LaborLab is a left-of-center organization that supports efforts to organize unions. LaborLab also aids workers defending themselves against alleged labor abuses and tracks anti-union activity around the country.

History and Activities

LaborLab was founded in 2021 in Helena, Montana. According to its public profiles, LaborLab only has a single employee. ¹

LaborLab works to promote unionization and support union organizing. It claims that unions support democracy by counteracting corporate influence, improve economic equality by increasing wages, and promote “social justice” by combating workplace discrimination. ²

LaborLab provides educational materials on the National Labor Relations Act requirements for starting a union. ³ More specifically, LaborLab provides details on section 7 of the Labor Relations Act, which guarantees employees “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, [and] to bargain collectively through representatives of their choosing;” ⁴ as well as section 8, which prohibits employers from engaging in unfair labor practices. ⁵ Other resources provided to workers by LaborLab include guides on how to protect worker collaboration against employer interference, ⁶ a guide to filing an unfair labor practice charge, ⁷ and tips to ease the process of officially forming a union. ⁸

Additionally, LaborLab provides regularly updated news alerts and posts on its blog called “The Steward.” These posts focus on a variety of labor issues, including information about federal rule changes, complaints filed against employers for alleged anti-union activity, and information on employees who take action to dissuade the formation of unions. ⁹

The organization also supports efforts for workers to report alleged worker rights violations to the federal National Labor Relations Board. ¹⁰ Relatedly, LaborLab updates what it calls a “Union-Busting Tracker,” a map that marks where employers have hired consultants to dissuade workers from creating or joining a union. The map includes hundreds of alleged incidents of “union-busting” activity. ¹¹

In another effort to prevent “union busting,” LaborLab produces what it calls the “LM-20 Scorecard.” The U.S. Department of Labor requires labor relations consultants, employers, and certain others who engage directly with workers who themselves are engaged in certain union activities to file a public report of their actions. ¹² LaborLab’s scorecard judges how many of those required to submit an LM-20 have done so under the legally required timeframe. ¹³

Funding

LaborLab received a two-year grant from July 2022 to June 2024 of $150,000 from the Ford Foundation as part of the foundation’s Future of Work(ers) program. Ford states that the “core support for Labor Lab” was to “generate information and raise awareness around the right to unionize.” ¹⁴

LaborLab also reports it has received since its 2021 founding further donations from national and local labor unions as well as from labor federations. ¹⁵

People

Bob Funk is the executive director of LaborLab and has a long history of work on the labor unionist left. Funk previously managed communications for the Montana Federation of Public Employees and for the Montana AFL-CIO. He was also previously the Vice President of the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). Funk is a graduate of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. ¹⁶

1. “LaborLab: People.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/company/laborlabus/people/.
2. “LaborLab.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/.
3. “The Right to Unionize.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/the_right_to_unionize/.
4. “Section 7.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/section7.
5. “Section 8.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/section8.
6. “A Simple Guide to Protect Concerted Activity.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/a_simple_guide_to_protected_concerted_activity.
7. “How to File an Unfair Labor Practice Charge.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/how_to_file_an_unfair_labor_practice_charge.
8. “How to Start a Union the Right Way.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023.
9. “The steward: A Union-Busting Watchdog Blog.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/steward.
10. “The Right to Unionize.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/the_right_to_unionize/.
11. “Union-Busting Tracker.” LaborLAb. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/unionbustingtracker.
12. “Introduction for Form LM-20 Agreement and Activities Report.” Department of Labor. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/olms/regs/compliance/gpea_forms/instructions/lm-20_instructions.pdf.
13. “LM-20 Scorecard.” LaborLab. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.laborlab.us/lm20scorecard.
14. “Core support for LaborLab to generate information and raise awareness around the right to unionize.” Ford Foundation. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/laborlab-144167/.
15. “Correspondence-Labor-Lab.” Unite Here Local 17. November 14, 2022. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.uniteherelocal17.org/wp-content/uploads/11.16.2022-Correspondence-Labor-Lab.pdf.
16. “Bob Funk.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfunk/.