Union-Busting, Inc.

[Omaha Steve]

by Tiran Bajgiran | Oct 14, 2022

In 2021, Amazon spent $4.3 million on union-busting, paying labor-consulting firms $3,200 a day to suppress worker power. Per diem, UPS spent $2,625 to prevent drivers from organizing. The Labor Relations Institute, a labor-management firm, received over $1 million to thwart unionization efforts by truck drivers at Cemex, a concrete-distribution company.

We know figures like these only because of filings required by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), under the auspices of the federal Department of Labor (DOL). These mandatory forms disclose the relationship between companies and the consultants they engage for labor management, including the amounts the companies paid for their services. By law, LM-20s have to be filed by consultants — usually, people who work for labor-management firms — within 30 days after they are hired, with their names and the terms under which they were engaged. Employers, in turn, must file their LM-10s within 90 days after the close of their fiscal year. These forms reveal who the consultants are and how much the companies pay them.

The information in LM-10s and LM-20s is thus a crucial tool in workers’ fights against corporations like Amazon and UPS, a necessity for effective mobilization.

Yet the available data are only the tip of the iceberg — and far from accurate.

FULL story: https://onlabor.org/union-busting-inc/