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Obama’s Labor Legacy: Overreach and Overregulation
In the past eight years, the Department of Labor has consistently pushed the boundaries of its authority. The agency’s overreach greatly restricted how people work,…
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‘Corporate Campaign’ Deployed against Labor Secretary Nominee Puzder
Democrats, labor unions, and their allies have deployed a coordinated attack against President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor nominee, Andrew Puzder.
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Union Front Groups Deploy Dishonest Tactics against Nominee Puzder
Pro-union activist groups are pulling out all the stops to derail the nomination of Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, to head the Department of…
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A Federal Gift Clause Could Help ‘Drain the Swamp’
If President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are serious about coming through on the campaign promise to “drain the swamp,” it would serve them…
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Worker Freedom Coming in the New Year
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Labor and Employment Reforms for the Next Congress
In the arena of labor and employment policy, the next Congress has its hands full in reversing eight years of red-tape that unduly burdens the…
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Court Strikes Down Another Unlawful Labor Rule
On December 12, 2016, the federal Northern District Court of Texas put the final nail in the coffin of the Department of Labor’s misguided persuader…
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Obama Overtime Rule Would Have Wreaked Havoc Starting Today
Today, the Obama Department of Labor’s new overtime regulation was scheduled to go into effect. Thousands of businesses, universities, nonprofits, and local and state governments…
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Court Blocks Overtime Rule
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez learned a harsh lesson this month. Public servants at federal agencies cannot allow their political preferences to guide their regulatory agenda.
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Courts Reject Department of Labor Decrees
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Report: Nationwide Grading of Government Union Laws
At the federal level, the two primary labor and employment statutes—National Labor Relations Act and Fair Labor Standards Act, have remained relatively untouched for decades.
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Worker Freedom Wins Big on Election Night
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Permitting Government Employee Strikes is Bad Policy
On Tuesday, the Transportation Workers Union Local 234 (TWU) union bosses ordered nearly 5,000 public employees who work for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)…
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Congress: Do the Economy a Favor, Defund Harmful Labor Regulations
Research from the National Association of Manufacturers estimates that the aggregate costs of labor regulations imposed just this year by the Obama administration’s Department of…
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Communications Union Holds Sham Trial against Verizon Workers
In April, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union ordered 36,000 Verizon employees to strike. Despite the fact that Verizon offered a fair deal in…
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Proposed Labor Law Overhaul Would Decrease Worker Choice, Increase Union Power
The Center for American Progress (CAP) released a report that calls for an overhaul of U.S. labor law. It cites increasing income inequality and dwindling…
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House Considers Bill Delaying Department of Labor’s Overtime Rule
Today, the House Rules Committee will consider Representative Tim Walberg’s bill to delay implementation of the Department of Labor’s overtime rule.
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How the Next President Can Improve Labor and Employment Policy
With the presidential election heading into the first debate, what can the next president do to improve national labor and employment policy?…
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Arizona Supreme Court Rules Taxpayers Should Be Forced to Subsidize Government Unions
Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court determined that there is no better way to spend tax dollars than to give them to government unions so that…
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Michigan State Legislator Introduces Worker’s Choice Bill
Yesterday, a state representative from Michigan introduced novel legislation that would provide public-sector workers’ choice.
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Texas Constitution Bans Taxpayer Subsidies to Private Parties
It may seem obvious, but tax dollars are supposed to be used for purely public purposes, not the private benefit of an individual, corporation, or…
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Labor Day Highlights Need for Labor Law Reform
Labor Day is a time when we show respect and celebrate the achievements of American workers. However, a better way to respect workers this Labor…
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Problems Ahead for Grad Student Unionizing
There seems to be an Obama administration wide dictate to ensure as many individuals as possible are to be considered employees. The reason for this…
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NLRB’s New Joint Employer Standard Strikes Again
Just about one year ago, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dramatically changed the rules on how companies are allowed to contract with other businesses…
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Government Wage Mandates Bad for Business and Workers
Wage and hour mandates have seen an uptick of late at the federal, state, and local level.
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Learn Your Workplace Rights with National Employee Freedom Week
The supposedly non-partisan NLRB is woefully inadequate in educating workers on their rights related to opting out of paying full-fledged union dues.
