Busted: What Florida's union busters have been up to | April 2025 (Part 1)
A round-up of reported activity by Florida's anti-union labor consultants, and employers in Florida that hire them.
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While Florida isn’t exactly a hotbed for organizing activity, the state (surprisingly or not) happens to be home to some of the most active anti-union labor consultants in the country. Such consultants, described by critics as “union busters,” are hired by employers to convince workers not to form or join a union. Some of these consultants are attorneys, others are not.
These employer-side consultants, also known as “persuaders,” are hired to conduct union “risk” assessments (assessing how vulnerable the employer is to union organizing activity), train management on how to talk down unions (without flagrantly violating federal law), and/or directly persuade employees “to exercise or not to exercise, or persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.”
While this sounds pretty tame on its face, persuaders have been known to use intimidation tactics (and sometimes blatantly unlawful strategies) to persuade workers against unionization — for example, unlawfully surveilling workers or informing them that their pay will go down or they’ll lose job benefits if they unionize. A persuader contracted by Tate’s Bakery up in New York allegedly threatened their undocumented workers with deportation if they voted in favor of unionization.
Some deploy other, disturbing talking points. A Barnes & Noble worker up in New Jersey for instance told me that, during their own union organizing campaign in 2023, consultants contracted through the Orlando-based Labor Pros firm allegedly tried to talk down the union by comparing union membership to “chattel slavery” during a meeting with a Black coworker. Workers, nonetheless, voted unanimously to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union that spring.
Ground rules: Under federal law, persuaders are required to file reports with the federal Office of Labor Management Services when they enter into agreements with employers. These forms are known as LM-20s and LM-21s. When filled out correctly, they offer a snapshot of what persuaders are hired to do, and how much money they’re getting out of it. Employers are similarly required to file similar reports (LM-10s) annually, detailing how much they’ve spent on union busting or “persuader” activity.
LM-20’s (detailing a job) must be filed within 30 days of entering into an agreement with an employer, while LM-21’s (detailing payment) must be filed within 90 days after the end of the filer’s fiscal year.
The idea behind these reporting requirements is to provide workers involved in union organizing drives with information of any third-party individuals their employer has brought in to “educate” them (as they often describe it), and how much their employer is paying them to do so. Often, the going rate for persuaders is hundreds of dollars per hour, as you’ll read below.
Here is what Florida’s union avoidance experts (and union-busting employers) reported in the first half of April:
Records show German automaker Volkswagen enlisted RoadWarrior Productions, a union avoidance firm led by Russell Brown of Satellite Beach, FL to convince a group of autoworkers in Cranbury, NJ not to unionize with the United Auto Workers. A report filed by Brown with the federal Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) shows Brown subcontracted four consultants for the job: Edward Hinkle, Scott Michel, Marcus Jordan, and Brian Manthorne. According to Brown’s report, the job lasted from March 7 — four days after workers petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election — through April 9, just two days before workers’ votes were tallied. Records available through the National Labor Relations Board show the union filed multiple unfair labor practice charges ahead of the vote, alleging Volkswagen violated federal labor law. Ultimately, however, workers voted 62 to 81 against unionization, and the UAW has filed another unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB since, alleging Volkswagen unlawfully disciplined workers for their union activity and unlawfully changed the terms and conditions of workers’ employment.
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded
Who prevailed? The employer. Workers ultimately voted 62 to 81 against unionization
Payment: Volkswagen agreed to pay Brown’s firm a flat rate of $3,800 per day, per consultant, “plus reasonable expenses,” according to an agreement Brown submitted to the federal OLMS (attached above).
Going deeper: Brown was also hired by Mercedes-Benz last year to convince workers against unionization in Alabama and has become a go-to for Amazon in its own efforts to defeat unionization drives. According to the UAW, this marked the first organizing drive of Volkswagen workers on the East Coast, following a vote by more than 4,000 workers in Chattanooga, TN last year to form a union with the UAW (Volkswagen employees are already unionized in Germany and Mexico).
