CABL Forum - Letter to the President and Washington Post

y occupation has been a satellite installer for 6
different companies.

I believe that I can speak for the majority when I say that this is a very
abusive industry that we all believe needs regulation. To understand the depth
of abuse log onto cabl-bar and start reading the forums. We have been
ripped off, cheated and lied to.

To state that we are "independent" contractors is only a term. The reason is
because all the satellite jobs are filtered through only a few companies. We
really can't offer our services to the public because installation is part of
the media package. It isn't like the first days of satellite where we all had
to buy the satellite and either put it up ourselves or hire someone.

The culture of these companies is simple "they can't do a damn thing without
us" and they flaunt it, they could care less about families or bills.

So, in essence, we are employees without any protection, which is where the
abuse begins. Stealing your money is commonplace through chargebacks.

When you become a satellite installer you must sign a contract that gives
you little or no rights. If you don't sign it, you don't work.

The next step is to try and make you quit, for instance, giving the worker
more jobs than they can handle.

If you tell them to stop, they will go the opposite direction and give you 1
job a day until you can no longer afford to work. Getting a guy to quit will
usually net them $1,000.00 or more through chargebacks. Getting a new sucker
is as easy as putting an ad on craigslist.

When you quit, every guy thinks to himself, the next company will be better,
unfortunately, the cycle just repeats itself. All the small companies are
simply pawns of the MSP.

However, if an MSP "really" doesn't like you, they will probably "stonewall"
you. This is the good ole boys network that keeps you from being hired
anywhere else. I was actually "told" by an employee of RSI that I had been
stonewalled, my certification in Hughesnet was rendered useless from that
moment on. My crime ? I left the company I was working for.

Within these companies are point men, they are really the controllers of the
workforce, when a new company wants to hire you, the pointman has to approve,
this is the sick, twisted, part of the business. These people live for
screwing people over.

For instance, they will send you out of State and pull your
queue (has happened to me) or give you work that takes so much driving
time that it isn't profitable or "force" you to do
work that is completely unprofitable. (Direct TV comes to mind) When
I say force, I have the proof from the company I was working for and
the directive from MSP.

In legal terms, the "relevant" market is controlled.

All of this is contrary to the ideals of the American workforce, in the
real world an employer can only say "re-hireable" or "not re-hireable"
you are not allowed to trash someones reputation or livelihood like they
do everyday in satellite.
if an employer doesn't pay you the State will come after them, if you
are working overtime, the employer must "pay" overtime.

Most would love to quit, (I did) but in these days you take what you can get and
they know it, it isn't right and it isn't fair, it's abuse and it needs
to end.

As for regulation in the industry, I believe that the practice used by
Home Depot is the best, they force every subcontractor (for instance
doors and windows installation) to hire employees so that they are
afforded protection. In other words, a sub-contractor cannot have
sub-contractors working under them.

It might also be possible to re-classify the workforce through the
IRS, the fact that we are not "truly" independent might justify
the change.

INSTALLATION

CONSTRUCTION / TECH

OFFICE / OTHER

Letter to the President and Washington Post