What is a union buster?

There is a very profitable industry that has been built around silencing workers. High-paid consultants and lawyers call it “union avoidance” but the rest of the world, including us, calls it union-busting. Union busters are “labor relations” consultants hired by bosses to mislead, intimidate, and scare workers into not organizing to form a union.  

If you suspect that an employer may have hired a persuader to interfere with organizing efforts, we encourage you to immediately contact your union representative. 

You can expect union busters to target pro-union employees, conduct surveillance on workers, hold “captive audience” meetings where workers are forced to listen to anti-union messaging. Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year hiring professional union busters. The average anti-union persuader is paid hundreds of dollars an hour to pressure workers into voting “no.” Union Busters get rich from keeping workers down.  

Here are some of their favorite talking points: 

• “Nothing is guaranteed in collective bargaining. You could lose what you have.” 
• “Give the company a ‘second chance’ to make things right.” 
• “Unions just want your dues.” 
• “A ‘third-party’ union will stop workers from having conversations with your manager.” 
• “Unions are corrupt.” 

• Management wants to keep workers in “at will” employment where the company has sole discretion over pay, benefits and working conditions. 
• Management wants to keep total control over the workplace and prevent workers from having a say in their pay and conditions. 
• Management doesn’t want workers to have power 
• Management wants to prevent you from having a protected voice and representation on the job so they can continue to discipline or terminate at will. 
• Management knows workers are the union. They want to keep power in the hands of management.