“We saw what was going on at the Big Three, and then Volkswagen workers in Tennessee won their union despite pushback from management,” said Sergio Sumano Jr, a seven-year warehouse worker at the NJ Volkswagen facility, in a statement. “Now, it’s our turn. We deserve fair pay, affordable benefits, and a secure retirement – just like every other unionized autoworker in the U.S. If Volkswagen wants to operate in America, they need to treat us with the same dignity as their workers overseas.”
Marcia Carter, a union avoidance consultant affiliated with the firm ButlerCarter Connection in Clermont, FL, was contracted by Penne Familusi Jackson of The Rayla Group in February to convince service and technical employees at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in Brattleboro, VT not to unionize with Brattleboro Healthcare United (affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers). According to the NLRB, workers voted in favor of unionization anyway. Carter, a business coach who specializes in “improving interpersonal communication,” notably misspelled the name of the hospital in her report (“Battleboro” instead of “Brattleboro”). Under federal law, persuaders can be subject to criminal penalties “for willful failure to file a required report and/or for false reporting,” which includes “making any false statement or misrepresentation of a material fact while knowing it to be false.” Enforcement, however, is notoriously weak and is likely to get worse under the Trump administration. So it goes. Carter’s also done consulting work for Amazon, as I reported for Orlando Weekly last year. According to Carter’s report, her job at Brattleboro lasted just under two weeks, from Feb. 3, 2025 through Feb. 14, 2025 — the day of the union election. Records show Jackson also enlisted California-based consultant Emigdio Arias and Aleaha Zeller of Cameron, NC to union-bust for Brattleboro in January and February, too.
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded
Who prevailed? The union. Workers voted in favor of unionization (there were multiple bargaining units — all voted in favor of unionization).
Payment: Unclear. None of the consultants disclosed how much Brattleboro Memorial Hospital agreed to pay them for the job. Jackson hasn’t filed a report disclosing the job at all.
“I think when you have better pay and benefits, and you feel more secure in your job, you're able to provide, in this case, the exceptional care that our communities come to expect from BMH,” an orthopedics certified medical assistant at Brattleboro told the Brattleboro Reformer. “If you're worried about making ends meet, it might distract you from being able to perform your duties.”
Sixt Rent-a-Car, a car rental agency, paid the Labor Pros, a union avoidance firm based in Orlando, at least $385,965 last year to convince their rental car agents at Miami International Airport not to unionize with the Teamsters Local 769 in South Florida. As I reported for Orlando Weekly last year, workers ultimately voted against unionization in a slim 12 to 19 vote. Nekeya Nunn, CEO of the Labor Pros, reportedly enlisted consultant Luis Alvarez for the job, which lasted about a month, from June 16, 2024 through July 25, 2025. The Labor Pros explicitly describe unions as “paid sales people” that are “designed to exploit and/or create issues within your workforce.”
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded.
Who prevailed? The employer. Workers voted against unionization.
Payment: The Labor Pros billed $425/hour for Alvarez and $475/hour for Nunn, plus travel expenses.
Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, based up in White Plains, NY, paid the anti-union Crossroads Group consulting firm nearly $65,000 last year — at least $23,665 of which then went to Wildine Pierre Barrett, a labor consultant from Altamonte Springs, FL to “[p]rovide presentations, prepare written materials, and conduct meetings with employees to discuss information related to third-party representation, and rights afforded by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).” Specifically, Barrett was brought in to convince service workers at the hospital not to organize with 1199 SEIU, according to reports filed with the federal OLMS. According to the NLRB, workers ultimately voted 109 to 132 against unionization with 1199 SEIU on Jan. 30, although the union has filed multiple objections to the election results since. Barrett was also brought in last year to convince another group of workers at the hospital not to unionize, after workers had filed a different petition for a union election that was eventually withdrawn (at the very least, the case has been closed).
Ongoing or concluded? Appears concluded.
Who prevailed? The employer. Workers voted against unionization.
