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.”