Blog
Unionization Is Down to 10.1 Percent of the Workforce, Lowest Level on Record
The Department of Labor annual survey of union density, released today, shows that unions have fallen to just 10.1 percent of the overall…
News Release
Economy Added 223,000 Jobs in December – Some Good News and Bad
The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in December, according to government data, and the unemployment rate dipped down to 3.5 percent, where it…
Issues and Insights
Customers, Not Regulators, Should Hold Southwest Accountable
Southwest Airlines’ scheduling meltdown over the holiday weekend has prompted Capitol Hill lawmakers to propose hearings and federal regulators like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to promise…
Blog
Customers, Not Regulators, Should Hold Southwest Accountable
Southwest Airlines’ scheduling meltdown over the holiday weekend has prompted Capitol Hill lawmakers to propose hearings and federal regulators like Transportation Secretary…
Blog
Bailout Suggests It’s Time to Rethink Multiemployer Pensions
President Biden announced last Thursday that the government would give $36 billion to bail out the multiemployer Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. It…
DJ Journal
NLRB Doesn’t Want Workers to Hear Both Sides on Unions
Amazon isn’t the only corporation to face such charges. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was hit in October for comments regarding unions, indicating…
Inside Sources
NLRB Doesn’t Want Workers to Hear Both Sides on Unions
News Release
Job Gains in November 2022 Amid Inflation, Economic Problems: CEI Analysis
The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7 percent, according to the Labor Department. CEI experts…
News Release
House Premature on Rail Strike Intervention: CEI Analysis
The House today voted today on a resolution aimed at averting an impending strike by freight rail workers on December 9 – over…
Wall Street Journal
House Approves Imposing Railroad Labor Deal, Paid Sick Leave Measure
The White House said Mr. Biden broadly supports providing more sick leave for rail workers, but he opposes measures that could slow down passage…
Blog
Biden Hits the Brakes on Possible Railroad Strike
President Biden’s call on Monday for Congress to intervene in contract negotiations between railroad workers and the industry to prevent a strike…
Blog
Somebody Better Hit the Brakes Soon in Railway Dispute
Three railroad unions have now voted to reject a contract negotiated by the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) that had been accepted by eight…
News Release
US Economy Added Jobs in October, but Unemployment Remains High – Signs of Cooling
The U.S. added 261,000 jobs in October, while unemployment ticked up to 3.7 percent, according to data released today by the Labor Department. That’s…
Blog
NLRB Seeks to Gag Amazon Management
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently alleged that Amazon chief executive office Andy Jassy violated federal labor laws by publicly saying that…
Blog
Mandatory Union Fees are Junk Fees
The White House yesterday called up federal agencies to target “junk fees” charged to consumers, arguing that these hidden costs are exploitative and…
Blog
Workers Should Be Able to Hear from Both Sides Before Union Votes
Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Albany, New York, opposed forming a union by a nearly two-to-one margin last week. It was…
The Center Square
Washington Supreme Court ruling could boost the cost of public works
Washington state constitutional questions aside, Competitive Enterprise Institute research fellow Sean Higgins doesn’t believe the law is an improvement.
News Release
Biden Labor Department Rule Makes “Employee” or “Freelancer” Even Harder to Determine
The Biden Labor Department today announced plans to use not a formal rulemaking but an interpretive rule to upend guidelines that help businesses determine…
Reason
Biden Chips Away at Trump’s Deregulatory Legacy With New Gig Worker Rule
Sean Higgins, a labor policy researcher at the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute, says that litigation chaos is unlikely given…
News Release
September Jobs Report Shows Signs of Business Recovery but Inflation Remains a Problem: CEI Analysis
The federal government today released its data on how many jobs the U.S. economy added during the month of September: 263,000. CEI experts offer…
Blog
Illinois Ballot Measure to Allow Unions To “Keep Our Foot on the Gas”
Here’s a riddle: Why would unions in Illinois promote a ballot measure to establish a right to collective bargaining when that state…
Blog
FTC To Use Algorithms in Bid to Hobble Gig Economy
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it will use its “full authority” to investigate “unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practices” by so-called…
Inside Sources
Looming Railway Strike Puts Biden on Collision Course With Unions
Blog
Why Railway Unions Oppose the Deal Biden Helped Arrange
The Chamber of Commerce today urged Congress to step in and impose a settlement should talks between the rail industry and the…
The Washington Times
Critics of NLRB’s ‘joint employer’ rule predict job losses, more red tape for businesses
The Washington Times cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on the NLRB joint employer rule: The board’s apparent goal is to encourage…
