Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Devil at My Doorstep By David Bego

The War Between a Family Business Owner and the SEIU

In May 2010, following a battle lasting over four years, Dave Bego, President of Executive Management Services, overcame incredible odds when he triumphed in a legal battle over the powerful and politically connected Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The incredible true story of Bego's "one man stand" against the two-million-member labor union and its boss Andy Stern (the man who would become President Obama's favorite ally and guest of the White House) is chronicled in his new book, The Devil at My Doorstep: Protecting Employee Rights in which Bego tells the story of the remarkable chain of events leading to the final showdown. This is an inspiring account of his fight to protect his employees and his life's work.

This is the story of a small business owner who grew his cleaning company from the ground up and succeeded by valuing quality, integrity, and respect for customers and employees as the core philosophies of his company. Eventually contracting with over 50 Fortune 500 companies, his business grew to over 5,000 workers in 36 states. He was indeed creating the American Dream for himself and his employees.

Then one day SEIU and Stern moved in to wield their "persuasion of power" to inflict unionization on EMS. Using everything from false accusations to financial power, Stern and the SEIU gained political and media support, practically ruining Bego's reputation, and costing him a million dollars in legal fees. Staying true to his values, Bego refused to back down, and almost three years later defeated Stern and the SEIU and succeeded in saving his company.

The Devil at My Doorstep delivers a shocking, incredible, account of freedom under fire, wherein Bego vividly demonstrates that the basic freedoms we assume are in place, including the right of a small business to operate without coercion, the protection of its employees' wages and personal information, and the right to vote in private, can be shaken to the core. Read more on the EMS Victory at NLRB against the SEIU.

This book is "A useful and compelling expose of what really happens in so-called union corporate campaigns," says Randel K. Johnson, Vice President, Labor, Immigration & Employee Benefits, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "While the union leadership tries to sell these campaigns as necessary because of some alleged imbalance in our nation's labor laws, the reality is that these campaigns are really about forcing employers, through a variety of often unseemly tactics, to recognize the unions regardless of the desire of the employees. David Bego's experience as documented in this review highlights that truth in stark reality."

David Bego's "truer than fiction" journey demonstrates how he was able to:

* Hold on to his core values and stand up for what he believed in.
* Fight and win against powerful and politically connected opponents.
* Develop and implement a strategy to overcome incredible odds.
* Start, operate and grow a business and cultivate good business relations.
* Find a place for a small business in a saturated marketplace characterized by large corporations.

The Devil at My Doorstep serves as an example for those individuals and small-to-mid-size business owners who believe in employee privacy rights and the American Dream, showing them that the underdog can indeed prevail.

Watch David Bego on Fox Business Network's Varney & Co.

About David Bego: President and CEO of Executive Management Services, Inc. (EMS), David Bego waged war with Andy Stern and the SEIU for the past four years, under attack from Stern and his union thugs, while protecting his employees against loss of their freedom to vote in "secret ballot" elections with no threat of repercussion from those who may disagree with their choice. Despite damage to his reputation and EMS's, Bego has managed thus far to survive the SEIU onslaught and emerge with integrity intact. Truly the voice of the opposition to the pending Employees Free Choice Act, Bego's case has received wide media coverage on TV and radio and he has met with many congressional leaders. [more...]

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A Simple Solution to Healthcare Reform

By Dr. Elaina George

I have been in medical practice for over 12 years. Over the past several months I have written extensively about both the intended and the unintended consequences of healthcare reform from a physician's perspective and have appeared on numerous radio shows talking about the problems of health care reform. I have seen the breakdown and particularly the erosion of the doctor patient relationship, which is the fundamental foundation of medicine. As a patient advocate, I felt compelled to educate and inform people about what to expect over the coming months and years regarding their health care choices.

I started my journey as an idealistic optimist who believed that my voice could be heard. That belief took me to Washington to meet with my Congressmen. It was a hard lesson to learn that the political status quo and the power of special interests were more important than doing what was best for patients. It has been equally frustrating to listen to pundits who know absolutely nothing about what it takes to keep a practice open and to provide excellent care to patients. It remains a mystery to me how the opinions of those who have no idea what its like to make payroll or pay for malpractice insurance while fighting increasingly more losing battles with insurance companies and the government for the chance to treat his or her patient as they were trained have been allowed to dictate the conversation about healthcare reform. I have come full circle. I decided that I can either complain about the problem or do something to be part of the solution. This is something we each can decide to do.

My choice is to take back my power as a physician for myself and for my patients. In my opinion, it is the middleman that has led to the explosion in healthcare costs and has insinuated itself between me and my patient. I can no longer sit back and hope that the government will help me (The passing of the healthcare reform bill made that plainly obvious that wasn't going to happen). You only need to look to the fact that the stocks for the pharmaceutical industry and the medical insurance industry went up after the bill passed.

My solution is the creation of Best Price MD (http://www.bestpricemd.com/). It is simply a consortium of healthcare providers - from physicians, specialists, surgeons, and dentists to integrative providers such as chiropractors and acupuncturists. All of our providers have one thing in common, that is their willingness to provide a discount on their services to those without insurance and those who do have insurance, but have high deductibles. [more...]