Union Busting: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited in unionization threads at Tesla, Amazon, Google and Wikimedia as a humorous overview of union-busting methods.
What it is
A Last Week Tonight segment on union busting that explains the tactics employers use and why they face few consequences. It is delivered as comedic commentary.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2021 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Cites tluyben2 · 2021-11 · on “I Was Illegally Fired for Trying to Unionize Tesla”
I watched this John Oliver[0] a few days ago which shows that apparently (I am not from the US and also have never had to deal with unions) it does not matter anyway illegal or not. [0] [this video]
Cites scotu · 2021-11 · on “US labor board official orders Amazon to redo union vote at Alabama warehouse”
yeah, collective bargaining never does any good /s [LINK] Last week tonight on union busting: [this video] When a union does not work or is corrupt, we fix the union, we don't give away the collective power to the opposing side of the negotiation: oh no, my lawyer is not doing my best interest he's only trying to rake up the fees! you know what? I'll let my opponent's lawyer represent me in court instead!
Cites aylmao · 2022-01 · on “Google hired union-busting consultants to convince employees “unions suck””
> So what exactly did Google spend their money on? What exactly did these "union-busting" consultants do? I think the sentiment here is that hiring "union-busting" consultants clearly implies strong anti-union sentiment by management and an equally strong desire to quell rising union sentiment within the company. Companies, especially big tech companies, like to seem friendly to employees and make them feel like they're in charge, and the company is "run by them". They like to keep a facade of being "benevolent" dictators ultimately motivated by being the best they can for users. In reality, they're corporations, and they'll do what's best for their bottom-line, wether that aligns with their
Cites armchairhacker · 2026-08 · on “Wikimedia Foundation refuses union recognition, hires union-busting law firm”
Wikipedia's side > [W]e believe a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board is the appropriate path forward. This process protects individual choice and ensures that any outcome reflects the collective will of those eligible to participate. > [Jimmy Wales:] One of the problems with the process so far is that it was not secret and we have heard from some staff members that they felt pressured because the organizers would know how they decided. That isn't a great process and it goes against our movement's values quite badly to have people in a situation where they are pressured into something one way or the other. Counter-argument > The community response to the WM