Reposted from:
http://biggovernment.com/laborunionreport/2011/08/16/developing-ohio-business-owner-shot-for-being-non-union-police-investigating/?utm_source=like&utm_campaign=ingboo
DEVELOPING: Ohio Business Owner Shot For Being Non-Union, Police Investigating
This is a developing story as police are still investigating the shooting of a non-union business owner, John King, by what appears to be a union assailant.
With around 25 employees, John King owns one of the largest non-union electrical contracting businesses in the Toledo, Ohio area. As a non-union contractor, his business happens to be doing well at a time when unions in the construction industry are suffering. This, it seems, has made the usual animosity unions have for him even greater, making him a prime target of union thugs. So much so, that one of them tried to kill him last week at his home.
John King didn’t plan on being an enemy of unions. In fact, he says all he’s ever wanted to do is work at something he loves doing and be successful at it—something that most normal Americans would call ‘The American Dream.’
After high school and some college, Mr. King briefly worked for an IBEW contractor before being drafted into the military. Following his service in the early 70s, King became his own boss by going into business as the youngest electrical contractor in Toledo.
Over the years, King Electrical Services had always been a small business. However, during the Great Recession, King’s business has actually improved as his union competitors have priced themselves out of work.
Unfortunately, being a non-union electrical company, King has always been on the radar of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). In fact, in 2006, he won a significant case against the IBEW at the US Court of Appeals, after the union had improperly promised his electricians jobs on union sites if they voted the union into King’s company.
Since he’s been in business, in addition to the legal battles and verbal abuse, King’s company has been vandalized and threatened on numerous occasions.
“Back then, it was nothing to have to regularly buy a new set of tires.” King said during a telephone interview on Tuesday. “The ice pick was the weapon of choice.”
Until Wednesday, the worst of the union attacks on King and his business came in the mid-eighties during the UAW strike at AP Parts. During a lull during the lengthy strike, King’s business was picketed by more than 50 IBEW picketers. This was at a time when he only had eight or nine employees. One of his employees, whose car was trashed by the union picketers, was also beaten up by IBEW thugs.
Unfortunately, the vandalism has never stopped. This year alone, he’s had to report three incidents of damage to police. This doesn’t include the incidents of stalking he and his men have to go through while they’re working.
In one incident earlier this year, rocks were thrown through the front windows of his shop, one of which had the word “kill” written on it.
Last Wednesday, however, the attacks on Mr. King became much more serious when he was awakened late in the evening at his home in Monroe County, Michigan and saw that the motion lights in his driveway had come on. When he looked out his front window, he saw a figure near his SUV and went outside.
As soon as he got outside his front door, King yelled at the individual who was crouched down by King’s vehicle. As soon as King yelled, the suspect stood and, without hesitation, fired a shot at Mr. King.
Luckily for King, as he yelled, he also stumbled. If it weren’t for that, however, John King’s injuries might have been much, much worse. In fact, he might have been killed.
Upon scrambling back into his house, King got to his cell phone and called 911. However, due to the pain in his knees and shoulder from falling, King was unaware that he had been shot in the arm.
At first, King thought that his assailant was merely trying to break into his vehicle. Little did he know, however, that the perpetrator was targeting him–because of his non-union company.
The night of the shooting, police recovered a shell casing from a small caliber handgun. In addition to the shell casing, police also found a Swiss Army knife that police say was likely going to be used to slice the tires on King’s SUV.
While neither the police, nor Mr. King can say which union was behind the attack, it is very clear by the word ’scab’ scrawled on his SUV that it the attack was union-related.
“The police have been very thorough,” King says. “I cannot praise the Monroe County Sheriff’s department enough.”
The Monroe County Sheriff’s office is encouraging anyone with information to call 734-240-7530.
In addition, Mr. King is offering a $10,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
Below is a news clip from WTOL11:
Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com
This story was most unfortunate and epitomizes the views you and I share of many high profile labor unions. However, all unions are not created equal. Especially those who represent emergency service personnel. “The police have been very thorough,” King says. “I cannot praise the Monroe County Sheriff’s department enough.” Thank god the union for the Sheriff’s department was not in cahoots with the UAW! I’m just sayin…
Thank you, Officer Anderson. I absolutely did notice that comment and was pleased. I posted this article as written simply to show an example of the types of things that have contributed to my opinion over the years. I also did not post it under the category of NMB, but in a general category, as it does not relate to our city.