News Release
NLRB Democrats Unveil New Rule Expanding Joint Employer Liability…Again
Democrats on the National Labor Relations Board have put forward a new rule expanding “joint employer” liability for businesses nationwide. CEI labor policy…
Blog
NLRB Proposes Third Rewrite of Joint Employer Rule in Four Years
As expected, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new version of the “joint employer” rule, which establishes when…
National Review
Unions’ Cynical Minimum-Wage Gambit
We want California to be the first in the nation as it is in so many fronts, and to be able to spread this to…
The Hill
This Labor Day, let’s ensure that individual workers are empowered, too
Ideas never die. If they become unpopular, people forget about them, but then they bounce back when a new generation rediscovers them. And whatever…
News Release
CEI Experts React to August Jobs Numbers
The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 315,000 new jobs in the month of August, slightly below market expectations. The unemployment rate rose…
Blog
Starbucks Alleges an NLRB Whistleblower Reveals Election Shenanigans
A challenge by Starbucks to a recent union election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) includes a remarkable claim by the company:…
Blog
How the Inflation Reduction Act Favors Unions over Taxpayers
The word “prevailing” appears 27 times in the text of the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by Congress Sunday…
News Release
U.S. Economy Adds 528k Jobs In July Amid Inflation and Shrinking GDP, but Congress isn’t Helping: CEI Analysis
The U.S. economy added 528,000 in July, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported…
Blog
How to Make Official Time Even Worse
“Official time” is the practice of allowing members of public sector unions to conduct union business while getting paid for the regular government…
Blog
Regulators Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train
One year after a supply chain crisis caused shortages across the nation, the Biden administration is trying to prevent railroads from modernizing and…
Blog
A Closer Look at The Guardian’s “The Uber Files”
On July 11, 2022, The Guardian published an expose of rideshare giant Uber’s business practices, based on a trove of leaked documents it obtained.
News Release
U.S. Economy Adds 372,000 Jobs in June – Good News for Recession Worries
The U.S. economy added 372,000 jobs in June 2022, according to a new tally released today by the government. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held…
Blog
Supreme Court EPA Ruling A Warning Shot to Agencies like NLRB
The Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that the EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act…
News Release
CEI Experts React to Supreme Court’s West Virginia v EPA Decision
WASHINGTON—In deciding West Virginia v. EPA today, the Supreme Court held that Congress never authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions…
Blog
Federal Agency Tries to Extend Reach with Joint Employer Standard
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal labor law enforcement agency, is likely planning to vastly expand its reach through a rulemaking on…
Blog
Biden Says He Wants to Be the “Most Pro-Union President in the History of the United States”
Flattering the audience is one of the handiest tools a person has when giving a speech. It’s a simple way to establish a positive…
Blog
As Gas Prices Rises, Ridesharing Industry Adjusts
Rideshare companies are currently feeling the pinch from high gas prices, but some of their drivers are weathering the change better than others. High…
The Hill
Authorizing congressional unions won’t end Democrats’ labor troubles
The Hill cites CEI Research Fellow Sean Higgins discussing congressional unions: Regarding unions, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Sean Higgins …
Freedom Works
AUDIO: Sean Higgins of CEI on job gains
CEI Research Fellow Sean Higgins discusses job gains on Freedom Works Radio.
Blog
Dead Man’s Switch: Biden Administration Fights Railroad Automation
Of all modes of transportation, one would think that railways would be at the leading edge of automation. After all, they don’t use public…
News Release
Latest Employment Report Shows COVID Effects Lingering, Inflation Taking Toll
WASHINGTON—The Department of Labor reported today a gain of 390,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent, as…
Blog
EEOC Nominee Kalpana Thinks Transparency Is an Important Value, Less Clear on Need to Abide by It
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission may become a lot less accountable in its decision making than it was under the Trump administration should President…
Blog
Court Tells NLRB Sometimes a Joke Is In Fact a Joke
In a significant win for common sense, a federal appeals court has found that sometimes a joke is just a joke, even when…
Blog
Let’s Not Allow Davis-Bacon to Further Clog Job Arteries
The Biden administration is proposing to make government contracting even more expensive by revamping the Davis-Bacon Act. This law requires that related workers…
Comment
CEI Letter Opposing the Department of Labor’s Proposed Changes to the Davis-Bacon Act
Via Regulations.Gov Hon. Marty Walsh Secretary of Labor United States Department of Labor 200 Constitution Ave NW Washington, DC…