged, the company is under no obligation to employ the temps it requested. The temps are also only paid $5.50 an hour, even on a shift of 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.
• Stuart Sloan, CEO of QFC and co-owner of University Village. This guy is as rich as they come. Although we were able to get anecdotal evidence of his Scrooge-like tendencies from people who have worked for him, we can't give details because it could put certain people's jobs at risk. Suffice it to say that his Lake Washington mansion had a 1993 assessed value of $2,570,200 and he made $15 million in 1992, according to The Seattle Times (not including his QFC, salary, which was not given). He was also said to be very perturbed that he had to use union construction workers to remodel his house last year.

Well, good riddance to the Scrooges of 1993.
If you notice a Scroogy employer in any season write Mike Blain or Doug Collins at the Free Press and we'll check 'em out.

[Home] [This Issue's Directory] [WFP Index] [WFP Back Issues] [E-Mail WFP]

---

Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1994 WFP Collective, Inc.