Cattle Call

By rr

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469181752

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Book preview

2. Looking for Help

Phil couldn’t bring himself to think about work for a while, so he spent the next six months running around the country catching up with parents, kids, and getting to know better his six grandkids. Camping and boating were highlights of the tour. However, after the six months of injuries from chasing zero to seven-year-olds around parks, ponds, houses, and living rooms, after being chewed out because he couldn’t play Scooby Doo correctly, when even playing pretend was over his head, according to his four-year-old granddaughter, Phil came to the conclusion that grandparenting should be on hour-to-hour terms as opposed to day after day, and limped back home, albeit with a grand smile on his face.

Once home in his small one-bedroom apartment, Phil hurried to get started on his promise to see justice prevail in his old workplace. It seemed open and shut to him; the management group had stolen everything that they had, at one time or another. As he explained to a lawyer friend, we were part of a large corporation who didn’t want our division anymore. Our CEO saved us from the junk pile by putting his own career on the line. He did, however, negotiate a pretty sweet deal to keep us running on the corporation’s dime, where he participated handsomely in the profits, but not the losses, and the management group could receive bonuses in the six- and seven-digit range if profits materialized. Amazingly enough, profits began to rack up like flies on a manure pile, and the stink around them was just about the same, if not worse. In one case that he had well documented, the five of them had participated in three million dollars worth of bonuses from cooking the books at year-end. It wasn’t the first time he saw it from this management group and it wouldn’t be the last.

The entire company was sold shortly thereafter to a European company that was very open to the fact that they didn’t want our division. There were two pieces to our company that they wanted to sell, one in America and a Canadian side as well. The CEOs of these two pieces had the first right of purchase if they so chose. The Canadian CEO was a reasonable man, who had a good head for business. The American CEO was the kid everyone picked on in school and with good reason. He was a slight man who couldn’t resist telling all that he was better than them. He had an arrogance that was second to none, and he always loved to have subordinates hang around with him so he could show off his self-imposed superiority. He almost assuredly had a hand in writing the philosophy that money not only made the man, but was the man. Not only did he hold these features as total fact, he also passed them along to the other four people in the management group who were only too pleased to accept them. The CEOs both sat down and began the process of purchasing the company outright from the new corporate office.

After a week of negotiations, the four management folks got together behind the CEO’s back and decided that they wanted to purchase the company themselves. Although I could understand they didn’t want to work for this guy, because of his backstabbing and thievery, not that even one of them were much better, if any. They sought an audience with the corporate folks to express their desires, but were shot down quickly as right of first purchase remained clearly with the CEO. Coincidently, the CEO was found dead two days later with four gunshot wounds in the back as he was leaving work. The police, after only two days, determined that the crime was gang-related and shuffled it into the gang stack of files, which meant that it might be looked at within the next twenty to fifty years. Nobody ever questioned anyone inside the company. After that, the four managers were allowed to move up the pecking order and purchase the American side of the company.

The negotiations were over, and the sale was to take place in June. I was told to show no profits for the first five months of the year. Just keep accruing expenses so we have no profits. As it turned out, paying the taxes on the first five months of the year was part of the contract. By recording no earnings, the group saved roughly half of the purchase price of the company. This, coupled with the bonuses they received at year-end from cooking the books, would almost pay the whole thing off. Sure, it was pure and simple tax fraud, but they were willing to take their chances. It was a very uncomfortable situation for Phil, but after just coming off of an ugly divorce, he was no way in a position to leave at this time.

After the purchase was complete, this first order of business was to stop paying and collecting sales and use taxes. This isn’t uncommon among businesses these days as they have found that when audited and caught, the expense, even with penalties, is usually less than the original cost would have been. It didn’t take long for this group to catch on and begin feeling the ego surge of being in power. It wasn’t uncommon to hear tidbits such as I don’t think I’m god, I am god. Such were the early years, and tough years they were, not necessarily work wise, but mentally so, as you were constantly reminded of the fact that you were, at best, a second-class citizen.

The next abnormality occurred at the end of that year, and really pissed Phil off. The company had roughly sixty-five employees, mostly Hispanic, near minimum wage female workers with multiple young kids at home. They had a vacation policy that stated that if you worked the prior year, you earned and were entitled to be paid vacation time the following year of a minimum of two weeks, depending on seniority. This pool of money was fully funded, so there was no reason to take it away. However, the management group decided that the full amount of these monies would be better off in their four pockets, rather than two to four weeks of money into each of the lackey fools who would just spend it on day care or groceries or some other commoner expense. This group couldn’t wait for the profits of the company, so they stole this fund in a clear breach of contract and used it to purchase their ski villas, mountain homes, cars, motorcycles, and in-home movie theaters. Don’t worry, the employees were told. We are going to let you start earning vacation time all over again, and this time, we will probably let you keep the paid time off you earn.

