Murray Introduces Bill To Crack Down On Union Busting

WASHINGTON — Washington Senator Patty Murray joined Bob Casey (D-PA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) Thursday in introducing a new bill designed to crack down on union-busting businesses.

As Murray's office explains, the "No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act" would prevent large corporations from writing off corporate union busting campaigns as regular business expenses, meaning taxpayers would no longer be subsidizing their anti-union efforts.

“American taxpayers certainly should not be expected to subsidize corporations’ anti-union campaigns but right now they are—and corporations absolutely should not be able to write their union-busting off as ordinary business expenses,” said Senator Murray. “Every worker should have the right to form and join a union to demand better and their fair share of the economic growth they drive—and our tax code shouldn’t reward companies that pay consultants hundreds of dollars an hour to dissuade workers from exercising their right to organize."

Under the bill, interference in worker organization campaigns would be classified as political speech and therefore would not be tax-deductible. That would include legal anti-union campaigns, and illegal attempts to bust unions like “captive audience meetings”, where employers hold mandatory work meetings and pressure employees against joining unions, which are violations of National Labor Relations Act but remain relatively common.

“As we've seen a wave of union drives across the country, we've also witnessed a wave of companies using union busting tactics to stop their workers from organizing," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. "We should not be subsidizing intimidation and bullying tactics, and this legislation would put an end to it. Companies that engage in union busting shouldn't reap financial benefits, they should pay penalties for this anti-democratic behavior."

The news release from Murray's office about the bill does not name names, but there are two large businesses from Washington that are obvious targets: Amazon and Starbucks. Both companies are contending with a fresh wave of unionization efforts, and both have drawn significant criticism for the ways they've handled those union drives. Starbucks in particular is currently facing 45 complaints from the National Labor Relations Board over its efforts to crush the Starbucks Workers United Movement, including one complaint filed earlier this week, which contends that the company illegal fired seven Memphis employees for participating in the union.

Related: Starbucks Now Faces 45 NLRB Complaints Over Union-Busting Efforts