LaborLab, a workers' rights watchdog, has launched a free online union-buster search tool and a companion cost calculator aimed at giving workers unprecedented insight into the anti-union consultants and law firms their employers hire. The tools, which debuted on September 8, consolidate data from federal filings to expose the $1.7 billion union-avoidance industry in the United States.
Many U.S. employers hire anti-union consultants and law firms to discourage workers from organizing and bargaining for better pay and working conditions. These specialists, often paid more than $400 per hour, coach supervisors on anti-union messaging, track union support, and prepare campaign literature designed to sow fear and doubt. While the law requires many of these relationships to be disclosed, the information has historically been scattered across federal databases that are notoriously difficult to search. LaborLab's new search tool brings that information into one place, allowing workers to research the attorneys and consultants their employer has hired, see how much they are paid when available, and identify patterns in their activity.
The cost calculator complements the search tool by generating an estimate of the full cost of an employer's anti-union campaign. It estimates up to seven costs employers bear by fighting a union rather than voluntarily recognizing one upon proof of majority support. These include direct expenditures on attorneys and consultants as well as hidden internal costs, such as paid employee time spent in anti-union one-on-ones and staff meetings. The calculator also estimates a wage increase that the employer could have provided with those resources instead.
"These tools advance LaborLab's vision of providing resources that can help directly empower workers to organize their workplaces," said Bob Funk, executive director of LaborLab. "We envision worker-organizers, union staffers and labor attorneys using the search tool to identify unions that have previously dealt with a particular anti-union attorney or consultant, learn from their experience and share that information with other workers."
The search tool compiles data on more than 800 consultants, 8,000 law firms, and 21,000 attorneys from National Labor Relations Board and Department of Labor filings. Users can see the employers union-busters represent, the rates they charge, their campaign history, the unions they target most often, and, where available, their win-loss records, with direct links to NLRB cases and DOL disclosures. LaborLab's cost estimates have been presented to the Minnesota Senate and cited in coverage of organizing campaigns by nurses, therapists, and mechanics.
The launch comes amid long-standing failures to enforce disclosure requirements. In 1959, Congress required union-avoidance consultants and employers to disclose many of their activities and related payments, concluding that "this type of activity by or on behalf of employers is reprehensible" and "should be exposed to public view." However, reporting loopholes, weak enforcement, and fragmented government databases have made that information difficult for workers to find. As the Department of Labor and Congress fail to implement long-needed reforms, LaborLab's new tools represent an important step toward closing the information gap for workers—a gap detailed in a new LaborLab report.
Founded in 2021, LaborLab is the nation's leading watchdog tracking the union-avoidance industry. The organization empowers tens of thousands of workers annually through research and educational resources and holds corporations accountable for violating workers' rights. LaborLab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that tracks, exposes, and counters the employer opposition industry through LMRDA compliance monitoring, investigative research, and real-time campaign intelligence, helping workers organize and win strong first contracts.