If you ignore a plethora of immoral employee issues where we lost a number of good people, which usually centered around who best shook their moneymakers at management, and/or bowed to their royalty, this leads us to the latest event that pushed Phil over the edge.

Well, what do you think? Phil asked his lawyer friend Chris.

She was a bit stout at five foot six and one hundred and sixty-five pounds. Her blond hair was kept short so that it wouldn’t get in her face during court deliberations. She and Phil have been good friends for a number of years, although neither one of them could remember when they met. She was a relatively newlywed from her wedding six months ago. Her dad had passed away several years ago and she had asked Phil to walk her down the aisle and give her away. They were that close.

This is over my head, to tell you the truth, she replied. Their lawyers would drag this out for all of eternity, and I just couldn’t afford that. I can give you the name of a couple of firms that should be able to help you though.

Do you think I have a chance? Phil implored.

A chance to what? Chris asked back.

A chance to bring justice down on them, he fired back. I’m greedy, I’d like to see them penniless and in jail.

There is always a chance. What about you? Chris had to ask.

What do you mean? Phil was confused.

Do you want anything out of this for yourself? she clarified.

If I get something for bringing this to light and suffering that hostile work environment, even better, I wouldn’t turn it down. Phil replied. However, that’s not my first priority.

Phil took the list of law firms from Chris and set out to settle his score with the management group. What followed almost broke his heart. As he entered each law firm’s building, Phil noted that they were all nearly the same, roughly a blend of fifty percent dark paneling, and fifty percent clear glass. The lawyers sat and listened to him attentively, and then responded. He couldn’t believe what he was being told.

Firm after firm said the same thing. Thank you for contacting us, we will not be able to accept your case and must, therefore, decline representation. You shouldn’t construe our firm’s decision declining representation as constituting a legal opinion about the merits of your case. As a matter of fact, we would encourage you to contact another attorney as soon as possible. Firm after firm gave him, almost verbatim, the same answer.

Next, Phil took his case to the DA’s office, and after hounding them for four months, finally got an audience. Entering the building, he was somewhat intimidated by the almost entirely dark mahogany interior. After giving the details of the case to the thin tall relatively young, assistant DA, Phil was told roughly the same thing that the law firms had told him.

Phil said, You have to be kidding, there’s a case where a contestant on a reality show failed to pay four hundred thousand dollars in taxes. He spent six years in jail, and now, with interest and penalties, owe over two million dollars, and no one will lift a finger to collect this obvious multimillion-dollar tax fraud.

Then the assistant attorney pulled Phil aside and told him off the record, You baby boomers carried this country for the past forty years. You gave government almost more money than we knew what to do with. Unfortunately, they found a way and pissed it all away, and there is less than nothing left. Now that you are retiring, all you represent now is a huge expense to pay. Business is the new baby boomer and will get away with a lot in the next couple of decades. Give up on this law suit, you won’t get anywhere with it.

But you see, law firms advertise all the time that they will go after big businesses, Phil argued.

Yes, you do, the DA agreed. However, they are not going after big businesses. They are only going after cases where the FDA or other organization has already proven the company is at fault. Those law firms are only negotiating a settlement for something that’s already been settled legally.

But isn’t the law the law? Phil inquired angrily.

Off the record, no, the assistant district attorney responded. The law is the law that’s enforced.

I’m beginning to think that only a few hundred nuclear blast can straighten out this world, Phil threw back sarcastically as he headed for the door.

Pretty much, the DA responded with just about the same amount of sarcasm.

Phil went home, his tail tucked firmly between his legs. He thought about going back to school to get his own law degree. This might take him too long, he thought. How can this be, he asked himself over and over. The law is still the law regardless of economic times, isn’t it? Has our country’s laws and values come down to money issues only? Good lord, we have the right to revolt; we are cheering on the rest of the world for their revolutions. Is it time for ours? Maybe it’s time.

At that moment, Phil felt himself being pushed away from the subject, and a major calming come over him. After analyzing the matter for some time, he interpreted it as the Lord speaking to him, although he had always struggled to believe in one all-powerful being. Let it go, the voice in his head told him. I’ll take care of the judgment you seek, and you may be a part of it by holding the scrolls upon their individual hearings. Although it meant that Phil would be first to shuffle off this planet, it was OK. Phil smiled and sighed heavily and did just that; he put it down and began spending his time thinking of how to spend the remaining days here on Earth. Little did he know where that would take