Boss Watch: 3/7 – 3/15

Jacob Morrison

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, March 7, and Friday, March 15

There continues to be no new enforcement actions or resolutions of enforcement actions at the EEOC, OSHA, MSHA, and DOL.

Miner Dangers

From the Mine Safety and Health Administration: 

Ten miner fatalities occurred between January 3 and March 5, 2025 – more than triple the number for the same period in 2024. Accidents classified as Powered Haulage remain the most common with four fatalities, followed by Machinery (two fatalities), and Fall of Face, Rib, Side or Highwall (two fatalities). 

Four fatalities involved failures of ground or coal rib conditions. Four fatalities involved improper maintenance or unsafe operation of equipment. One fatality involved explosives, and another involved not locking and tagging out equipment.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration asks you to remain vigilant every day at our nation’s mines. Fatalities can be prevented by implementing effective safety and health programs. Important elements in any safety and health program include workplace examinations, hazard recognition and avoidance, and training. To prevent serious and fatal accidents, everyone in the mining industry needs to be alert for hazards.

MSHA is urging the mining community to focus on identifying and eliminating safety and health hazards. When we work together, we can succeed in improving safety and health for miners.

I’m honestly surprised they were able to put this release out, but this tracks with what I’m hearing from folks: employers feel emboldened in this environment to do whatever they want, because they don’t feel like anyone is going to stop them. For the record, there were 28 miner fatalities in the whole 2024 calendar year.

Texas Killer

Elon Musk is appealing the OSHA-issued citation of $49,650 against Tesla in late January. The fine is the total of three $16,550 “serious” violations, all at the maximum level for a serious violation. 

As a reminder, these were the violations: 

One violation was for lack of personal protective equipment, stating that an “employee was working in close proximity to energized parts without wearing appropriate personal protective equipment.”

A second violation stated that “Employee(s) were permitted to work in proximity to electric power circuits that were not protected against electric shock by de-energizing and grounding the circuits or effectively guarding the circuits by insulation or other means. The “employee was performing an inspection on an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) cabinet without it being de-energized.” OSHA has a standard, commonly known as the lockout-tagout standard that requires hazardous equipment to be “de-energized” or “locked out” before any maintenance is conducted.

The final item was a violation of an electrical standard, stating that “quality control employees were exposed to electrical hazards while performing tests and inspections on newly installed electrical equipment without prior hazard analysis, warning signs, and communication of safe work procedures.”

Before work began the employer did not ascertain by inquiry or direct observation, or by instruments, whether any part of an energized electric power circuit, exposed or concealed, was so located that the performance of the work could bring a person, tool, or machine into physical or electrical contact with the energized electric power circuit. The employer did not post and maintain proper warning signs where such a circuit existed. The employer did not advise employees of the location of such lines, the hazards involved, and the protective measures to be taken.

Jordan Barab has a piece on his newsletter Confined Space about Elon Musk’s history with OSHA that we highly recommend you read.

Union Busters

Brought to you by LaborLab: The nation’s leading watchdog standing with working families to stop employer coercion and intimidation. Visit www.laborlab.us for more info.

Below are the net-new LM-20s that were filed this week:

  • A G Equipment Company (Broken Arrow, OK) hired LRI Consulting Services for $425/hour
  • Labcorp/Georgia (Tucker, GA) hired East Coast Labor Relations for $3,500/day
  • Sysco Guest Supply (Corona, CA) hired Action Resources for $3,750/day
    • Evelyn Fragroso is one of the consultants in this campaign. She was previously a union organizer with United Farm Workers and Teamsters Local 396 in California before joining the union busting sector in 2012. She is bilingual in English and Spanish. According to a board hearing from 2012, Fragoso’s contract with Teamsters Local 396 was not renewed in 2011 due to “differences”. In 2023, Amigos Meats paid Fragoso $70,731 for one month of union busting activities.
  • Blick Art Supplies (Galesburg, IL) hired Greer Consulting
  • American Craft Brewery/Samuel Adams Pennsylvania Brewery (Breinigsville, PA) hired American Labor Relations Group for $385/hour
    • Election withdrawn
    • American Labor Group was founded by Jim Monica in 2015. In 2019, Jason Blain co-founded ALG HR Solutions. Both ALG and ALG HR Solutions are one entity on LinkedIn and are incorporated under American Labor Relations Group, yet they have two different websites. Both are based in New Jersey. From 2007-2011, Monica worked for local unions in arbitrations, collective bargaining, and Federal court litigation. In 2011 he switched sides and worked for Littler Mendelson until 2015. 
  • People Solution Consultants filed an LM-20 and listed LRI Consulting Services instead of the employer

In addition, the following LM-20s were amended:

  • Quality Labor Solutions amended their LM-20 for Labcorp/Portland (Portland, OR) to include their compensation rate of $200/hour
  • Flores Labor Relations amended their LM-20 for United Road Service (Plymouth, MI) to include their compensation rate of $212.50/hour
    • Carlos Flores is the CEO of Flores Labor Relations, a union busting firm founded in 2016 and based in Temecula, California. Prior to working for Flores Labor Relations, he was a Teamsters shop steward. Flores is the brother of Gustavo “Gus” Flores, who is the President of GNE Consulting Services. In 2020, Flores Labor Relations received a PPP loan for $40,250, and had it completely forgiven.
    • Election open
  • Santana International amended their LM-20 for Henry Broch Foods (Waukegan, IL) to include their compensation rate of $2,750/day
  • Santana International is a union-busting firm based in El Paso, TX. The President and CEO is Amed D. Santana. Santana worked for the Teamsters before becoming the Director of Employee Relations and Human Resources at Fonar Corporation for 4 years. In 2013 on a Teamsters campaign, Santana referred to Latino workers as “pieces of shit”. He also grabbed, pushed, and threatened a pro-union worker. According to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Santana International is inactive and their right to transact business was involuntarily ended due to tax or administrative forfeiture. Despite this, Santana International has filed multiple LM-20s in 2024, including for work at Henry Broch Foods, Mauser Packaging Solutions, West Suburban Medical Center, Wilson Paving & Sealcoating, and Onni Group.

ALSO, a funny note: despite making significant amounts of money to be a professional union buster, Joe Brock (who was recently on our program), did not include any payment information from employers or to sub-contractors in his LM-21 for 2024. Overall, his reporting rate is shoddy over the years, though he did report this information in 2023.

Due to a lack of enforcement, some labor relations consultants may disregard the law and fail to report their activities to the U.S. Department of Labor. Therefore, it’s crucial for organizers and workers to report suspected “persuader” activity to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS).

It’s crucial for organizers and workers to report suspected “persuader” activity to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). You can reach them via email at  OLMS-Public@dol.gov, by calling (202) 693-0123, or by contacting your nearest OLMS District Office.

For assistance, please contact LaborLab at contact@laborlab.us.