Whether it is exposing legislation and regulations that benefit unions, lawyers or management at the expense of workers, detailing the folly of occupational licensing laws; supporting the expansion of state right-to-work laws; or highlighting the overreach of lawmakers, bureaucrats, and courts; CEI advances reforms in this crucial, often overlooked policy area. Our op-eds, policy papers, media appearances, coalition work, and innovative research serve as crucial counterweights to the aggressive efforts by unions and their allies to frame the policy debate.
Labor and Employment Issue Areas
Featured Posts
News Release
April adds 177,000 jobs to economy, tariff policies yet to majorly shakeup labor market: CEI analysis
The job numbers for April show 177,000 jobs were added to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying steady at 4.2 percent. While job growth…
Blog
CEI suggests DOT put the brakes on train two-person crew rule
The Transportation Department recently asked the public for comments on how to reduce the regulatory burden. One thought that the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)…
News Release
Escalating trade war with China won’t fix the need for reform: CEI analysis
On Monday, China vowed to retaliate against nations that corporate with President Trump’s tariffs against Beijing, putting potential trade deals between the US and other…
Search Posts
Blog
Union Bosses Care More about Collective Bargaining than Students
Openmarket.org In Massachusetts and Louisiana, union bosses’ recent actions indicate collective bargaining privileges and lavish contracts are their number one priority. First in Massachusetts,…
Blog
Union Bosses Care More about Collective Bargaining than Students
In Massachusetts and Louisiana, union bosses' recent actions indicate collective bargaining privileges and lavish contracts are their number one priority. First in Massachusetts, the AFL-CIO…
Op-Eds
Are Immigration Laws Like Jim Crow?
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley was forced to defend his state’s harsh immigration law recently against charges that it amounts to a return to segregation-era racially…
Blog
In New York, a Private/Public Sector Union Rift
The fact that government employee unions have been at the center of budget debates across the nation underscores their outsize influence on state and local…
Blog
Union Leaders, Not Members, Determine Union Political Donations
Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum dismisses the fact that 38 percent of Wisconsin union households voted to retain Governor Scott Walker as “exactly the…
Blog
Taxpayers Win as Dulles Rail Drops Pro-Union Contracting Rules
In a win for Old Dominion taxpayers, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) yesterday rescinded a pro-union project labor agreement (PLA) for the building of the Metro…
Blog
After Wisconsin, whither Government Unions ?
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s victory in a recall election at which organized labor threw everything but the kitchen sink will likely encourage lawmakers in other…
Blog
In Confronting Unions, Walker Further than Reagan
When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker first put forward his public sector labor reform, organized labor and its allies tried to portray the legislation -- especially…
Daily Mail
Scott Walker’s Victory is a Victory for Worker Freedom
You wouldn’t know it from the recall election campaign itself, but yesterday’s failed attempt to unseat reforming Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was all about…
News Release
Wisconsin Recall FAIL: This is What Democracy Looks Like
Washington, D.C., June 6, 2012 – As a result of the failure of labor union forces to recall the Wisconsin governor yesterday, taxpayers were the…
Blog
Wisconsin Recall: A High Stakes Battle
The past 15 months in Wisconsin have been tumultuous to say the least. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is facing a recall after labor unions…
Blog
Unemployment Rises, Debunking Obama Stimulus Claims
“The joblessness rate jumped to 8.2 percent. What makes that number particularly painful is that the Obama Administration claimed that the unemployment rate today would…
Blog
Maryland Gov. O’Malley Grants Big Labor Protections from Disclosure
Openmarket.org In Maryland, labor unions join the protected ranks of doctors and lawyers with respect to confidentiality privileges. In early May, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley…
Blog
Maryland Gov. O’Malley Grants Big Labor Protections from Disclosure
In Maryland, labor unions join the protected ranks of doctors and lawyers with respect to confidentiality privileges. In early May, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed…
Washington Post
Unions and the Obama administration, ‘First Principles’ to Prosperity and More
From The Washington Post's ThinkTanked: Competitive Enterprise Institute’s F. Vincent Vernuccio and Trey Kovacs: Big union’s unethical influence in government. (Washington Times)…
