When workers try to unionize, a $1.7 billion "union-busting" industry springs into action.
According to the Labor Department, 75% of employers hire anti-union consultants to crush organizing efforts. Corporate giants like Amazon and 3M spend millions on these firms, which often double as legal representation. But the workers fighting back are usually kept in the dark about the massive financial firepower arrayed against them.
Enter LaborLab. The nonprofit workers’ rights watchdog just launched a suite of tools designed to pull back the curtain on corporate union avoidance.
The new platform features a searchable database of 800 consultants and thousands of union-busting lawyers, detailing their fees, clients, and track records. It also includes a "cost calculator" that estimates the total price tag of fighting a union—from legal bills to lost productivity—compared to simply recognizing the union voluntarily.
Companies are legally required to disclose this spending, but the system is deeply flawed. Federal databases are notoriously difficult to navigate, and massive loopholes let employers hide expenses by claiming they only paid for vague "advice." Even when disclosure is mandatory, companies routinely ignore it: LaborLab found that over half of employers required to report union-avoidance spending in 2024 missed the filing deadline.
For organizers, LaborLab’s tools are a game-changer.
Sam Doyle, a nurse practitioner organizing at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, was stunned by the calculator’s estimates. “I couldn’t believe that our employer would spend nearly half a million dollars on fighting us,” she says.
Doyle believes the data will be a vital weapon when management inevitably claims there isn't enough money for raises. “It would make me question the veracity of what they’re claiming,” she says. “We have just learned that you *do* have money to do things, and it’s a matter of where your values are.”
For Zachary Gelnaw-Rubin, a bartender who helped unionize the New York cocktail bar Attaboy, the tool’s background checks on his employer’s law firm provided the perfect rallying cry.
“It was very helpful in our ongoing efforts to build and maintain internal cohesion,” Gelnaw-Rubin says. “For the agitation portion of our organizing, it was great because we were able to show it to other workers and be like, ‘Look at this shit.’” (Attaboy workers successfully voted to unionize earlier this year).
Ultimately, LaborLab’s tools do more than just crunch numbers; they reframe the narrative. As Doyle puts it, the tools help workers realize they aren't just fighting a stubborn boss—they are up against a massive, well-funded machine.
Now, thanks to this new calculator, they have the receipts to prove it.