So just what does John Sheridan Associates do? I wanted to know. "We do the Lord's work," was Sheridan's answer. I was electrified as Sheridan and Bannon described their business, and I found myself seduced into coveting the job. "We force management to clean up its act," Bannon announced. "Our job is to thwart union-organizing drives. You see, a union-organization effort only results from one thing: bad management. If the employees are pushing to organize a union, the management only has itself to blame." To that synopsis Sheridan added a cynical refrain that has served as a mantra of sorts to union busters for a generation: We're not anti-union. We're pro-company and pro-employee." Bannon ticked off a list of the five key corporate failings that drive workers to seek union help: lack of recognition, weak management, poor communication, substandard working conditions, and noncompetitive wages and benefits. If a company takes care of those problems itself, Bannon said, it could achieve a happy work force and never have to fear a union invasion. So what John Sheridan Associates do is first take care of the immediate threat, the crisis, by quelling the union-organizing drive. With the union trouble put to rest, the consultants then teach management how to run the company so that employees will not feel they need a union. "In our work, we use the threat of the union to force management to change its ways, to supervise more effectively, communicate better with the workers. We humble management, make them see how they've called the union trouble upon themselves. When our work is done, the company remains union free because no union is needed. Management does its job right, the workers are happy, and the company is profitable."