LaborLab seeing an increase in union-busting spending in early 2024

Picture of awfblog awfblog February 29, 2024

Organizing America's Work Force Union Podcast AWF LaborLab

LaborLab gray

Guest Name:

Bob Funk

Guest Website:

Guest Social Media:

Supportive Documents:

Bob Funk, Founder of LaborLab, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the work his organization does to educate and inform unions on union-busting activities by corporations. Funk also discussed LaborLab’s banner year in 2023 and some of the 2024 anti-union trends.

LaborLab is the only non-profit watchdog organization that tracks and investigates corporate spending on union-busting. As Funk points out, the workplace is protected by the National Labor Relations Act, and workers should be allowed to seek union representation without their employers' prevention. Funk and LaborLab inform and educate the public and Local unions on anti-union campaigns in their communities. The hope would be to fight against the campaigns that seek to infringe on employee rights and deter corporations from anti-union efforts. The data for the reports come from daily federal filings from employers that have paid these anti-union corporations.

Last year was a banner year for the LaborLab team, Funk said. In 2023, they improved compliance with the law that allowed them to distribute important information to workers hoping to organize with unions. They engaged in over 250 campaigns around the country and now have over 100 Local unions within their coalition. With nearly half of Americans wanting to join a union, but low union density, Funk’s work seeks to educate organizers and the public on the potential attacks on their rights.

So far, in 2024, there has been an increase in the number of anti-union campaigns by employers. Funk outlined some possible reasons for this increase and explained how unions can fight back. He also discussed several legal routes employers took to delay and intimidate workers. Through their communication with over 20 International Unions and several more Locals in America, they established a plan to organize and distribute the information LaborLab finds on anti-union campaigns.

For more about the work by LaborLab, please listen to the show above.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

LaborLab seeing an increase in union-busting spending in early 2024

SUBSCRIBE ON:

Alliance for Retired Americans discuss Social Security Fairness Act

Apprentices highlight UNITE HERE's Culinary Apprenticeship program

Grassroots efforts and strategic planning the path forward for unions

RECENT EPISODES

Alliance for Retired Americans discuss Social Security Fairness Act

Apprentices highlight UNITE HERE's Culinary Apprenticeship program

Grassroots efforts and strategic planning the path forward for unions

SUBSCRIBE

NEWSLETTER