Amazon Spent $3.1 Million On Anti-Union Consultants In 2023

Amazon spent more than $3 million on anti-union consultants last year in its continuing effort to keep organized labor out of its delivery network, according to disclosures filed Saturday with the Labor Department.

The Seattle-based retail giant has been ringing up a large tab hiring “persuaders” who try to convince workers not to form unions. It doled out more than $14 millionon such consultants last year as well.

Employers are required to disclose such spending when the consultants speak directly to workers about unionization. The figures cited in the forms generally would not include money Amazon spent on in-house work against unions or legal advice aimed at undermining organizing efforts.

Companies often pay $3,000 or more for each persuader per day, as a HuffPost investigation detailed last year. The consultants typically hold group and one-on-one meetings where they paint the union in a negative light, often ahead of a union election or while organizers are trying to gather union cards.

Amazon has grown to be the largest warehouse employer in the country, and its expenditures on anti-union consultants are unusually high compared to others.

Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokesperson, said in an email that the company was “proud to invest tens of billions of dollars in things like free college tuition, healthcare, good pay, and safety programs.”

“We also know that there are outside organizations working hard and spending heavily to spread inaccurate information about us to our teams,” Paradis added. “So ― like many other companies ― we also work to ensure our employees are fully informed about their rights and how decisions about outside representation could impact their day-to-day lives working at Amazon.”

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