The Oh So Perfect Response When Union Protesters Started Protesting at the Wrong Company.

When I started Wpromote out of the dorm room nearly 14 years ago, I had no idea where the ride would take me, but I knew one thing: I wanted to build a company where Mondays Didn’t Suck. Happy people work harder, think bigger, stick around longer, and spill passion for what they do to coworkers and clients alike. And this obsession with people I can proudly say has probably been the single biggest driver of our success. When I talk to prospective clients, one of the first things I share is perhaps the accolade I am most proud of: being named by AdAge as the #2 Best Place to Work in the country.

So needless to say, when I get a frantic text from the office that there are protesters handing out flyers in front of our building, I thought it was a bizarre practical joke. After I was sent a copy of the flyer they were distributing, I was even more convinced it must be a joke.

But it wasn’t.

Wpromote, Desecrating the American Way of Life. What. The. Hell.

The marketer in me is almost more offended at how ridiculously over the top this flyer is than the call-out itself. It looks like it was made in a Xerox machine in 1988, and what’s the rat doing? Are we the rat? Did we hire the rat? Is the rat eating a house and an American flag? This carpenters union needs some serious marketing help, and I happen to know a top-notch marketing company right in the very building where they are protesting. But I digress.

I thought that was it with the flyers. I was wrong. On the corner in front of the building smack dab on Sepulveda — the biggest thoroughfare in town — they had set up shop.

Now What. The. Hell. became What. The. Fuck.

I had to get to the bottom of this. It turns out our new office — which is going through construction to prepare for our arrival in June — hired a general contractor that hired a sub-contractor for the carpentry that this local union chapter is in a dispute with.

So assuming this must be some sort of mix-up, I called the union representative to sort things out. Specifically: we don’t own the building, we didn’t hire the contractor, I have no idea who any of the sub-contractors are, and furthermore we have no ability to change anything. We designed our space with an architect and designer, and then three months later we move in. End of story. You are protesting the wrong guy. Protest the contractor, put banners up shaming the building owner to hurt their ability to lease the space. I don’t care. But protesting me will get you nowhere, because I have no ability to get you the outcome you want.

This crystal clear explanation, unfortunately, fell on the deafest of deaf ears. Because this is precisely the unions misguided strategy: to coerce and extort by protesting me personally, so I put pressure on the building to make the changes they want.

Oh hell no.

With a sleazy strategy like that, the last thing I want is to validate and support it (and ensure this happens again and again). And it turns out, this is a widely used tactic (with entire sites dedicated to this sort of “Bannering”).

But damn do I hate it. It makes me sick to think that people would drive by and think that Wpromote has a labor dispute with our employees, when our people and their happiness is part of the foundation of the company.

But what to do… We could throw lawyers at them, but that would take months and untold amounts of money with an unknown outcome. We could get mad, protest the protesters, undermine their efforts, or do what my fiancé wanted to do when she found out: roar down there and tear the sign out of their hands (oh wouldn’t that YouTube video be a doozy).

But that’s precisely what they want. And I don’t want to give them that.

So instead, we decided to do the classiest thing we could think of: to help them out by completing their unfinished sentence.

And for the first time since this saga started, I was happy.

And then I had the biggest laugh of all: the protesters aren’t union laborers at all. They are the very same underpaid, non-English speaking workers that the sign they are holding is protesting against. The union is literally using the same employment tactics that they hate.

This isn’t dripping with irony. This is a monsoon. I love it. And if you’re in for a laugh, the Daily Show clip below lampoons this very irony.

So what happens now?

The sign is still there. Could be weeks. Could be months. The union guy threatened they might keep it there forever. I’m just hoping that when they’re done, they’ll give me the sign.

These strategies suck. If you hate them as much as I do, share this story, and maybe, just maybe, it will help.