LaborLab, a workers' rights watchdog, has launched a free online union-buster search tool and a companion cost calculator, aiming to arm workers with critical information about the anti-union consultants and law firms their employers hire. The tools, which went live on September 8, 2026, are designed to pull back the curtain on the $1.7 billion union-avoidance industry in the United States, giving workers a clearer picture of the opposition they face when organizing.
The search tool compiles data from National Labor Relations Board and Department of Labor filings into a single, accessible database. It includes information on more than 800 consultants, 8,000 law firms, and 21,000 attorneys. Users can research the employers these union-busters represent, the rates they charge, their campaign histories, the unions they most frequently target, and, where available, their win-loss records. Direct links to NLRB cases and DOL disclosures are provided, making it easier for workers to verify and share information.
"These tools advance LaborLab's vision of providing resources that can help directly empower workers to organize their workplaces," said Bob Funk, executive director of LaborLab. "We envision worker-organizers, union staffers and labor attorneys using the search tool to identify unions that have previously dealt with a particular anti-union attorney or consultant, learn from their experience and share that information with other workers."
The cost calculator complements the search tool by estimating up to seven costs employers bear when fighting a union rather than voluntarily recognizing one upon proof of majority support. These include direct expenditures on attorneys and consultants, as well as hidden internal costs such as paid employee time spent in anti-union one-on-one meetings and staff meetings. The calculator also estimates the wage increase that could have been provided with those resources instead. LaborLab's estimates have been presented to the Minnesota Senate and cited in coverage of organizing campaigns by nurses, therapists and mechanics. An in-depth explanation of the calculator's cost categories and default assumptions is available here.
The initiative addresses a long-standing information gap. In 1959, Congress required union-avoidance consultants and employers to disclose many of their activities and related payments, concluding that such activity "should be exposed to public view." However, reporting loopholes, weak enforcement, and fragmented government databases have made that information difficult for workers to find. As the Department of Labor and Congress fail to implement long-needed reforms, LaborLab's new tools represent a significant step toward closing that gap, a problem detailed in a new LaborLab report.
Founded in 2021, LaborLab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that tracks, exposes, and counters the employer opposition industry through LMRDA compliance monitoring, investigative research, and real-time campaign intelligence. By providing these resources, LaborLab aims to help workers organize and win strong first contracts, holding corporations accountable for violating workers' rights.
