In today’s news and commentary, a new report finds that U.S. employers spend $1.7B on union avoidance each year and the International Court of Justice declares the right to strike a protected activity.
A report released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) this week found that U.S. employers spend roughly $1.7 billion annually on union avoidance. The EPI’s findings reveal a massive underreporting problem: employers are not required to report money spent on lawyers that provide “advice” services, which is broadly interpreted to exempt almost all activities that do not involve direct contact with workers. Additionally, 57% of employers known to owe a financial disclosure for hiring a union avoidance consultant in 2024 failed to submit the required form by the filing deadline. Further, only 153 employers filed a financial disclosure in 2024 despite over 3,200 union election petitions being filed that year, revealing significant employer underreporting. Amazon alone spent over $26.6 million on union avoidance consultants in 2025. Other major spenders include UnityPoint Health (~$2.1M), LabCorp (~$2M), and Premier Health (~$800K).
The report also highlights the law firms that are the biggest players in the union avoidance industry: Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Jackson Lewis, Seyfarth Shaw, Morgan Lewis, and Fisher & Phillips. Altogether these firms handled 19.1% of all NLRB cases in 2024, generating an estimated $282 million from their company-level labor...
New York announced a $4.5 million settlement on Friday with a travel booking company and three of its affiliates following a tax fraud investigation initiated by a whistleblower under the state’s ...