Workers in Jacksonville employed by the intermodal rail transportation company Parsec recently voted to unionize with the Teamsters labor union, despite their employer hiring an Orlando-based labor relations firm ahead of the union election that specializes in “union avoidance.”
The workers, including drivers, operators, groundsmen and leads at the company’s Jacksonville facility voted 32-26 in favor of unionization in late September, according to the federal National Labor Relations Board, which oversees most private sector union elections.
“We are proud and excited to welcome newly organized Parsec employees to @Teamsters512,” wrote the Jacksonville-based Teamsters Local 512, in a post published to X and Facebook.
According to the union, workers at the company began organizing with the Teamsters for fair treatment, stronger workplace protections and other basic benefits of having union representation, such as arbitration. After demonstrating majority support for unionization and requesting voluntary recognition from management, Parsec instead filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in late August, requesting a union election.
Parsec, headquartered in Ohio, employs a workforce of over 2,000. It offers terminal services at over 21 rail yards in the U.S., boasting railway clients like Norfolk Southern and the Florida East Coast Railway. According to a news release, the company was recently acquired by Universal Logistics, a holdings company that has a history of illegally firing truckers for unionizing and unlawfully misclassifying employees as independent contractors.
The Teamsters Local 512 in Florida did not respond to requests for comment on the Parsec organizing drive in Jacksonville, nor the company’s decision to hire professionals to persuade workers against unionization.
While Florida is generally considered a state that is hostile to unions, especially compared to states with higher union density such as California, this isn’t the only recent victory for the Teamsters in the Sunshine State. The union last month also welcomed several hundred workers in Florida employed by trucking company MBM Logistics and distribution company Breakthru Beverages, who also voted in favor of unionization. As Orlando Weekly previously reported, both companies hired union avoidance professionals ahead of the vote, in an effort to water down support for unionization.
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Records show that Parsec similarly followed suit, hiring the Orlando-based union avoidance firm Labor Pros in early September to “educate” their employees in Jacksonville on unions, according to a disclosure report the firm filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Under federal law, third-party consultants, or “persuaders” hired by employers during union drives are required to file reports with the U.S. Department of Labor when they enter into an agreement with an employer to “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.”
Persuaders are required to file these reports within 30 days of entering into such an agreement so workers can be informed of any third-party consultants hired and how much these consultants are being paid to convince them they don’t need a union.
The report filed by the Labor Pros shows Parsec agreed to pay the firm $4,000 a day for the job, which lasted nearly a month, from Sept. 9 through Oct. 3.
First established in 2003, the Labor Pros prides itself on keeping companies “union-free,” according to its website. Records show the firm enlisted two consultants for the job in Jacksonville: Jocelyn Mesidor, an employer-side consultant based in Gotha, and Luis Alvarez, a consultant based in Hollywood, Florida. Alvarez was also recently hired through the Labor Pros to bust an organizing drive among Sixt Rent-A-Car sales agents at the Miami International Airport.
Historically, common strategies deployed by these consultants include spying on or intimidating workers over their union activity, conducting anti-union captive audience meetings during work hours, weaponizing diversity and inclusion practices to get rid of the “union threat,” and telling workers that forming a union will be futile. Some consultants flagrantly break federal labor law by telling workers that forming a union will negatively affect their wages, their seniority, or threaten their job.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that employers hire such consultants in around 75 percent of organizing drives. Yet, because enforcement of reporting requirements is weak and violations generally lead to no more than a slap on the wrist, only a fraction of them actually report their activity. And those who do often do so late.
The Labor Pros have in recent years been one of the worst offenders on this front, filing disclosure reports months or even years late, according to the watchdog group LaborLab. The federal labor department has taken initiative during the Biden administration to bolster enforcement, and the firm has coincidentally improved in filing reports in a more timely manner since Orlando Weekly reported on their activity last year. (The Labor Pros have repeatedly ignored emails and calls from us requesting comment on their work.)
Jocelyn Mesidor, one of the consultants hired to talk to the Jacksonville workers, filed her own report with the labor department this month, disclosing that she was paid $75 per hour, “including travel and expenses,” for the job, which she describes as providing “thorough education for employees on the National Labor Relations Act, helping to clear up any misconceptions.” Nunn, head of the Labor Pros, meanwhile reports that Parsec agreed to pay her firm a rate of $4,000 per day — a rate that is not uncommon in the notoriously lucrative union avoidance industry.
Luis Alvarez, the second labor consultant hired to meet with Parsec employees, has not filed a report disclosing his activity, as of publication, but is named in Nunn’s report.
In addition to workers in Florida, the Teamsters represents hundreds of Parsec employees in the Chicago area and nearly 1,000 Parsec employees in California who voted to unionize in 2016. The vote came despite the fact that the Ohio-based company similarly hired anti-union labor consultants to convince workers they didn’t need a union, and forked over at least $54,231 to consultants for the job.
“We feel our power already as Teamsters and management now knows that we have a real voice that they must listen to,” said Rodrigo Pastrano, a California-based Parsec worker, in a statement released by the union at the time.
The union successfully negotiated an initial contract for the workers in California less than two years later — as a process that can often take over a year on average — delivering “substantial” wage increases, a more affordable healthcare plan, and the elimination of a divisive wage tier system, according to the union.
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This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2024.
