Employers in Colorado and across the U.S. spend $1.7 billion each year to keep workers from organizing and bargaining for better pay and working conditions, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute and LaborLab.

The report showed high-paid consultants and law firms have built substantial businesses over the past several decades specializing in union avoidance services. Their clients have included Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s.

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Margaret Poydock, senior policy analyst for the institute and co-author of the report, said the $1.7 billion figure is likely an underestimate.

“This is money that could be going towards improving workers' pay, maintaining benefits, improving working conditions for workers, but instead, employers are spending on third-party consultants to dissuade workers from their right to form a union and organize,” Poydock contended.

The report found consultants and lawyers often first try to prevent a workplace election from taking place. They provide scripts to bosses, who then tell workers in one-on-one and all-staff meetings why unions are unnecessary or even bad for workers.

If that fails, the report showed, consultants shift tactics to ensure workers vote against the union. If workers vote to unionize, the next move is often to stall negotiations so a collective bargaining agreement is never finalized.

Many union avoidance firms also represent employers at National Labor Relations Board proceedings, where few companies have been held accountable for illegal union-busting activities.

Poydock noted 70% of Americans view unions favorably. Last year, unionization in the United States grew to its highest levels since 2009.

"The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed 16.5 million workers were represented by a union in 2025," Poydock reported. "However, the Economic Policy Institute estimated 50 million nonunion workers would join a union if they could."

State governments can also limit union organizing. For the second time, Governor Jared Polis vetoed a bill that would end Colorado’s requirement that workers win two workplace elections.

Poydock stressed the decline in unionization over the past several decades has been a driving force behind increased income inequality.

“That’s largely because unions are a tool or a mechanism for workers to bring their employer to the bargaining table and get the fair share of the profits that they are producing,” Poydock explained.