Recent federal disclosures have pulled back the curtain on the union-busting industry, revealing which employers are spending hundreds of dollars per hour—sometimes thousands per day—to prevent workers from organizing. The filings, submitted to the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards, show efforts across industries to suppress workers’ rights to organize.
Follow the Money
The LM-20 forms, which consultants must file when hired to influence worker organizing efforts, paint a clear picture of where corporate priorities lie. While companies often claim budget constraints when workers request better wages or benefits, these same organizations are willing to invest heavily in anti-union campaigns.
Recent filings document some employers’ willingness to spend a huge amount of resources fighting their own employees. Gentiva Hospice in Georgia retained LRI Consulting Services at $425 per hour before workers withdrew their union election. CiminoCare and Lehigh Anthracite Coal both hired The Crossroads Group Labor Relations Consultants at $475 per hour. Perhaps most notably, Canfor in Alabama brought in East Coast Labor Relations at $4,000 per day to combat organizing efforts.
These consultant fees represent money flowing out of company budgets that could otherwise support worker compensation, safety improvements, or operational investments. Instead, it’s being directed toward persuading employees not to exercise their legal right to organize.
When Workers Win Despite the Odds
The filings also reveal election outcomes that tell us about workers’ determination in the face of well-funded opposition. At TAG Westchester, operating as Volkswagen and Audi dealerships in Mohegan Lake, New York, workers voted 8-5 to unionize with UAW Local 259,even after the company hired Labor Management Consultants at $250 per hour. Notably, the LM-20 form wasn’t filed until after the election had already taken place, denying workers and the public access to critically important information
At The Herbal Gardens in Tacoma, Washington, workers won their union election 6-4 despite the company’s engagement of Labor Management Consultants at $350 per hour. Similarly, workers at Timber Ridge SNF Operations (River View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center) in Pennsylvania voted 30-22 for union representation, though objections have been filed.
Other outcomes were less favorable for organizing workers. At Lehigh Anthracite Coal, the union lost 7-108 after the company deployed its high-priced consultant. At Rural Electric Cooperative in Oklahoma, the election resulted in a 10-10 tie with five challenged ballots that could prove determinative.
The Consultant Playbook
These labor relations consultants bring a well-established arsenal of tactics designed to discourage union organizing. Understanding these methods is crucial for workers navigating organizing campaigns.
Consultants frequently disseminate misleading information about unions, exaggerating dues costs while downplaying potential benefits, or suggesting that unionization will lead to job losses or facility closures. They orchestrate mandatory “captive audience meetings” where workers must attend anti-union presentations during work hours, creating an environment where dissent feels risky and management’s message is inescapable.
Surveillance of organizing activity is another common tactic. Consultants work to identify union supporters, assess vulnerabilities in organizing committees, and sometimes recommend targeting pro-union employees for additional scrutiny or discipline. They also train supervisors to conduct one-on-one meetings with employees, gathering personal information that can later be used to craft individualized persuasion strategies.
The Transparency Gap
While LM-20 filings provide valuable insight into employer conduct, they only tell part of the story. Several entries in the recent filings lack complete information about hourly rates or election outcomes. Some forms were filed only after elections had concluded, limiting their usefulness as real-time transparency tools for workers.
The filings show consultants working across multiple states and industries, from healthcare to logistics, automotive dealerships to coal mining.
What This Means for Workers
For workers considering unionization, these disclosures offer an important lesson: when employers hire expensive consultants, it signals that organizing efforts are being taken seriously. The substantial investment in union avoidance demonstrates that employers recognize the potential power shift that collective bargaining represents.
Workers should approach mandatory meetings, one-on-one conversations with supervisors, and company communications about unions with a critical eye during organizing campaigns. The information being presented has likely been carefully crafted by highly paid professionals whose job is to discourage unionization, not to provide balanced perspective on workers’ rights.
The LM-20 filing system exists precisely because transparency matters. Workers have a right to know when their employer has brought in outside help to influence their decisions about workplace representation. As these recent filings show, that outside help comes with a big price tag.
In an era of growing wealth inequality and worker dissatisfaction, the union-busting industry remains robust and well-compensated. But as several recent victories demonstrate, even expensive consultants can’t always overcome workers’ determination to organize for better conditions, fair treatment, and a voice on the job.When companies hire $475/hour consultants to fight worker organizing, LaborLab makes sure workers know about it.
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