OUCH

One of my high school chums made a lot of money as a personal injury attorney. He was, so to speak, the Tim Misney of the Florida Keys. He told me once that a sign of a good agreement is when both sides say “ouch”.

In other words, no one gets everything they want. They must meet you half way, then negotiate a compromise for the rest of it.

I wasn’t here for the first contract, but I suspect what happened. We got ‘seniority’; they got everything else – that certain type of sandwich, but without the bread.

Our Local Union 141 was their ‘ouch’.

Twelve dollars per hour was ours’ – as was a 12 point system and you’re outta’ here – as was double point days – as was BLACKOUT days – as was one bad ID – no matter how good and you’re escorted out – as was the double jeopardy of points and PTO (personal/paid time off). Ad finitum.

When written it looks like these agreements were based on a PUNISH TO SUCCEED doctrine.

But WAIT…What if I told you there was a better way?

A WIN-WIN WAY. Where both sides are smiling not frowning…

…Sort of like the ODEL BECKMSAN JR. trade. The Giants get rid of a pain in the butt; they dumped a ship-load of salary onto the Browns. They get a number one pick and Jabrill Peppers. They aren’t going anywhere soon anyway.

And us, we get the one piece we needed to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender. I guarantee you that they were doing handstands in Berea and at the Meadowlands – a CLASSIC win-win.

I SEE A WAY.

And it isn’t very complicated. It’s really quite simple. It can be measured by objective standards:

1-JACK GETS a trained, dependable Security work force that comes to work (only emergency call offs), arriving in a timely manner (no tardiness), well-groomed and good looking (no uniform violations).

2-JACK GETS an experienced Security Team that competes every game every year creating an industry-low turnover rate due to high employee job satisfaction.

3-JACKS GETS high customer satisfaction surveys and positive rumor mill reviews throughout the land. After all, the cards speak for themselves, when the team has the ability to stack the deck in JACK’S favor.

JACK Security Team delivers professional service to every customer, every day, no exceptions, no excuses.

LABOR is down, overtime is down, we are essentially self-directed. We don’t need as much supervision, because we’re responsible employees operating on a stage in full view of the public and those who watch us from behind the curtain.

We’re at our best, not our worst.

PROFITS ARE UP because of these positive, forward moving, money making strategies.

A BIG WIN FOR JACK.

IF JACK has a team as good as our team, one that consistently delivers on our agreed upon responsibilities, then JACK will be forced to treat us with a compensation package commensurate with that performance.

4-WE GET a respectable wage and benefits package.

5-WE GET RESPECTABLE RULES & REGULATIONS and respectable treatment at all levels of the organization.

A BIG WIN FOR US.

However, all of this is based on every single one of us going ‘All IN’.

Every officer, everyday, no exceptions, no excuses.

Common sense tells us that JACK isn’t going to give us a respectable wage and benefit package and respectable treatment throughout the organization if only half of us are doing a respectable job.

JACK is going to split the difference with us, which is fine for the slackers, but not fine for those of us who want to win.

So you see, it is my business and it should be yours – when one team mate slacks off, we all lose respect.

Every officer, everyday, no exceptions, no excuses.