Inside the secretive world of union busting: Here's how much corporations pay to bust unions

A handful of workers at the Dollar General In the small Connecticut town of Barkhamsted had grown frustrated last September for being poorly treated by a district manager amid allegations that sexual harassment was ignored. They became so upset that they sought to form a union to address their concerns. But when they did, the massive retailer fought back with a vengeance.

The organizing effort involved just six workers (five after one said he was fired for his efforts to unionize) earning $13 an hour—so about $624 a day in total—but the company spent multiples of that to combat the union drive. Dollar General paid Labor Relations Institute (LRI), a firm known for its union-avoidance consulting, a fee of $2,700 per day for each consultant it brought in, according to filings with the Department of Labor. LRI used five consultants, who reportedly held one-on-one meetings with workers and conducted group sessions to educate them on the risks of joining a union. In the end, the unionization effort failed, and the company breathed a sigh of relief. The retail giant posted $33.7 billion in sales and $2.7 billion in profit in 2020, but remains convinced its future earnings might have been hurt if any of its 157,000 workers joined a union.


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