House Bill Would Bar Unions From Disguising Organizers as Real Employees in Targeted Firms

Starbucks employees wait for results of a vote count, in Buffalo, N.Y., on Dec. 9, 2021. (Eleonore Sens/AFP via Getty Images)

When Michelle Eisen told a congressional hearing last year about her experiences working as a barista at a Buffalo, New York, Starbucks, she did so without disclosing that she was also a paid activist helping to organize the coffee chain’s first unionized shop.

Eisen was reportedly paid nearly $50,000 by the Workers United affiliate of the Service Employees International Union for helping in the campaign to organize Starbucks, an effort that, to date, has succeeded in unionizing more than 330 additional shops since 2010. A spokesman for the union also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), then-chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee before whom Eisen testified, didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ inquiry asking if he was informed of Eisen’s nondisclosure agreement, and if so, what was his response.

The Eisen incident focused national attention on a previously rarely discussed tactic used by unions that’s known informally as “salting” a nonunion firm with newly hired employees who are paid to agitate for union representation and gather inside information about the company’s practices.

With manufacturing jobs growing rapidly in the Southern tier of U.S. states, unions are expected to more actively employ salting in their campaigns to organize such facilities below the Mason-Dixon line, particularly in the auto industry, according to The Nation, a left-wing opinion journal with strong union ties.

“If the UAW and the labor movement are serious about contending for power in strategic sectors of the economy like manufacturing, then ’salting' in the auto industry must be considered a key task. There is no substitute for politically motivated workers organizing their coworkers from the inside of a facility,” The Nation stated.

Incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan speaks during Starbucks Investor Day 2022 in Seattle on Sept. 13, 2022. (Stephen Brashear/AP Photo)

“Our hope is that well-educated workers who have earned their spurs in contract campaigns and strikes at large universities and elsewhere will now get auto jobs and make their mark in the industrial South.”

But Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) has other plans for the union practice of salting—namely, banning it. Allen introduced “The Truth in Employment Act of 2023” on June 26, which would make it illegal for unions to insert organizers disguised as regular employees in a company that’s targeted for a unionization campaign.

“Big labor and union bosses will stop at nothing to coerce more American workers into unionization, even if it means targeting small businesses in need of new employees. The deceptive practice called ‘salting’ is becoming more common across the country and is nothing more than a desperate attempt to strongarm nonunion employers into unionizing their workforce without a vote—or forcing them to shut their doors,” Allen said in a statement announcing his proposal.

“The Truth in Employment Act is necessary to ensure employers are not required to hire an employee who enters the hiring process for the purpose of unionizing a workplace or to put the nonunion company out of business. Access to a reliable workforce is often the number one issue facing employers, and this legislation is an important step to make certain job creators are free to use their valuable time and resources to hire workers who actually want to work.”

Enthusiastically cheering Allen’s efforts are officials of the National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC), which has, for decades, successfully championed laws adopted in 27 states that protect a worker’s right to keep his or her job without being forced to join a union.

“Because the vast majority of Americans have little or no interest in unionization, union bosses are increasingly turning to unionization tactics that don’t rely on worker support. They hope that by sending in ’salts’ to bring chaos and litigation, employers will capitulate and turn their workers over to union bosses they never voted for,” NRTWC President Mark Mix said in a joint statement with Allen.

“The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) often sides with union agents in these matters, ruling against employers who did nothing more than fire paid agitators from an outside organization. Congressman Allen’s Truth in Employment Act blocks this union legal tactic by making it absolutely clear that employers are well within their rights to refuse to hire union salts. Congress should pass the Truth in Employment Act to protect workers from being deceived and harassed at work by agents of a union that only want to take dues money out of their paychecks.”

The labor union organizing push in the South could determine whether such worker groups have a future in the United States. Union membership in the country has steadily declined since 1983, when 20.1 percent of all employees were union members to just 10.1 percent in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Public employees are five times more likely to be union members, according to the BLS, which noted that 33 percent of such workers are unionized, compared to just 6 percent in the private sector.