AutoZone unionizing triggers union-bu$ting – workers won anyway

AutoZone workers in New York in late September voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers, which could encourage other workers in the chain’s 6,800 U.S. locations to organize.

That thought could explain the corporation’s decision to spend a reported $200,000 to bust the campaign for representation by the UAW when workers filed their petition on Aug. 17.

Results from a National Labor Relations Board election Sept. 25 showed a victory by workers at a White Plains, N.Y. shop –the first of AutoZone’s 110,000 U.S. workers to unionize.

Federal labor law protects workers’ right to organize a union and talk with co-workers about it, and prohibits employers from surveilling this activity, as well as from threatening to discipline or fire workers for exercising their rights. However, like too many employers who try to skirt the law, AutoZone has spent $210,696 on attorneys and managers to defeat the effort, according to the national workers’ rights watchdog LaborLab, based in Montana.

AutoZone reported a record annual revenue of $20.3 billion for fiscal year 2026, a 7.4% increase from last year.

“These workers sought to form their union with Local 259 to oppose the lack of wage improvements, lack of paid time off, forever increasing health-care costs, and insufficient respect from ownership for their skills, knowledge and abilities,” according to a statement from UAW Local 259. “AutoZone could have simply recognized their workers union and began bargaining for the first collective bargaining agreement. But rather, AutoZone chose to do what too many corporations choose to do – hire union-busters.

“The workers stayed focused, strong and did not forget as to why they sought to form their union in the first place during the campaign,” the union local continued. “These brave workers recognized their bosses’ anti-union spin and prevailed!”

The nation’s corporations spent $1.7 billion on union-busters last year, LaborLab reports, based on an analysis of data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and from “persuader” forms the U.S. Labor Department requires. The national number breaks down into $1.5 billion for “union avoidance” law firms, who can charge up to thousands of dollars a day for their services, and $200 million more for “consulting fees.”

“The ‘persuaders’ fees start at $400 an hour per lawyer and spiral upward into the thousands of dollars per hour and millions of dollars in spending,” reports Mark Gruenberg of Press Associates Union News Service. “And firms hire union-busters to ‘advise’ on how to battle workers in 71%-87% of organizing drives, depending on the industry.”

EPI details the top three law firms that specialize in fighting workers’ attempts to unionize:

* Los Angeles-based Littler Mendelson took more labor law cases as a percentage of its total business (5.7%) and had one of every six of its lawyers working on them. It garnered $58.6 million from them.

* Ogletree-Deakins, with headquarters in both Atlanta, Ga., and Greenville, S.C., was second in percentage of labor cases as part of its total business (4%), but ahead of Littler in percentage of attorneys working on them (19.1%) and in revenue, $68.9 million.

* Jackson Lewis,, based in New York city, was third in all the categories: Labor case percentage (3.6%), share of attorneys working on them (14.2%) and revenue from them ($49.6 million).

In White Plains, workers stressed that they have legitimate issues about wages, hours and working conditions.

“We don’t just cash people out,” said Juan Accostupa, a White Plains worker who’s worked for AutoZone for 10 years, earning $17 an hour. (During that time, his wage has increased only to keep up with New York state’s minimum wage.)

“We do extra work physically,” he said. “We do the unloading of trucks. We do installations of wiper blades, headlights and batteries.”

Nevertheless, they faced an overkill of corporate power.

“It’s like hitting a fly with a mallet,” said Michael DiGuiseppe, vice president of UAW Local 259. “At the first whiff of a union, they had their corporate executives in the store the next day.”

Midterm elections: rallying ’round the flag?

The midterm election is days away and – apart from campaigns – both major political parties and community groups are engaging with citizens about the Bigger Picture: voting.

There have been claims about the reliability of voting machines or mail-in ballots, and concerns about the seizure of ballots or Congress refusing to certify results, so groups’ priorities may differ, but a common goal is helping to ensure an honest election accessible to U.S. citizens registered to vote.

“We have an election facing us right now,” said Claude Cummings, President of the Communications Workers of America. “We have a responsibility as a labor movement to have the tools to ensure working people can participate, no matter what comes at them.”

