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Virginia regulations guarantee secret ballots for public sector union elections
New regulations from the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry on “Local Government Union Requirements and Employee Protections” became effective July 30, 2025. An…
National Review
Josh Hawley, friend of a friend of the working man
His mistake is thinking that the way to win over working-class voters is by supporting policies favored by union leaders. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is the…
Blog
Supreme Court likely to decide fate of federal unions
A matter likely to end up before the Supreme Court soon is the right of federal government employees to form unions. Whether they retain that…
Search Posts
The Hill
Congress Must Stop Union Scheme Siphoning Funds From Medicaid
Congress created Medicaid to exclusively fund care to the elderly and disabled, not fund labor unions. But powerful labor unions like the Service Employee International…
Inside Sources
Free-Market Coalition Urges Action on Franchise Rule
Inside Sources cites the leadership role which CEI is playing in defining joint-employment as head of a coaltion of free-market advocacy groups. A coalition…
The Washington Post
Gorsuch could deal government unions a mortal blow
The Washington Post cited the Competitive Enterprise Institute on the AFSCME’s use of compulsory agency fees to fund political advocacy on a slew of partisan…
Chicago Tribune
Commentary: Gorsuch could strike a mortal blow to unions
The Chicago Tribune has cited the Competitive Enterprise Institute for its role in bringing to light the breadth of influence the American Federation of State, County and…
Blog
Federal Employee Unions Hamstring Government Reorganization Efforts
President Trump has said that “billions and billions of dollars are being wasted on activities that are not delivering results for hardworking American taxpayers.” The inspection…
Tribune-Review
Forced Union Fees: Fairness Where It’s Due
Tribune quoted CEI on the point in which union fees used to fund national conventions is an inherently political activity. In what portends…
Watchdog
Labor Analyst: Members-Only Unions Would Be Answer in World Without Forced Dues
Watchdog covers the release of CEI’s latest publication, “Supreme Court Can Strike a Victory for Worker Freedom in Janus Case.” A free-market public…
Reason
The Supreme Court’s Big Public Sector Union Case Is Really About Free Speech
Reason covers Janus v. AFSCME. Mark Janus did not vote to join a union, and he does not support the union that he was forced…
InsideSources
How Member-Only Unions Could Solve the Free-Rider Problem
InsideSources covers the release of CEI’s latest report “Supreme Court Can Strike a Victory for Worker Freedom in Janus Case.” The U.S. Supreme…
Blog
Stop Forcing Unions on Workers
Workers should have the right to speak for themselves at their workplace and decide how to spend their hard earned wages.
Blog
Prohibit Union Official Time during Potential Government Shutdown
Under OPM policy, exempt federal employees who work during a shutdown “serving as union officials may continue to be granted official time to the same…
Blog
New Evidence on the Effects of Teacher Unions
At a time when minimum wage laws are causing opportunities for unskilled young people to disappear, it is all the more vital that education provides…
InsideSources
The Merciless Death of Obama’s Workforce Legacy
InsideSources discusses changes to labor policy with Trey Kovacs. Former President Barack Obama oversaw significant changes to employment policies during his time in office,…
Blog
Top 5 Changes in Labor Policy to Look for in 2018
In 2018, expect a hard push by Congress to cement the traditional joint employer standard into law.
Watchdog News
More Briefs Filed with SCOTUS in Forced Union Dues Case
Watchdog News covers CEI’s amicus brief in Janus v. AFSCME. Three more briefs were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this week in support…
Politico
CEI to File Janus Brief
Politico’s Morning Shift covers CEI’s amicus brief in Janus v. AFSCME. The Competitive Enterprise Institute will file an amicus brief this morning in …
InsideSources
A Case for Banning Forced Union Dues
InsideSources covers CEI’s amicus brief in Janus v. AFSCME. The U.S. Supreme Court should outlaw forced union dues in the public-sector when it hears…
Blog
Forced Union Dues Fund Labor Union Politics
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) submitted a brief in Janus v AFSCME, Council 31, a case before the United States Supreme Court. The question at…
Blog
Brief Filed to Supreme Court in Forced Union Dues Case
No worker should be forced to fund an organization they do not wish to support.
