Busted: What Florida's union busters have been up to | March 2025 (Part 2)
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.”
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 second half of March:
Online retailer Amazon paid RoadWarrior Productions, a union avoidance consulting firm based in Satellite Beach, FL, roughly $3.4 million last year to convince Amazon delivery drivers and warehouse workers against unionization with the Teamsters and Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment. That’s according to a disclosure report Amazon filed with the federal Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) last month. Altogether, Amazon paid out nearly $13 million to union avoidance firms in 2024, including RoadWarrior Productions (led by president Russell Brown) and four other organizations based outside of Florida. RoadWarriorProductions, part of the RWP Labor family, dispatched anti-union consultants to more than half-a-dozen Amazon facilities last year, including Amazon RDU1 in Garner, NC (organizing with CAUSE); and Amazon workers in (at least) Massachusetts, Illinois, Nevada, Maine, California, New York, Ohio, and Indiana organizing with the Teamsters (or otherwise, not publicly organizing with a union just yet, but evidently identified by their employer as at-risk for a unionization effort).
Going deeper: Brown last month, ahead of his filing deadline for an annual report disclosing his 2024 earnings, filed several late reports for Amazon jobs he hadn’t reported to OLMS previously, including a job targeting organizing activity at Amazon DGR8 in Walker, CA; Amazon DCB4 in Norwood, MA; Amazon DLV2 in North Las Vegas, NV; Amazon DYY9 in Syosset, NY; Amazon DDE9 in Denver, CO; and “Amazon Chicago Node” in Chicago, IL — all at a going rate of $3,800/day.
Adding another Florida angle: Several of the anti-union consultants that Brown enlisted for the Amazon jobs are also based in Florida, including former Teamster Roger Allain of Land O’ Lakes, Roody Lespinasse of Orlando (a former treasurer for the United Steelworkers Local 421 who in 2012 “pleaded guilty to failure to maintain labor union records”), and Monica Mejia of Winter Springs (a city that is dealing with a lot of shit right now, quite literally).
“Management makes false promises, giving us the sense that if we just work hard enough, we will climb the ranks to become a manager or get a raise. Favoritism is rampant, and consistent understaffing makes us physically, mentally and emotionally stressed, leading to burnout. We will not let this company continue to exploit us,” wrote Dori Goldberg, an Amazon DCK6 warehouse worker and Teamster in San Francisco, CA in an article for Inequality.org.
Merit Logistics, a freight and warehousing solutions company headquartered in Tampa, FL paid The Burke Group at least $43,528 last fall to convince their lumpers and clerks at facilities in Shelbyville, IN not to unionize with the Teamsters Local 135, according to an annual financial disclosure report filed by the employer. Burke’s firm enlisted two consultants for the job: Jose Agraz of California and Cesar Lopez of Arizona. Billing rates for both ranged from $325 to $350 per hour “including travel expenses” for the job, which began Sept. 24 and lasted through at least January. Lopez, in his own report, blatantly admits that the intent of his job was “to prevent Teamsters Local 135 from organizing their employees for the purpose of collective bargaining.” According to the National Labor Relations Board, Merit Logistics employees ultimately voted 19 to 62 against unionization.
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded
Who prevailed? The employer. Workers ultimately voted 19 to 62 against unionization.
Payment: Billing rates ranged from $325 to $350/hour per consultant, with an ultimate price-tag of $43,528 for the job.
Beverage distributor Breakthru Beverage in Tampa, FL paid the Nevada-based union avoidance firm Action Resources at least $762,473 last year to convince delivery drivers in Tampa, Orlando, Pensacola, Jacksonville, Fort Myers, and Tallahassee not to unionize with the Teamsters, according to an annual financial disclosure report filed by the employer. Breakthru failed, for the record, as willing as they were to shell out for their anti-union cause. Action Resources reportedly enlisted six consultants for the job, including Orlando-based consultant Chris Catam of Millennium Labor Consulting Solutions, LLC and former Teamsters organizer Angel Cornejo, who now works as a union avoidance consultant through his firm, Pinnacle Labor Relations.
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded
Who prevailed? The union. Workers voted 91 to 54 in favor of unionization.
Payment: Daily rate of $3,750 per consultant, or $375/hour for off-site work, per an agreement Action Resources submitted to OLMS.