Social Science Research Network
Two Questions for Law Schools About the Future Boundaries of the Legal Profession
From Elizabth Chambliss' NYLS Legal Studies Research Paper: A better strategy is to focus on lowering the cost of the unified J.D. degree,…
Blog
PATTERSON: June can’t come soon enough
The Washington Times June is shaping up to be a pivotal month for American liberty. On one front, the Supreme Court is expected in June…
Washington Times
Big Union’s Unethical Influence in Government
In one of the most glaring examples of Washington's sordid revolving-door political culture, former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Craig Becker took a job…
Blog
Long Commutes Will Kill You? A Brief Response to Matt Yglesias’s Post
Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias, a center-left economics writer whose work I generally enjoy reading, has a new post up with the title, "Long Commutes…
Blog
Causes of Public Pension Underfunding Are Not Hard to Identify
As if on cue, nearly every time state and local government officials try to rein in public employee pension costs in order to bring their…
Washington Times
55,000 Green Cards for Foreign Tech Graduates
From Justin Harper’s article in The Telegraph: David Bier, policy analyst at the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, said: “The economy is ready to…
Blog
Paycheck Fairness Act Contains Unfair Provisions, Would Result in Equal Pay for Unequal Work
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act when the Senate returns from its week-long recess,” reports Susan…
Blog
When Schools Are Like Jails — Or Worse
A 17-year-old Texas honor student has been jailed for missing too much school. Diane Tran works both full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to taking…
Washington Times
Iowa Congressman Steve King Is Wrong On Immigration
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) thinks U.S. immigration policy should be like picking dogs. “You want a good bird dog, and you want one that’s gonna…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 24, 2012: Driverless Cars
A prototype driverless car made by Google recently made the rounds in Washington, DC, and Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner got to take…
Blog
MWAA: A Government-Authorized Fiefdom
Should Congress’s power extend to creating taxpayer-funded government entities that are free from state and federal laws concerning ethics, transparency, and disclosure? No, but it…
Blog
Techno-Phobic California Politicians “NHTSA” Google’s Driverless Car
Last week, I wrote about Google’s amazing new self-driving car, which CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman and I had the opportunity to test-ride in…
Blog
Congress Must End Taxpayers Vulnerability to Government Waste
Openmarket.org Fraud and abuse continue to be a barrier to effective government. According to the Cato Institute’s 2009 report, fraud or improper payments in government amount…
Blog
Congress Must End Taxpayers Vulnerability to Government Waste
Fraud and abuse continue to be a barrier to effective government. According to the Cato Institute’s 2009 report, fraud or improper payments in government…
Blog
Rep. Nick Rahall Responds, Agrees with Me on MAP-21’s “Sleight of Hand” Pay-Fors
This morning on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-W.V.) was read a passage from a blog post…
Blog
The Future of Automobility Is (Almost) Here: Google’s Self-Driving Car
[caption id="attachment_55209" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in the Google car. (Photo by Marc Scribner)"][/caption] This morning,…
Blog
Before Immigration Was Regulated: Pre-20th Century Migration
Early large-scale human migration is the story of dispersal, spreading out as resources were used up and populations expanded past sustainability. The Agricultural Revolution brought…
Washington Times
Why Is Team Obama Making it So Hard to Hire Highly-Skilled Foreign Workers?
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow more Ph.Ds, scientists, and other high-skilled workers trained at U.S. universities to remain in…
News Release
Corporate Campaigns: How Unions Take the Secret Ballot Away from American Workers
Washington, D.C., May 18, 2012 – Labor unions are resorting to imtimidation strategies called “corporate campaigns” to strong-arm companies into eliminating the secret ballot in…
Washington Times
NLRB’s Ambush Rule Overturned For the Moment
From Bob Adelman’s article at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Nation: According to labor policy specialist Vincent Vernuccio at the Competitive…
News Release
New Smartphone App Gives Labor Union Info in Real Time
Washington, D.C., May 7, 2012 – CEI and Workplacechoice.org have launched a new smartphone application that gives citizen activists real-time information on labor union…
Blog
Court Slaps NLRB — Again
In yet another victory for workers and job creators, a federal district court has struck down the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) ambush election rule.
