In the 19th century, Pinkertons were essential to union busting. The subterfuge persists.

Satirical newspaper The Onion ran an article in 2022 titled, “Starbucks Fights Unionization Effort By Hiring Pinkertons To Order Exhausting, Hyper-Specific Drinks.” Five months later, Twitter account @UnionBustingBot broke the news that the company had hired a former Pinkerton and Central Intelligence Agency agent to run the company’s Global Intelligence for Retail Operations.

The Onion’s comedic piece seemed so outlandish. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, known for violently busting unions and breaking strikes over a century ago, felt like a facet of a bygone era — a time when unions were organized under the cover of darkness, and organizers rolled into town on coal trains and carried pistols. 

After Congress passed the Anti-Pinkerton Act in 1890, restricting the federal government from utilizing the agency, the ghoulish anti-labor villains seemed to slink back into the shadows, becoming little more than set dressing in films. 

In “Inventing the Pinkertons; Or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs,” S. Paul O’Hara wrote, “the agency was simultaneously a tool for capital, a myth in American folklore, and a manifestation of state power.”

Now, the agency has rebranded behind slick corporate speak as a second act for former military veterans, cops and mercenaries looking to pivot to “comprehensive risk management” and white-collar crime investigations. 

But you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. In a piece for Teen Vogue, labor journalist Kim Kelly wrote about the Pinkertons’ reported contract with Amazon to surveil workers in Europe and how the agency managed “security” during a 2018 strike in West Virginia. The Pinkertons remain tools for the ultra-wealthy to suppress the working class.

While Pinkerton agents were stringing up unionizing miners in the late 1800s, founder Allan Pinkerton was constructing a wave of anti-communist sentiment. In his book, “Strikers, Communists, Tramps and Detectives,” Pinkerton’s ideology serves as the bedrock for his business strategy. To keep union-busting dollars rolling in, he had to paint unionizing workers as radicals and communism as a threat to not just the ultra-wealthy but every working-class American, too. 

Whether through physical violence or surveillance, the Pinkertons were instrumental in suppressing working-class political activity. Maybe they didn’t force workers at gunpoint to vote for capitalist interests, but they threatened them enough at work, in their homes, and in the media to make the message clear.

In February, former adviser to President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon said the administration would have immigration officials at polling places during the general election in November. The Department of Homeland Security denied plans to utilize Immigration & Customs Enforcement at polling places. Still, Trump hasn’t been squeamish about government overreach, and with federal agents posted up across Washington D.C. and Minneapolis, seeing them on election day doesn’t seem that far-fetched. 

Federal agents may not need to patrol polling places to threaten working-class voters though. Many voters will stay home this election cycle out of fear that immigration officials will target them. In states without vote-by-mail, every voter who stays home is a vote lost. The federal administration is relentlessly attacking vote-by-mail, and current postmark changes could render nearly 1million ballots invalid if voters don’t mail their ballots early.

Outside federal action, a modern campaign against socialism à la Allan Pinkerton is mounting. The Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, are gaining both electoral and labor power, with DSA candidates like Zohran Mamdani, Robin Wonsley, Soren Stevenson and Kelsea Bond winning across the country. In Portland, DSA candidates Tiffany Koyama Lane, Mitch Green, Angelita Morillo and Sameer Kanal won seats on City Council in the last election. 

Still, some organizations and voters shy away from socialist candidates. A slate of unions have endorsed DSA-candidate Tammy Carpenter for state representative in House District 27, while others endorsed Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg. One key endorsement and donor for Hartmeier-Prigg is the Portland Metro Chamber, which came under fire in recent weeks for running an anti-socialist campaign hidden behind an election survey. 

The survey called more progressive candidates like John Wasielewski, who is running for Oregon House District 38, “too extreme,” and labeled their “radical” approach as not “right for Oregon.” The Oregon Capital Chronicle reported that the Chamber paid $43,000 for the survey. 

The Chamber appears threatened by candidates who are committed to representing working-class people over business interests. A new report from the Center for Working-Class Politics, Arizona State University’s Center for Work and Democracy, and Jacobin, titled ​“Can Unions Make a Difference?” found candidates who run on pro-worker slates perform the best. 

How do we square that more than 40% of union members voted for Trump in 2024 while 70% of Americans support unions? Put union leaders on the ballot, the report says.

“The issue isn’t that workers don’t trust unions,” the report found. “It’s that they don’t trust politicians.” 

Similarly, DSA is growing in popularity and trustability, with approximately 10,000 new members every year since 2015.

Pinkertons are in our workplaces, ICE is on our streets, and business alliances are subverting our candidates. Why? Because they’re scared. When workers organize, when we protest, when we run for office, and when we show up at the ballot box, we upend the power dynamic. 

This article appears in May 13, 2026.