U.S. employers spend roughly $1.7 billion annually on union avoidance

U.S. employers spend roughly $1.7 billion a year on union avoidance consultants and law firms to keep their workers from organizing and bargaining for better pay and working conditions, according to a new Economic Policy Institute and LaborLab report .

Union avoidance consultants often work to prevent a union election from taking place-and if that fails, to ensure that workers vote against the union and then stall negotiations over a first collective bargaining agreement. Over the past several decades, large law firms-such as Littler Mendelson, Morgan Lewis, and Jackson Lewis-have developed substantial business specializing in union avoidance services, including for Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joe's. Further, many union avoidance law firms provide employers services beyond these persuader activities, such as representation at National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proceedings.

Until now, the role of these law firms has largely gone unexamined because of loopholes in federal reporting laws. Through analyzing Law.com and NLRB case data, the report calculates the revenue law firms generate from employers who try to avoid unions and undermine collective bargaining with their workers. The report also updates previous EPI research on spending on union avoidance consultants. After accounting for overlap between these two totals, the report estimates that spending on attorneys (whether for representation, consulting, or both) and non-attorney consultants is roughly $1.7 billion a year.

This spending on anti-union law firms and consultants has an undeniable impact on workers' ability to organize and bargain collectively. It is no coincidence that the overall decline in unionization follows decades of federal policy neglect that have weakened U.S. labor law. The loopholes in U.S. labor law, which union avoidance consultants and law firms exploit, routinely frustrate workers' organizing and collective bargaining, enabling wealthy corporations to prosper at workers' expense.

"Americans increasingly view unions favorably and recognize them as critical instruments for building a just economy. But many workers cannot join a union because our nation's labor laws allow employers to derail workers' unionization efforts with impunity," said Margaret Poydock, EPI senior policy analyst and co-author of the report.

"Unionizing is much harder than it should be," said Teke Wiggin, strategic coordinator at LaborLab and another co-author. "That's partly because there are no limits on the amount of time and money employers can invest in union avoidance, and because employers are only required to disclose a tiny fraction of anti-union campaign spending due to reporting loopholes. Our finding that employers spend about $1.7 billion on union avoidance attorneys and consultants every year shows that employers take full advantage of these deficits in U.S. labor law."