Townhall
Democrats’ ‘A Better Deal’ Revised to Help Unions Wield More Power
Democratic leadership made one huge gaffe when they released “A Better Deal,” a new economic plan aimed at building a strong economy. They forgot to…
Blog
How Government Unions Plan to Keep Members and Dues Flowing After Janus
Government unions are preparing for a world where they can no longer force non-members to pay dues in the public sector. That is because a…
Blog
Time to Eliminate Hidden Taxpayer Support of Union Activities
Tax dollars should exclusively support the public’s business. But a Mackinac Center for Public Policy open records request show this is not the case in…
The Washington Post
Gorsuch Could Strike a Mortal Blow to Unions
The Washington Post covers Janus v. AFSCME and CEI’s brief in the case. Last week, the Supreme Court announced that it would…
Blog
Executive Order Disbands National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations
President Trump has signed an executive order disbanding the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations.
National Review Online
The Supreme Court Will Probably Strike a Huge Blow to Public-Sector Unions
National Review Online covers Janus v. AFSCME and CEI’s brief in the case. The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear the case…
InsideSources
Supreme Court Accepts Case to End Forced Union Dues
InsideSources covers Janus v. AFSCME and a statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear it by Trey Kovacs. The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to…
Blog
Will Government Union Gravy Train Come to an End?
No worker should be forced to financially support an organization against his or her will. For too long, government employee unions have possessed the power…
Washington Examiner
Labor Day: Give Workers, Not Labor Unions, More Rights
With Labor Day around the corner, it’s an appropriate time to examine federal labor policy in relation to worker rights. Upon examination, it becomes clear…
Reason
Report: Florida Unions Milk Taxpayers for Millions Through ‘Release Time’
Reason covers a new report co-authored by Trey Kovacs on public uninon release time in Florida. Taxpayers in Miami have spent more than…
Blog
Subsidy Forces Florida Taxpayers to Pay for Union Work
Most hardworking Americans would be shocked to learn that public employees at all levels of government—federal, state, and local—conduct union business that is totally unrelated…
Blog
Congress Expands Investigation into Inappropriate Federal Employee Political Activity
U.S. Postal Service employees and union engaged in a “systematic violation” of the Hatch Act, a law placing limits on political activity performed by federal…
InsideSources
Worker Choice — Pay Dues, or Not
Forcing workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment may soon become a policy of the past, at least for government employees. As…
Blog
Senate Committee Advances Union Subsidy Transparency Bill
The Senate took a great step forward today to bringing transparency to the wasteful practice of official time. Now it is time to finish the…
Reuters
Conservative Group Backs Supreme Court Challenge to Forced Union Dues
Reuters covers CEI’s amicus brief filing in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 regarding forced union dues. A business-backed think tank has urged the U.S.
Blog
New Bill Requires VA Employees to Serve Veterans Instead of Union
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has introduced legislation to ensure federal employees working at the Department of Veterans Affairs serve veterans instead of performing union business.
Blog
Can Federal-Employee Unions Continue Automatic Dues Deductions from Retirees?
Siphoning off dues, at the taxpayers’ expense, from federal employee retirees’ benefits is absurd.
Blog
Janus v. AFSCME Could End Forced Union Dues in Public-Sector
Today, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and the Liberty Justice Center asked the United States Supreme Court to hear a case…
Inside Sources
House Republicans Target Taxpayer Funded Union Work
Inside Sources discusses the “Official Time” bill with Trey Kovacs. House Republicans passed a bill Wednesday aimed at providing further oversight into a…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Urging Missouri Governor to Champion Public Sector Union Reform
View Full Document as PDF Dear Governor Greitens, In your first month in office, Missouri joined a growing majority of states to…
Blog
Senate Moves to Confirm Acosta as Labor Secretary
There is much work to do at the Department of Labor. The Obama administration’s DOL spent eight years imposing huge costs on the economy and…
Blog
Labor and Employment in Trump’s First 100 Days
The White House should fill key personnel positions at labor agencies so that they can get to work on repealing numerous roadblocks erected by the…
Blog
Stop Paying Federal Employees to Perform Union Business
There are an estimated 1,000 federal employees who spend 100 percent of their work hours on labor union business instead of actual government work.
Blog
Time to End Official Time
The Official Time Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 1364) would prohibit federal employees from conducting political activity on union official time. Union official time…
Blog
Columnist Misrepresents Civil Service Reforms
In a recent column, The Washington Post’s Joe Davidson presents a gravely distorted view of Republican civil service reform efforts, which seek to save…
Blog
New Report: Federal Employee Union Subsidy Costs $162 million
Last Friday afternoon, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released its biennial report, “Official Time Usage in the Federal Government—Fiscal Year 2014.” The survey…
Blog
Mr. Acosta Goes to Washington
Mr. Acosta came off as smart, accomplished, and an individual who will enforce the laws on the books, not pursue a political agenda.
