Key Facts About Continental, Our Employees
and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

The Continental Group is proud of our reputation and the positive relationships the company has with its employees and customers in South Florida . Continental is committed to providing an open and fair work environment and fully supports the democratic right of free choice for all of its employees.

Continental and Employees

The Facts
• Continental believes in and supports the democratic right of employees to choose to be, or not to be, represented by a union
• Continental's management team have been leaders in improving employment standards in residential property management for more than 30 years
• Continental provides opportunities, wages and benefits that are above the industry standard in South Florida
• Continental's training and health & safety programs are industry leaders in South Florida
• Continental's reputation has been earned through the efforts of thousands of quality people who have grown their careers with the company
• Continental provides an open and fair work environment, we respect the rights of our employees and we will stand firm in defense of those rights.

Disinformation campaign launched by SEIU Union

The Facts
• Over the past two years, Continental has been a target of an ongoing disinformation campaign by the SEIU stemming from an unsuccessful attempt to organize our employees
• The SEIU leadership is attacking our company, other service providers and condominium associations because the union has identified all South Florida as new territory to build its membership and raise revenues
• The union has repeatedly stated that they want to represent “every worker, every building” in South Florida
• Unable to make a persuasive case to employees of Continental and unwilling to give employees an opportunity to vote in an open and fair process, the SEIU has shifted its focus to attacking company management through the communication of false and misleading statements aimed at denigrating Continental and its employees
• The disinformation campaign launched against Continental is a standard tactic used by the SEIU against other targeted industries and includes false and misleading statements spread through public rallies and demonstrations; press releases and press conferences; letters to customers and partners: attack advertising on billboards, newspaper, radio and even banners towed by airplanes; and through a web-based campaign featuring SEIU-inspired sites cleancondos.org and screwthiscondo.org.
• The SEIU's objective is to distract and discredit management at Continental in an attempt to pressure us into taking away our employees' fundamental and democratic rights to choose to be, or not to be, represented by a union by signing a neutrality agreement with the union.
• Corporate disinformation campaigns are a regrettable but growing trend employed by the SEIU and other unions who try to bypass traditional union organizing efforts by spreading false and misleading statements about their targets in an effort to damage corporate reputation and force companies to turn over their employees to the union against the will of those employees.
• These campaigns and tactics are a desperate attempt to reverse the decline in the number of workers represented by unions and the amount of dues collected by unions from its shrinking membership base.

Our Position on Neutrality Agreements

The Facts
• Continental supports our employees' right to decide if they want, or do not want, to be part of a union.
• The SEIU has urged Continental to sign a neutrality agreement to permit the union to organize the firm's employees and determine if they support unionization.
• A neutrality agreement provides a union with free access to present its views to employees while management is forced to remain silent. Employees do not hear management's side of the argument, just the union's
• A neutrality agreement also allows the union to make promises it may not be able to deliver and present its views without any rebuttal from management
• Most worrisome, a neutrality agreement gives the SEIU free access to intimidate and threaten our employees into surrendering their democratic rights using the same unsavory tactics it uses in its attempts to coerce our management team to hand over those same rights
• For all the reasons above, a neutrality agreement is anti-democratic, anti-free speech and outside our values as an organization
• If the SEIU is right, and our employees truly want a union, the SEIU should follow the proper legal process and file a request with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a government supervised secret ballot election
• Continental would honor the results of a government supervised secret ballot election that protects our employees right to choose in a fair and legitimate process

The SEIU claims The Continental Group is responsible for multiple violations of U.S. labor law

The Facts
• Continental, which employs several thousand individuals, has had a minimal number of regulatory complaints despite an aggressive union-led campaign against the company.
• All of the charges have been instigated by the SEIU, not by the government.
• Continental's management team has operated in South Florida for over 30 years without a single NLRB complaint before the SEIU arrived in 2003.
• It is standard practice for unions unable to win support of employees to organize, to routinely file completely unfounded regulatory complaints as a nuisance in order to apply pressure to corporations - and then withdraw them from investigation before the NLRB has an opportunity to properly investigate.
• In the period before the charge reaches a proper hearing, the SEIU claims in its disinformation campaign that Continental is being "investigated by the federal government" to damage the company's reputation and pressure management.
• To date, there have been a number of charges filed or instigated by the SEIU, and those charges allege the improper separation of ten individuals from employment with Continental.
• The charges involving seven individuals were withdrawn or dismissed entirely, and as of March 2006 one more has now been recommended for dismissal by an administrative law judge. The remaining two are being actively contested by Continental.
• Continental will ask the NLRB in Washington, D.C. to review the few adverse recommendations of the administrative law judge in the contested charges and is confident that at the end of the process, it will be determined that Continental has not violated any laws.
• Continental expects the SEIU will continue to file or instigate these types of misleading accusations for publicity purposes.
• A study performed in the summer of 2004 by Florida International University - funded in part by the SEIU - found that Continental provides wages and benefits well above the industry average. This is a fact that the SEIU has selectively chosen not to disclose when quoting this study

SEIU claims it has filed charges against the company on behalf of a number of individuals who SEIU says were fired or transferred due to their activities in support of unionization.  

The Facts
• The SEIU's claim regarding Mr. Marvin White, who was never employed by Continental, is erroneous as his job position was eliminated by the association's board for financial reasons. This claim is being vigorously contested.
• The SEIU's claim regarding Mr. Brutus Kolson, who was never employed by Continental, was withdrawn by the SEIU and the matter is closed.
• The SEIU’s claim regarding Ms. Mercedes Medina, who was terminated after she had a security company employee cover her front desk position while she slept in her car, was withdrawn by the SEIU and the matter is closed.
• The SEIU's claim regarding Mr. Gildardo Falla, who was never employed by Continental, was withdrawn by the SEIU and the matter is closed.
• The SEIU's claim regarding Mr. Phillip Gonzalez was recommended for dismissal by an NLRB judge. Mr. Gonzalez was never fired by Continental, but voluntarily resigned his position following his admission that he had spread the word among residents of the building where he worked about serious accusations made against him in court. In March 2006, an administrative law Judge recommended that Mr. Gonzalez's claim he was discharged for engaging in union activity be dismissed.
• The SEIU's claim regarding Ms. Lady Borrero, who was terminated for violation of a valid company policy and who does not even claim she was involved in union activity, is being vigorously contested by Continental.
• The SEIU's claims regarding Mr. Alberto Montoya and Mr. Jairo Garces, individuals who were terminated from buildings at the request of a condominium association board for reasons unrelated to the union, were given the opportunity to interview for other positions with Continental. All charges regarding Mr. Montoya and Mr. Garces have been withdrawn by the SEIU and the matter is closed.
• The claim regarding George Legros, who was never employed by Continental, was withdrawn and the matter is closed.
• As of March 2006, a new claim was filed by the SEIU regarding an individual who was never an employee of Continental. This claim was withdrawn by the SEIU at or about the same time that the NLRB had issued a letter rejecting the claim.

The Facts
• For over 30 years, Continental and its affiliates have managed an ever increasing number of residential units that now totals more than one-half million and provides homes to almost two million individual residents. During this period, Continental has only been involved in four lawsuits to defend its reputation and business.