Payment: The Crossroads Group received nearly $65,000 from Burke Rehab for services performed last year (although it’s disclosed in reports that Barrett was also brought back in for the first month of this year as well), with Barrett receiving an hourly rate of $292.50.
Stephen Whitehead, a labor consultant from Naples, FL, this month reported more persuader activity for Amazon through Russell Brown’s firm RoadWarrior Productions, based in Satellite Beach, FL. According to Whitehead’s report, filed months late, Whitehead was specifically subcontracted from Nov. 18 through Dec. 7 to persuade Amazon drivers at Amazon’s DLV2 facility in North Las Vegas, NV not to unionize with “Unknown” union (presumably the Teamsters, based on their current organizing activity — and I can only imagine Whitehead was aware of this himself and for whatever reason didn’t report this to the feds). Whitehead also (belatedly) reported scouting out the threat of unionization at Amazon’s DDE9 facility in Denver, CO from Dec. 9 through Dec. 10 and Amazon’s DSD5 facility in Vista, CA from Oct. 20 through Nov. 10. The job? In his words: “To identify and assess issues, problems and concerns of delivery drivers in completing their daily work assignments.”
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded.
Who prevailed? Unclear.
Payment: Whitehead reported billing $2,000/day for all three jobs.
Doug Tindall of Tindall Consulting in Bowman, SC, filed a late report disclosing union-busting work for Amazon last September at Amazon’s DAX5 facility in Industry, CA. According to his report, Tindall was explicitly hired “to represent Amazon at their facility in City of Industry, Ca to prevent Teamsters from organizing their employees [delivery drivers, per his report] for purposes of collective bargaining.” The local targeted by Tindall was/is Teamsters Local 396. Like more than a dozen others, Tindall was similarly subcontracted for the job through Russell Brown of RoadWarrior Productions in Satellite Beach, FL, who reported roughly $3.4 million in payment from Amazon for work his firm (and subcontractors) performed last year alone. According to Brown, however, Tindall was subcontracted to (also? instead?) target organizing activity at Amazon’s DSD5 delivery station in Vista, CA.
Ongoing or concluded? Unclear.
Who prevailed? Unclear.
Payment: Tindall reported billing $2,000/day for the job.
Monica Meija, a labor consultant from Winter Springs, FL, (or Casselberry?) filed an exceptionally late report this month disclosing persuader activity for the Thermoflex Corporation that began last March, specifically targeting an organizing drive of production and maintenance employees organizing with the Machinists union in Waukegan, IL. As I shared in November, NLRB records show it’s been a hard-fought fight just for an election for the workers, as the company has argued that they don’t directly employ many of 435 workers in the proposed bargaining unit (doesn’t that sound familiar?), claiming they’re employees of four different staffing agencies. The case is still identified as “open,” but there have been no additional updates on the case since last July. Meija was subcontracted for the job through Russell Brown of the Satellite Beach-based firm RoadWarrior Productions. According to Brown, Meija was joined on the job by Mike Rosado of Englewood, NJ. Consultants Angela Perez and Zoila Garcia were also subcontracted to persuade Thermoflex workers against unionization through the Delray Beach-based firm, Labor Advisors.
Ongoing or concluded? Unclear.
Who prevailed? Unclear.
Payment: Meija reported billing $2,000/day for the job. According to an annual financial disclosure report filed by Brown, Meija received $107,230 in payment for her services for Thermoflex last year. Rosado was paid $122,683. Thermoflex has not (yet?) disclosed how much they paid persuaders last year in total.
Going deeper: According to the Machinists, a majority of the workers “are Spanish-speaking immigrants, report wages below $20 an hour, and lack company-provided health insurance, retirement benefits, or paid time off.” Three Illinois-based members of Congress — including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Bradley Scott Schneider — wrote a letter to Thermoflex last April, expressing their support for the workers’ right to unionize with the Machinists.
That’s it for now. Thoughts? Feedback? Drop a comment and let me know what you think.