union busting
Suppressing worker collectives
Union busting refers to efforts by employers to prevent workers from forming unions or to weaken existing ones.
Tactics range from legal maneuvers—mandatory anti-union meetings, hiring consultants, delaying elections—to illegal ones like firing organizers or threatening plant closures.
The company brought in union-busting consultants when workers started organizing.
The term is pejorative, used by labor advocates; management prefers phrases like "union avoidance."
- strikebreakerReplacement during walkout
- right-to-work lawsLaws banning mandatory union dues
- decertificationRevoking official recognition
- PinkertonsFamous private detective agency
- picketingOrganized protest outside workplace
unfair labor practices · scab · Taft-Hartley · at-will employment · lockout · surveillance · blackleg · NLRB · strike · intimidation · labor strikes · shop steward · goons · propaganda · management consultants · right-to-work · retaliation · coercion
- class struggleclass conflict, class warfare, class divide, class struggle, class consciousness
- Gilded AgeGilded Age, robber baron, robber barons, Carnegie, Rockefeller
- labor relationslabor relations, labor disputes, collective agreement, bargaining, labor negotiations
- labor unionsAFL-CIO, local unions, police unions, Teamsters, locals
- Thatcher EraMargaret Thatcher, Thatcher, Iron Lady, monetarism, poll tax
- workplace issuesturnover, layoffs, understaffing, low morale, harassment
union bustingcollective bargaining
Joint worker-employer talks
union organizing · labor organizing · unionization · worker solidarity · union recognition
union bustingworker empowerment
Granting staff meaningful authority
labor solidarity · workplace democracy · picket line · strike action · grassroots organizing