Paraxel, a clinical research organization, enlisted the services of the Delray Beach, FL-based firm Labor Advisors last August to persuade depot technicians, coordinators, quality specialists, and other Paraxel employees in Quakertown, PA not to unionize with the Teamsters Local 773. LoriAnn “Lori” Catello, CEO of Labor Advisors, reports enlisting Michael Caserta, an anti-union labor consultant from NY, for the job, which began August 1, 2024 (the same day the National Labor Relations Board published a stipulated election agreement). According to the NLRB, however, the workers ultimately withdrew their petition for a union election, even after the NLRB had scheduled an election date. Caserta, in his own LM-20 report, maintains his job was merely to “educate” employees on “their rights to form a union, or not to form one.”
Ongoing or concluded? Seemingly concluded.
Who prevailed? The employer. The election petition was withdrawn.
Payment: Unclear — Neither Catello nor Caserta disclosed their billing rates, nor any written agreement between themselves and the employer, despite being required to report “terms and conditions” of the job (including compensation) under federal law. Paraxel also hasn’t reported its 2024 expenditures on “persuader” activity.
Caserta, affiliated with the Delray Beach-based union avoidance firm Labor Advisors, was also subcontracted by Raymond Rosenbach of Government Resources Consultants of America to convince employees of Sysco Allentown — a relatively new Sysco facility — in Northampton, PA not to unionize. Although a specific union isn’t explicitly specified in Rosenbach’s report, thousands of Sysco employees have already organized with the Teamsters, including workers in South Florida, organized with Local 769 (Sysco hired a professional union-busting firm to (unsuccessfully) try and crush their organizing drive, too). I don’t currently see a matching NLRB petition for the PA organizing effort, so it’s unclear to me where workers are at in their potential organizing effort. Caserta, who reports being on the job from Feb. 27 through March 7, writes, “I was tasked with speaking to drivers and educating them on their rights as they pertain to card signing, refusing to sign cards, and informing them that their employer cannot legally retaliate against them for signing or refusing to sign cards.”
Ongoing or concluded? Unclear.
Who prevailed? Unclear.
Payment: Unclear — Neither Rosenbach nor Caserta disclosed their billing rates, despite being required to report “terms and conditions” of their agreements with employers (including compensation) under federal law. Rosenbach does note in a recent disclosure report that his firm was paid $427,339 last year to counter an organizing drive at Sysco Knoxville in Knoxville, TN. According to the NLRB, workers there ultimately voted 29 to 46 against unionizing with the Teamsters Local 519.
“The company spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on union busters, while increasing its profits off the backs of its hardworking employees,” said Steve Vairma, then-Teamsters International Vice President and Director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, after Sysco workers in West Palm Beach voted to unionize in 2016.
Sunshine Disposal, a garbage collection service in Spokane, WA, reportedly enlisted Labor Advisors of Delray Beach, FL last August to convince their employees in not to unionize. The union being targeted is not specified in Labor Advisor CEO LoriAnn “Lori” Catello’s report, nor is the firm’s billing rate for the job. Catello reportedly subcontracted Alan Ashe of Celebration, FL (an Orlando suburb originally developed by Walt Disney World) for the job. Although Catello doesn’t disclose how much her firm was paid, Sunshine Disposal themselves recently disclosed an October payment of $8,280 to Labor Advisors in their own LM-10 report, and another $30,220 payment in December for the firm’s “Labor consultation services and advice to Leadership.” Keith Peraino, a former nurses union official who now works as a “Union Buster” and “Never Give Up Life” consultant with Labor Advisors, is also named in Sunshine Disposal’s disclosure reports.
Ongoing or concluded? Catello writes the job has been “Completed in full.”
Who prevailed? Unclear.
Payment: At least $38,500
Jewish Community Centers of Denver in Denver, CO reportedly paid the anti-union Crossroads Group at least $16,681 to counter an organizing drive at their Early Learning School last March. The Crossroads Group, led by Michael Penn, enlisted Altamonte Springs, FL consultant Wildine Pierre Barrett of Bridge Labor Solutions for that job, specifically targeting a unionization effort among teachers and support staff organizing with the Communications Workers of America. According to the NLRB, the workers ultimately voted 18 to 21 against unionization.
Ongoing or concluded? Concluded.
Who prevailed? Employer. Workers voted 18 to 21 against unionization
Payment: $450/hour, and a total of $16,681 for the job in full
That’s it for now. Thoughts? Feedback? Drop a comment and let me know what you think.