Blog
Veterans Affairs Employees Spent 1.1 Million Hours on Union Activities
Department of Veterans Affairs employees spend over 1 million hours per year performing union activities instead of fulfilling the mission of the agency.
Blog
Pence Shows Interest in Scott Walker-Style Collective Bargaining Reform
Recent conversations between Vice President Pence and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signal interest in collective bargaining reform for federal employees.
Blog
Union Membership Hits Rock Bottom
Union membership is on the decline, in part, because many labor unions have become reliant on government to ease union organizing rather than providing value…
Blog
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…
Blog
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.
Blog
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)…
Blog
5 Scariest Halloween Regulations
Regulatory dark matter is a Washington boogeyman. In 2015, there were 39 regulations for every one law passed by Congress. That’s a lot of rules…
Blog
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…
Blog
Unfunded Public Pension Obligations Grow to $5.6 Trillion
State public pension plans are underfunded by nearly $5.6 trillion nationwide, according to a new American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) study.
Blog
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?…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
National Right to Work Committee Wrong on Air Traffic Control Reform
The handful of conservative critics of air traffic control reform get the facts all wrong.
Blog
Bringing Transparency to Union Subsidies
Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) and Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) have co-sponsored legislation this session to ensure reporting of federal employees using “official time,” the practice…
Blog
Federal Unions’ “Official” Waste of Tax Dollars
While unions representing government employees are still private entities, it is shocking just how much tax dollars they receive for performing union business that does…
Blog
Air Traffic Control Reform Opponents Still Miss the Big Picture, Repeat Errors
Air traffic control is in dire need of reform and modernization, and there is a great plan in the House FAA bill to do just…
Blog
Conservatives for Big Government: Air Traffic Control Reform Opponents Have Lost Their Minds or Principles
UPDATE: Diana Furchtgott-Roth has responded. I offer my reply. Right now in Congress, there is a proposal to end a government monopoly, replace…
Blog
California Court’s Indefensible Defense of Dysfunctional Education Policies
A California appeals court yesterday restored a series of education policies that harm students by making ineffective teachers extremely difficult to fire. The court…
American Legislative Exchange Council
What Can be Done after Friedrichs?
Public sector workers in over 20 states must continue paying union dues, like it or not, after the Supreme Court deadlocked in Friedrichs v California…
Blog
Wisconsin Judge Rules that Workers’ Wages are Unions’ Property
On Friday, April 8, a Wisconsin judge handed unions a surprising victory—surprising because of the argument behind his decision.
Blog
Air Traffic Control Reforms Will Give Us Modern Technology, Not Union Giveaways
Guest Post by David Grizzle Former Chief Operating Officer and Chief Counsel, FAA As the former chief operating officer and chief counsel at the…
Blog
Illinois Pension Reform that Can Pass State Supreme Court Muster
When you’re in a hole, stop digging. That seems like such a simple concept that it shouldn’t need stating, but in the area of public…
Blog
State Legislatures Can Dampen Friedrichs Ruling’s Blow to Worker Freedom
Today, the Supreme Court announced a 4 to 4 spilt decision in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a decision that keeps alive the Abood…
New York Times
Victory for Unions as Supreme Court, Scalia Gone, Ties 4-4
New York Times discusses the Supreme Court deadlock over the Friedrichs case with Trey Kovacs. “With a divided court, thousands of public servants…
Christian Science Monitor
Court without Scalia: Labor unions survive bid to remove dues requirement
The Christian Science Monitor discusses with Iain Murray the impact of Justice Scalia's passing on the Supreme Court decision on a labor union case. …
Daily Caller
China Stops Building Wind Turbines Because Most Of The Energy Is Wasted
The Daily Caller reports on why China is no longer building wind turbines, and speaks with Myron Ebell on their decision. “China is…
Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court’s deadlock on union fees could be the first of many tie votes
The Los Angeles Times quotes Trey Kovacs on the Supreme Court deadlock over the Friedrichs case. “With a divided court, thousands of public…
Blog
Illinois’ Narrow Road to Pension Reform
On March 24, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a Chicago pension reform bill that sought to address the city’s considerable pension shortfall. In…
Blog
The Public Pays for Union Political Activity
Taxpayer dollars in state and municipal governments across the country are, normally without public knowledge, used to subsidize government union political undertakings. Clearly, this is…
Republican American
Union business
Republican American reports on Connecticut state employees taking union time funded by taxpayers, and cites Trey Kovacs's report for the Yankee Institute. The Yankee report was prepared…
Blog
House Oversight Committee Demands Agencies Reveal Union Subsidy Data
On February 12, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent out letters to federal agency heads to provide more information on union “official…
Blog
Labor Policy Developments to Watch in the New Year
Labor policy reform was a fast-moving issue during in the past year. At the federal level, labor policy became more tilted in favor of union…
Blog
Union Subsidy Eliminates So-Called “Free Rider” Problem
On January 11, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that could provide right to work…
Blog
Will SCOTUS Friedrichs Case Lead to Member-Only Unions?
