Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, REPORTS—EPI argues that U.S. employers sink approximately $1.7B annually into union avoidance, (May 21, 2026)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Extrapolating from information reported to the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards, the Economic Policy Institute concluded that in 2025 Amazon spent well over $26 million on union avoidance consulting.

In 2025, the Economic Policy Institute notes in a new report on union avoidance spending by employers, unionization in the United States grew to its highest levels since 2009. Yet, at the same time, they argue that more than 50 million nonunion workers would join a union but are hindered by anti-union efforts. To explain this, EPI points to the fact that employers often hire union avoidance consultants to dissuade and weaken workers’ unionization efforts. These consultants, EPI argues, work to prevent a union election from taking place and, if that fails, to ensure that workers vote against the union. If that also fails, EPI argues, then they work to stall negotiations over a first collective bargaining agreement.

Advice services. EPI notes that while employers are required to disclose money spent on lawyers engaged in persuading employees on their union and collective bargaining rights, the money spent on “advice” services is harder to elicit because of an exemption around reporting money spent on “advice” services, which EPI argues is ill-defined under the law.

In its report, EPI examines what it does know about this industry, and it attempts to calculate the revenue law firms generate from employers who try to avoid unions and stymie collective bargaining. It also considers the impacts of the union avoidance industry on workers’ ability to organize and what it means more broadly.

LMRDA disclosures. Under the Labor—Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), EPI notes, employers and the consultants they hire must file certain disclosure reports (LM-10 forms) on agreements in which the consultant is engaging in covered activities. For example, EPI reports that Amazon reported total spending of well over $26 million in 2025. (Notably, LM-10 forms are publicly available on the Labor Department’s website, such as this one filed by Amazon.)

EPI argues that these reports show only a fraction of the total spent by employers on anti-union campaign services, counsel, representation, and litigation. The rest of the report’s estimate of $1.7 billion in spending comes from EPI’s review of revenue, as broken down, generated at specific law firms that have large practices in this area and frequent litigation before the NLRB.

This annual spending has an undeniable impact on workers’ ability to organize and bargain collectively, EPI argues, and it argues that the “loopholes in U.S. labor law, which union avoidance consultants and law firms exploit, routinely frustrate workers’ organizing and collective bargaining, enabling wealthy corporations to prosper at workers’ expense.”

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