{"id":1285,"date":"2016-10-03T13:51:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T19:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2016-10-03T18:52:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T00:52:50","slug":"update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/533789250\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 65.656566% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/533789250?et=efcwMZNaSKZBPRZ5hCNOhg&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=GbygBC08c5PchBIkYlO45FwuwUuROY8Dof5UJVgNKA0=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"390\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Earlier this month, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/09\/sleazy-union-gets-owned-by-a-janitor-unwilling-to-back-down-jury-awards-5-3-million\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Brent Southwell<\/a>, the accountant-turned-janitorial business owner, who grew a small company to the sixth largest janitorial contractor in Houston, Texas only to be bullied by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Southwell\u2019s company, Professional Janitorial Services (PJS) successfully sued the union in a defamation lawsuit and was awarded $5.3 million in damages.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>SEIU claimed PJS mistreated its employees and stole money from their paychecks, despite a report by the Department of Labor that made clear the claims were false. The union\u2019s motivation was that it had secured collective bargaining for the other five largest janitorial companies in Houston, but PJS wasn\u2019t bowing to pressure and condemned SEIU\u2019s grossly unfair voting practices for its employees. The jury saw through the union\u2019s double standard of claiming to be on the side of workers, yet, attempting to destroy a company that employed so many.<\/p>\n<p>Southwell\u2019s fight is far from over, but his success so far against a powerful union backed by the federal government is a testament to this man\u2019s resolve to fight tyranny. Brent became one of the first, if not <em>the<\/em> first, to ever beat the SEIU in a jury trial. Here\u2019s the latest in his case:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PJS is requesting an additional $2.5 million in interest on top of the $5.3 million jury award<\/li>\n<li>Filed a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lexology.com\/library\/detail.aspx?g=4dcdff7f-c071-49a7-921b-1a6978dea1fb\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">federal lawsuit<\/a> against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to terminate its \u201cunion walk-around\u201d rule. The suit, financed by the Pacific Legal Center, is filed by the National Federation of Independent Business and cites the only known case in America where the Labor Department instructed OSHA inspectors to allow union representatives to enter a non-union workplace (that workplace was PJS, of course)<\/li>\n<li>Is preparing a petition for the DA in Harris County to investigate apparent perjury by a former SEIU legal counsel who testified at the trial.<\/li>\n<li>Defeated the National Labor Relations Board in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.\u00a0The NLRB appealed PJS\u2019 victory that prevents the agency from forcing PJS to abandon the arbitration clause in its employment agreements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What\u2019s next? Brent must now defend the jury verdict because the SEIU plans to appeal. The bottom line is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/08\/labor-union-in-the-judicial-systems-cross-hairs-after-crossing-the-wrong-texas-businessman\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Brent embarked on a path<\/a> some time ago to engage his oppressors on every front, and so far\u00a0is winning on every front.\u00a0Of course, his legal bills are high, so there is a downside.<\/p>\n<p>However, I am not aware of another privately-held company of comparable size that has taken on so much direct attention from unions and the government, and then beat them all. That\u2019s a good day in anyone\u2019s book.<\/p>\n<p>Brent\u2019s testimony is attached below. It anticipated and laid bare every rebuttal the unions offered and it\u2019s a must-read!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/files\/2016\/09\/PJS-Senate-Testimony-2016.pdf\" rel=\"\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">PJS Senate Testimony 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2673,"featured_media":1288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark Meckler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-03T19:51:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-04T00:52:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/653\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-23-at-7.55.10-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"464\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Meckler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Meckler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/\",\"name\":\"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-03T19:51:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-04T00:52:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421\"},\"description\":\"It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/\",\"name\":\"Mark Meckler\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421\",\"name\":\"Mark Meckler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Meckler\"},\"description\":\"Mark is one of the nation\u2019s most effective grassroots activists. After he co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, he founded Citizens for Self-Governance to revolutionize American government. Founded in February 2012, this grassroots initiative expands and directs the ever-growing, bipartisan self-governance movement. Mark appears regularly on wide variety of television outlets, including MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/author\/mmeckler\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts","description":"It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts","og_description":"It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/","og_site_name":"Mark Meckler","article_published_time":"2016-10-03T19:51:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-04T00:52:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":464,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/653\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-23-at-7.55.10-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Mark Meckler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Meckler","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/","name":"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-03T19:51:51+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-04T00:52:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421"},"description":"It\u2019s great to see the power fall back into we the people\u2019s hands!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/10\/update-janitor-fighting-the-federal-government-and-sleazy-union-winning-on-all-fronts\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UPDATE: Janitor fighting the federal government and sleazy union winning on all fronts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/","name":"Mark Meckler","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421","name":"Mark Meckler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Mark Meckler"},"description":"Mark is one of the nation\u2019s most effective grassroots activists. After he co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, he founded Citizens for Self-Governance to revolutionize American government. Founded in February 2012, this grassroots initiative expands and directs the ever-growing, bipartisan self-governance movement. Mark appears regularly on wide variety of television outlets, including MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/author\/mmeckler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}