For Illinois, early voting has started. In Peoria, the Election Commission has daily opportunities to cast ballots in-person at its Brandywine Drive offices, expanded weekend hours Oct. 24-24 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1, and has early-voting hours at 11 other polling places throughout the county [See https://www.peoriaelections.gov/174/Early-Voting ]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 25 issued an emergency order letting the Trump administration to use a data base it created to check registered voters’ citizenship status (a version of the Systematic Alien Verification  for Entitlements (SAVE) Act, which was not approved by the U.S. Senate.) The opinion noted that individualized checks are permitted but not mass voter-roll purges, and three Justices disagreed.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a 12-page dissent, stressed that the majority’s decision created the conditions for some states to cancel the voter registrations of at least some U.s. citizens or to force them to provide proof of citizenship before voting.

“The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” said Jackson joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

The Washington Spectator online newsletter in late August published a story by Mark Medish and Joel McCleary speculating that some government officials could consider seizing ballots, draft an Emergency Order taking control of the election on the basis of fraud, foreign interference or other claims.

Testifying before Congress, FBI Director Kash Patel on Sept. 15 refused to rule out the possibility of federal agents at the polls, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullins in March and again Sept. 1 said he can’t guarantee that Immigration and  Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents won’t be at polling places.

So: Lawsuits have been filed to protect the process. In mid-September a coalition made up of the Urban League and unions including the Painters, Teachers, SEIU and the UCFW to prevent voter suppression.

“Our polling sites shouldn’t look like armed camps,” said Painters President Jimmy Williams Jr.

A week earlier, another group comprised of Common Cause, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and Denver’s elected Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez sued to seek assurance that the federal government will follow the law and not interfere with election proceedings.

“The whole idea was to prevent voter intimidation,” said Bethany Li, executive director at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, representing nine clients in the case. “And that's exactly what we're seeing now from the federal government.”

As the 65-page lawsuit from unions and others states, “Neither the Constitution nor federal law grants federal agencies any role in assessing or policing voter eligibility or regulating election administration. Federal law expressly prohibits sending armed federal agents to voting locations.”

Indeed, the federal law (18 U.S.C. § 592) states, “Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.”

Cummings, from the CWA, added, “If anyone tries to intimidate our people, or silence them, we will not stand by and do nothing. We will use every tool at our disposal, whether it’s in the halls of the legislature, in the courts or in the streets, we will do everything in our power to make sure our voices are heard.”

Elsewhere, Operation Vote Safe, a nonpartisan voter-protection effort, has said it’s enlisting trained volunteers including fire fighters, clergy, veterans, and respected local figures to protect access to the voting booth; some states are helping counties recruit poll workers, filling positions that help set up or break down polling places, greet and check in voters, issue and transport ballots, and other support assignments; and the National Bar Association last month announced an initiative to help voters, Republicans and Democrat, understand what seem like last-minute changes and to create a helpline: 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).

Civic organizations and nonpartisan advocates such as the League of Women Voters and Vote Safe are taking action:

* The AFL-CIO plans to recruit 50,000 “election protection” volunteers to be present agt select polling locations and volunteer for emergency hotlines “to ensure that no one is intimidated into not exercising their basic rights.”

* Peoria County Republicans have an “Ensure Election Integrity” program to organize poll watchers, help fill Election Judge openings and consider working with the Board of Elections Committee, and invited interested people to email 309aces@gmail.com. Peoria’s GOP Election Integrity captain Deb Weiss said, “We are focused on ensuring a free and fair election through our poll watcher program and election judge recruitment efforts, which helps provide transparency and integrity at the polling places. If anyone is interested in poll watching in Peoria for the Peoria County Republican Central Committee, our email is pollwatcherspeoria@gmail.com.

* The Peoria City Council last month approved a policy providing eight hours of normal pay for city workers appointed to serve as Election Judges.

* The Tri-County Fired Up for Democracy group is “encouraging people to be Election Judges,” said Mari Osborne.

* NAACP Peoria has conducted voter educational town halls with the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria (LWVGP), and has an Oct. 12 event at noon at Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service on NE Madison, according to the civil-rights organization’s Political Action Chair Jackie Petty.

* The LWVGP will observe the testing of voting equipment “so that we can attest to its accuracy and be able to assure voters that it’s a fair process kin which all eligible votes will by counted,” LWVGP President Chris Kaergard said. Also, the League statewide is encouraging turnout and set up an informative textbank service (available by searching for the ‘League in Action” app on your smartphone).