Speaking of our city, I did not write anything this weekend as you probably know because I’m still feeling under the weather and I was hoping to feel at least human enough to write something interesting. No luck. I also spent some time trying to understand the issue about the discrepancy between the computations in the budget re the pension, also with not too much luck. I understand the general concept and that it’s a formulation that has been used in all previous budgets, but it is definitely misleading. A council member, who is also concerned, is also looking into this and wants it corrected and clarified. As you know (I hope), I have refrained from writing about specific budget items and especially salaries for many reasons. Aside from the fact that I personally find it distasteful to discuss salaries in general, it is also because I never write about such things without being absolutely certain that I know what I’m talking about. When I don’t know something, I leave it in the hands of people who I trust to be able to deal with it. This is not to say I don’t question things, but I don’t pretend to be an expert in areas over my head. What I do know is that I have complete faith that this mayor and several of the council members will not rest until everything is on the table and the figures are all absolutely correct. There are also residents, including me, who will hound them until this is done properly. This is all I can say about this issue until I know all the facts and understand them as much as possible. I hope to be able to post a blog later today or tonight, as I really want to write about my tour of the police department, which I found to be fascinating, and some other stuff. But, right now I have to get ready for work. I hope you have a good day.
Let me start by saying that I am not a union member, never have been, and don’t think I ever could be; I have never believed in fraternities and I am about as conservative and independent as they come. But these new anti-union, anti-government mobs, half of whom are just parroting whichever soundbite they last heard on TV, are forgetting two very important truths:
1. Any benefits they (and I) now have, or might have had before they became unemployed and angry, are the result of past union efforts. Many of these hard-fought union achievements have become laws while others are willingly provided by employers in order to avoid unionizing. Employees who are treated fairly do not need unions.
2. If the private sector is so much better than the public sector, how come half of it has been outsourced to China and India among others? Which model should government be emulating? The failed Detroit auto industry? The failed Georgia textile industry? Or perhaps the now bailed-out failed banking industry? The truth is that the private sector has been as inefficient and corrupt in the past as government is now being accused of being, perhaps in an effort to dilute their own failures. Maybe taxpayers would be happy if when they call to complain about their dwindling government services, the call was answered in Mumbai and they could then take care of their banking at the same time.
To me this whole thing has been a (carefully scripted) twist on the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. For years my private sector friends, “the Hares”, rubbed their end-of-the year bonuses and super golden parachutes in my face, “the Tortoise”; implying that I was missing out and wasting my talents, together with my money-making abilities. The “Hares” then hit a bump on the road, they are all now unemployed and bitter, want to blame it all on the “Tortoises” and change the end of the story while they are at it.
They say that crap never runs uphill, and boy is that ever true these days! Everybody has forgotten that all of this started at the very top of the hill, with Wall Street and various other (private sector) entities; yet in the end, it’s the Tortoises that are being crapped on. Government employees are suddenly the root of all evil, while the super-rich corporations are just innocent victims of uncertainty, at the same time that they post record profits. I suppose every crisis must have a scapegoat, or in this case a scapetortoise. I give 110% every day, and it breaks my heart to see some people allowing, and even encouraging my demise.
Thanks for your comments. You made some excellent points. I never said that unions did not originally serve a purpose. There was a time in this country that labor was treated horribly and working conditions were deplorable. Unions formed and were successful in improving the lives of millions of workers. Private companies took advantage of their employees because the workers had absolutely no recourse, and there were not laws in place protecting their rights. I do feel, however, that unions have now outlived their usefulness, like IBM Self-Correcting Typewriters, for example. Eventually, almost everything becomes obsolete as things are replaced with more relevant items. To me, unions are obsolete. I also believe there was never a need for public unions, a sentiment echoed by one of the most liberal presidents in our country, FDR. The greed of Wall Street was not limited to the financial business. Back in the day, private businesses, such as steel, coal, the auto industry, etc., were only kept in line by the right of workers to organize and get equal pay, equal rights and the like. The government, however, is supposed to be a “fair” employer what with all the governmental rules and regulations about equal protection and equal employment opportunities. Assuming the government would be the fairest of all employers in the land, then it makes no sense for workers to even have a need to organize. Unions, especially public unions, have become nothing but an arm of the government itself, and therefore there is a conflict of interest in representing both employer and employee, especially when it comes to collective bargaining. I’m not going to go into more detail here or I’d write a book. But there are so many resources for you to be able to do your own investigation and form your own opinion.