Government employee unions have a lot at stake in Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association—especially access to millions of dollars in compulsory “agency…
Blog
In Friedrichs v. CTA, Supreme Court Can Strike a Blow for Free Speech
Oral arguments in one of the most important Supreme Court labor cases in years are set for January 11, with potential major implications in the…
Cato Journal: Fall 2015 Vol. 35 No. 3
Government Against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences
Full Document Available in PDF This article was originally published in the Fall 2015 Edition of the Cato Institute’s Cato Journal.
The Daily Caller
How Unions are Being Given Free Rein to Use Public Employees
The Daily Caller cites Trey Kovac's report on how much public sector unions cost the federal government and tax payers. In general the…
Blog
Workers Deserve Labor Law Reform
Unions use Labor Day as an occasion to remind workers of their past good deeds and deploy their usual rhetoric claiming to have workers’ best…
Blog
Democrats vs. Government Unions
If late House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s famous saying that all politics is local has a corollary, it may be that politics is at its most…
Roll Call
Friday Q & A: Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Part 1, Part 2 Analyst Marc Scribner at the Competitive Enterprise Institute examines transportation policy from a staunchly pro-market standpoint. Here are excerpts…
Blog
CalPERS: It Came from Sacramento
“Heads I win; tails you lose.” That essentially sums up the relationship the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) has long enjoyed vis-à-vis the Golden…
Blog
Moody’s $2 Trillion Public Pension Shortfall Estimate Highlights Need for Better Pension Accounting Practices
In a new report, Moody’s estimates the nation’s largest pension funds face a $2 trillion taken together. That’s a lot of money. But as significant…
Blog
Study Proves Economic Harm of Collective Bargaining
A new CEI study by economist Lowell Galloway and public policy expert Jonathan Robe demonstrates the harmful economic effects of unionization on a state-by-state basis. Among the…
Blog
Obama Claim Spurious; Labor Unions Furious; New Ranking Curious
Coauthored with Alex Bolt. President Barack Obama spuriously claimed, "These so-called right-to-work [RTW] laws, they don't have anything to do with economics," when he futilely…
Blog
Did Former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Violate the Hatch Act?
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, it appears that former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis may have violated the Hatch Act—which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political…
Study
An Interstate Analysis of Right to Work Laws
There is compelling evidence suggesting a substantial, significant, and positive relationship between economic growth in a state and the presence of a right to work laws. This paper…
Huffington Post
Women Victorious In U.S. Supreme Court’s Harris V. Quinn
This post was coauthored with Julie Gunlock, Senior Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum. Women just scored a significant victory in the U.S. Supreme Court. In…
News Release
State Pension Shortfalls Ranked in New Report
WASHINGTON, July 9 – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released the first installment in CEI’s new three-part series, The High Cost of Big Labor, that…
Blog
Harris v. Quinn Gives Home Care Workers Renewed Opportunity to Get Back Compulsory Dues
When you can’t win, change the players. That was essentially the strategy pursued by government employee unions in recent years. This week, it came to…
Blog
Is Harris v. Quinn Decision Preview of Abood Challenge?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Harris v. Quinn puts a brake on an ongoing effort by organize labor to expand the definition of “public employee”…
Blog
Harris v. Quinn: A Human Interest Angle
The Harris v. Quinn decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court is a major human interest story. Congratulations to Pam Harris and her son, Josh, and family…
CNN
Supreme Court narrowly limits reach of labor unions
The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, however, celebrated the ruling as a major victory. "This decision delivers a major blow to the coercive powers…
News Release
Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment
Contact: Christine Hall, 202-331-2258 CEI Experts Say Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment Comments on…