* The Democratic Party through its state organizations on Sept. 14 announced a “New Battlefield Project” intending to enlist 10,000 volunteers to watch over polling places, and in Peoria, “we plan to have poll watchers at select polling places on Election Day. Additionally, with the heightened focus by Trump on vote-by-mail, we will have someone at all of the VBM processing at the Election Commission this year,” said Rick Fox, chair of Peoria County Democrats Central Committee.

* Peoria 50501, which has been key to “No Kings” rallies, has scheduled two events: An Oct. 17 rally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Main and University Streets in Peoria to “encourage every eligible voter has a plan to vote – to register, vote early, and help save our democracy. Two weeks later, on Oct. 31 – Halloween – “we'll gather near the Peoria County Election Commission for a ‘Treat Yourself to Early Voting!’ effort,” said Jim Haptonstahl. “The Commission is open for early voting that Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Why unions endorse political candidates

Labor in the 21^st century is powered by technology as well as an engaged rank and file, but effectively organizing for an election relies on members’ “boots on the ground” and union household turnout. That in turn demands a union international or local to look at political candidates’ records or their pledges to represent the interests of regulars working people, determine candidates’ positions and credibility, and endorse their candidacy.

It’s an approach akin to the tried-and-true maxim “Educate. Agitate. Organize.”

Political endorsements are educational in an informative way, because an endorsement isn’t requiring an individual’s action, but requesting their attention to connections between labor’s needs and government’s role in providing them.

“Like it or not, our duty at the United Association and all our local unions is to our membership,” said Mark McManus, General President of the United Association. “We advocate for our members’ jobs and way of life. And that means getting involved in politics to ensure we are not left behind.

“Because we get involved [with elected officials as well as manufacturers, contractors, inspectors and trade associations], our voice is louder than ever.”

The union of plumbers, pipefitters and allied trades must participate in a democracy, whether within a union or the system in which it operates.

“The sideline is no place for the UA to be when the stakes are this high,” he added.
Craig Chladny, president of central Illinois’ Local 193 of the International Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees, says endorsements are informative for the rank and file and also a notice to those who are endorsed that they’re expected to be accountable to supporters.

“Local union endorsements can not only help inform our members about which candidates are looking out for our collective best interests,” said Chladny, who’s also executive vice president of the West Central Illinois Labor Council, “but also remind the candidates who they're going to be representing in office.”

Unions can be key in elections, too, whether a municipal contest with a candidate against Prevailing Wages, or a national race where a candidate whose history shows opposition to labor.

Besides always-relevant issues at the core of organized labor – wages, hours and working conditions –

November’s midterm election is especially timely for working people facing an affordability crisis, a constitutional crisis and an economy and political system increasingly run by the wealthy.

“Workers are ready for an economy, a government and a country for us, not the billionaires,’ said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “We built this country – and by voting for pro-worker candidates in this election, we can take our country back.”

Of course, union members are no more uniform across-the-board in their beliefs than all women, all rural residents or all minority Americans agree on all things.

“That’s good,” McManus said. “Our job is to call balls and strikes and to do what is best for our membership. Our job is to sort through the noise and present the facts on the issues that directly impact United Association’s members’ jobs, wages and retirement security.

“Our membership has so much more in common than things we allow to keep us divided.”

Labor has been effective, too.

According to exit-poll data from Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, union households “punched above their weight” in recent national elections. U.S. union members total about 16 million, but that’s less than 12% of the work force. However, in 2024 Roper reported union households accounted for about 20% of all voters nationwide. That held steady from 2020’s 20% and up from 2016’s 18%.

Speaking with The Labor Paper, Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea has said, “Union members trust their unions to provide election information, including endorsements. People vote for many reasons, but we’ve seen across the board that union members and their families look for facts about the issues and candidates that affect their work and home life. Unions provide the information they can take when they weigh their choices on the ballot.”
Endorsements are part of engagement and voting is having a voice.

One of organized labor’s founders, Samuel Gompers, in 1906 he summarized labor’s response to politicians and other power-brokers: “Reward our friends and punish our enemies.”