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West Virginia Court Blocks “Right-to-Work” Law, Restricts Worker Choice
Workers in the state to have most recently enacted right to work, West Virginia, have lost their freedom to choose whether or not to financially…
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Joint Employer Liability Stifles Small Business
In Hillary Clinton’s nomination acceptance speech at the DNC convention, she said “Way too many dreams die in the parking lots of banks.” Obtaining financing…
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Cooperative Agreement on Wage and Hour Rules Could Backfire on Employers
As I discussed earlier this week, Subway came to terms with the Department of Labor (DOL) in what is being considered a cooperative agreement. Its…
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Corporate Social Responsibility Policies May Suffer under “Joint Employer” Standard
Companies adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies has been in vogue for a while now. According to the Financial Times, in 2014, U.S. and UK…
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Subway Labor Agreement Could Lead to Problematic “Joint Employer” Status
It has been just about one year since the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision that rocked the franchise-franchisee world, which dramatically altered…
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DNC Email Leak Shows Cozy Relationship between Democrats and Unions
The Democratic Party and labor unions are consistently accused of having a quid pro quo relationship, and for good reason. Emails from the DNC email…
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Democratic Party Platform Seeks to Curb Worker Choice and Opportunity
The policies set forth in the Democrat platform are misguided – in order to help American workers really succeed in the 21st century, we should roll…
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Labor Regulators Set Sights on Microsoft
It has almost been one year since the National Labor Relations Board dramatically changed the definition of “joint employer” in Browning-Ferris.
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Worst Procedural Abuses of the Obama Era: Regulation by Guidance
Federal agencies are to publish a notice of rulemaking and allow the public time to comment on the rule before it becomes final, or legally…
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CEI Supports Defunding Obama’s Joint Employer Standard in House Appropriations Bill
This week, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee will markup the Fiscal Year 2017 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. CEI commends the…
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CEI Commends Rep. King’s Amendment to Halt Enforcement of Davis-Bacon
This week, the House is scheduled to vote on the Fiscal Year 2017 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill (H.R. 5538). CEI commends Rep. Steve King’s…
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NLRB Overturns Precedent, Makes Organizing Two Workplaces At Once Easier
In a case involving Browning-Ferris Industries, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision overturned longstanding precedent regarding joint employer status—when two employers in a contractual…
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Feds Threaten the Independence of Small Business Owners
We value our independence in the country, and not just from imperial foreign governments like the British 240 years ago.
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The Fight for Union Dues Independence
This holiday weekend, we celebrate the birth of our great country. Two hundred and forty years ago, the United States adopted the Declaration of Independence…
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Federal Labor Agencies’ Actions Threatens Worker Opportunity
During the course of the Obama administration, federal labor agencies have turned labor and employment policy on its head via a slew of regulations, sub-regulatory…
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Congress Fights Back Against DOL Attack on Flexible Work and Small Business
Congress may have missed an opportunity to defund the Department of Labor’s overtime rule via the appropriations process, but they have not given up the…
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Speaker Ryan’s Deregulatory Report: Clamp Down on Federal Labor Agencies’ Overreach
Today, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) released his plan for how to modernize our federal regulatory system in order to jumpstart the economy. This is…
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House Committee Examines Overtime Rule’s Negative Impact on Non-Profits and Universities
The House Education & Workforce Committee held a hearing today that examined the Department of Labor’s recent overtime regulation’s impact on non-profits and universities.
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Heavily Scrutinized NLRB Joint Employer Standard Heads to Court
Most people can pretty easily tell you who their boss is, but the Obama administration has made that a difficult question. In a decision last…
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NLRB Downplays Pro-Union Threats
Union bias permeates the actions of the current National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This is hardly surprising since a former union lawyer, Richard Griffin,…
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White House Supports Bill that Exempts Puerto Rico from New Overtime Regulation
Progressives praised the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule as a way to fatten workers’ pockets and a means to strengthen the middle class. If…
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Free Market Organizations Call on Congress to Block the DOL Overtime Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute along with 16 other organizations sent a letter to Congress in support of the Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity…
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Members-Only Unions Benefits Unions and Individual Workers
There has been a surge in right-to-work laws over the past couple of years. Since 2012, four states (Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and West Virginia) revoked…
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Small Businesses and Nonprofits Ill-Equipped to Handle DOL’s Overtime Rule
The Department of Labor's overtime rule may be published as early as next week. The rule's "one-size-fits-all" nature is set to harm small businesses the…