State of Unions in the Union

If you want one big explanation of the decline of unions in the United States, look no further than the barrage of tactics—often illegal—that companies use to throw barriers in the way of any worker attempt to organize. A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute shows just how extreme—and expensive—the anti-union effort is.

• Employers were charged with unfair labor practices—breaking the law—in 41.5% of National Labor Relations Board-supervised union elections in 2016 and 2017.
• Employers were charged with illegally firing workers in either 19.9% or 29.6% of union representation elections, depending on which measures you use.
• Employers were charged with “illegally coercing, threatening, or retaliating against workers for supporting a union” or “illegally disciplining workers for supporting a union” in 29.2% and 29.3% of elections, respectively.
• These charges were more common the larger the bargaining unit involved in the union representation election.

These illegal acts by employers are not some slipshod, thoughtless situation. Employers spend $340 million a year on “union avoidance” consultants paid as much as $350 an hour or $2,500 a day. The Laboratory Corporation of America spent $4.3 million between 2014 and 2018. Mission Foods spent $2.9 million in 2016-2017. Trump International Hotel Las Vegas spent $569,000 in 2015-2016.
Labor laws are still laws, though many employers and, these days, the government don’t always act like it. But the law-breaking and the expenditures make it absolutely clear how much big business fears worker organizing.