As for the world of “big business,” Wall Street was one of the parties complicit in the greed and corruption that contributed to our economic downfall. You can also add quasi-governmental entities such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the granddaddy of all corruptocrats, the Federal Reserve. Again, please do your own research. I’d be happy to send you links to articles and studies if you want more information, but I’m not going to go into it here. Thankfully, I have never worked for “big business” but I have always worked in small law firms which were by their very nature resistant to outsourcing. I do believe, however, that “big business” is the mechanism that can be used to grow this economy if there was a more business friendly environment in our country. As much as I hate calling a credit card company and reaching someone who’s probably sitting on a phone at a makeshift desk in a parking lot in Pakistan, I also know that the vast over-regulation and governmental intrusion into business did force many of them to eventually set up shop in other countries. Think about this – if you had your own business and the government forced you to follow all kinds of ridiculous things for the “privilege” of staying in business, to the point that you make absolutely no profit whatsoever, would you stay in business here? If you had the opportunity to move your headquarters to another country and were able to operate at a much lower cost and without having to follow arbitrary regulations, what would you do? Now, remember, I am talking about ARBITRARY regulations, not the standard safety or anti-discriminatory regulations. But really, really extraneous ones that the government forces on business every day without reason, and then comes up with all sorts of extraneous permit fees just to allow them to stay in business. By way of example, my boss has to pay for an occupational license to both the City of Fort Lauderdale and to Broward County. Fortunately, our combined fees amount to only a couple hundred dollars a year, but my boss is a sole practitioner and he has one employee. That’d be me. Can you imagine what the fees are for businesses who have tens or hundreds of employees and run a big company? That would be literally thousands and thousands of dollars in duplicate fees that could be better put to use to hire more employees. On top of that, every time I turn around I’m paying some sort of tax to the County, the State of Florida and the IRS, including payroll tax, property tax, intangible tax, unemployment tax, and of course I have to pay the accountant to prepare all these tax returns. It’s a wonder my boss can afford to keep me employed at all. Of course, he doesn’t take a salary because he earns his income from his various business investments, and I guarantee you can’t even imagine what he pays in taxes on those dividends. If my boss had to take a salary from our law practice he couldn’t afford to pay himself, much less me. So think in terms of what much larger companies have to deal with and why so many of them decide to pack it up here and leave the country altogether. It’s the mom and pop businesses and shops who don’t have a choice but to keep plugging on in the hopes of staying afloat. As for the bailouts of the big businesses who mismanaged all that money and continue to pay their executives obscene amounts of money – I WAS AND STILL AM AGAINST ANY AND ALL BAILOUTS WHATSOEVER! No business is “too big to fail!” Look at Eastern Airlines – remember them? Everyone thought that if they folded it would be the end of the airline industry. Not only did the industry survive, but it thrived and the competition from all the new independent airlines brought consumer prices down. It was a win-win situation for everyone. The losers were the poor employees of Eastern who let their union destroy their jobs by bringing down their employer. Think about that one.
Your “friends” in the private sector who had the stupidity to waive their bonuses and golden parachutes in your face are getting exactly what they deserve. HOW RUDE, not to mention obnoxious! There was a time when the benefits of a government job were a good enough incentive to stay in what was primarily a lower paying job than in the private sector. Plus there was the good old fashioned satisfaction of serving the public, and doing it with a smile. Unfortunately, it has gotten to the point where public sector jobs are paying about the same as private sector jobs, but combined with the benefits many government employees are now earning way more than their counterparts in the private sector. This is not to say they don’t deserve the pay they get, but their employer is the taxpaying public and the government’s only “customers” are the same taxpaying public. While in the private sector the employees are being paid by private money, which is supposed to help grow their businesses and fuel the economy. We are really talking about two separate worlds.
Anyway, I’m stopping now because even though I find economics a fascinating topic, most people are probably yawning. I hope I made sense to you. Just because I know what I want to say doesn’t mean I’m making sense to anyone else.
My fears are that greed will never be obsolete and that the world will never be a fair place. Perhaps it is the mission statement of unions that is obsolete. You may say that businesses have left due to “arbitrary” regulations, if by that you mean that no sweat shops are allowed in the US. Given the chance, private companies will always take advantage of employees. As I said, unlike a typewriter, greed is never obsolete.
Child labor laws (i.e. sweat shops) are not arbitrary. Neither are fair hiring practices (EEOC), which is also a law. Some regulation is necessary for an orderly society. I don’t agree that private companies will always take advantage of employees. Some will, but the vast majority will comply with the law. Laws need to be more reasonable and rational. Some are just ridiculous. I agree wholeheartedly with you that the world will never be a fair place. Who says it’s supposed to be? I always told my kids ever since they were little, “Life’s not fair. Get used to it.” As they say, sh*t happens. Adversity builds character. How one deals with the crap thrown in his path is a true measure of a person’s inner strength. Of course that is my opinion. How fair would it be if everyone got their way? If everyone was always right and no one were wrong, how would that work? Seems to me there would still be chaos.
Anyway, this is way too much philosophy for me so early in the morning. I gotta go make a living and strengthen my character by driving defensively on I-95. 🙂