Washington Times
The Flawed Case Against Immigration
We all know the buzzwords–no amnesty, no unfunded mandates, no immigrant welfare. Opponents of sensible immigration policy repeat these lines so often you’d think that…
Blog
Labor and Occupy: Comrades in Arms
CEI Brookes Warren Fellow Matt Patterson Featured in Openmarket.org The Washington Examiner is reporting that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping Occupy…
Blog
The Highway Bill and Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s Anti-P3 Propaganda
I've written extensively about federal surface transportation reauthorization, which is currently pending in conference. CEI, along with The Independent Institute and Reason Foundation,…
Blog
Austerity Is Mythical, But It Would Have Real Benefits
Left-leaning commentators are wrong to decry “austerity” in Europe, since, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch notes, such “austerity” is largely mythical: European nations have not…
Blog
PATTERSON AND KOVACS: Labor bosses demand their dues
CEI Policy analyst Trey Kovacs and CEI Warren Brooks Fellow Matt Patterson. Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/10/labor-bosses-demand-their-dues/ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 10, 2012: Freeing Our Farms
Current immigration policy keeps many immigrants in dangerous black markets, raises food prices for consumers, makes it difficult for farmers to hire workers and create…
Blog
Legacy Risks
European and American political and private institutions have made many non-sustainable retirement promises over the last 50 years. These promises cannot be kept and that…
Washington Times
Labor Bosses Demand Their Dues
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. – United States Constitution, 13th Amendment…
Blog
Labor and Occupy: Comrades in Arms
CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Matt Patterson Featured in Openmarket.org The Washington Examiner is reporting that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping Occupy DC become…
Blog
Labor and Occupy: Comrades in Arms
The Washington Examiner is reporting that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is helping Occupy DC become a “more permanent fixture” of the Washington, D.C., landscape…
Blog
H-2A Visas: Open in Theory, Closed in Practice
[caption id="attachment_54582" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="An Immigrant Worker in Idaho"][/caption] “Our immigration problem’s not going away.” That was the title of my article for…
Washington Times
Immigration Policy is an Economic Meltdown Trifecta
Three seemingly unrelated news stories have converged to create a disturbing picture. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently unleashed another wave of intimidation against…
Washington Times
Our Immigration Problem’s Not Going Away
The Pew Hispanic Center’s recent report on the decline of unauthorized immigration has elicited a flood of responses. The report’s finding that “the net…
Blog
Law Professors: I’m Shocked to Find Gambling In This Casino!
Just as a character in Casablanca claimed to be shocked to find gambling in a casino, race-conscious employers typically deny that they considered race…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 3, 2012: Paving the Way for Innovation and Job Creation
Unemployment remains stubbornly high, more than three years after the financial crisis hit. John Berlau, CEI’s Senior Fellow for Finance and Access to Capital, suggests…
Blog
On May Day, Why Do We Still Have Unions?
Openmarket.org Big Labor and Occupy are using May Day protests in hopes of reinvigorating their movements. Unions are digging up the same old talking…
Blog
How Elites Milk Racial Preferences for Their Own Gain
One of the pitfalls of race-based affirmative action is that many disadvantaged people are less able to take advantage of it than the legal and…
Blog
On May Day, Why Do We Still Have Unions?
Big Labor and Occupy are using May Day protests in hopes of reinvigorating their movements. Unions are digging up the same…
Washington Times
Stakeholders Examine State Immigration Laws, Offer Solutions
From C-SPAN: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) brought together legislators, law enforcement officers and activists to discuss solutions to immigration problems.
Washington Times
Flight Attendant Unionists Tell Customer To Drop Dead
Nerves are fraying as attempts to restructure American Airlines into a viable, freestanding company through the bankruptcy process drag on. Last week in Forbes, I…
Washington Times
Union Sues Indiana, Says Right-to-Work Law is Slavery
From Michael P. Tremoglie’s article on LegalNewsline: F. Vincent Vernuccio, labor policy counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, addressed this issue for the…
Blog
Student Loans Drive Up Tuition, Create Demographic Time Bomb and Higher-Education Bubble
Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes in the New York Post about how student loan programs have contributed to skyrocketing debt and rising defaults:…
Capital Research
Corporate Campaigns
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka once called a corporate campaign the “death of a thousand cuts.” He was referring to a type of union organizing strategy…
Capital Research
State Lawmakers Only Have Eyes for SB 1070
From Laurie Roberts’ column in The Arizona Republic: On Tuesday,Landfried’s group is joining with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Texans for Sensible Immigration…
Blog
Diversity Training Doesn’t Work, But It Persists Anyway, Due to Compulsion
Diversity training doesn't work, according to an article in Psychology Today. In it, Peter Bregman notes, “Diversity training doesn't extinguish prejudice. It…
Capital Research
There’s Nothing Libertarian About Arizona’s Immigration Law
“As a civil libertarian … I don’t want a police state. I want a reason to do something.” That was Arizona S.B. 1070 author Russell…
Blog
The Awful Truth about the Highway Bills
If you ever needed additional proof that the politics of Washington are not just broken, but soaked with gasoline and set ablaze in a ditch…
American Enterprise Institute
More Than Good Enough for Government Work
The American is the official magazine of the American Enterprise Institute. State lawmakers face an uphill battle in trying to bring their governments’…
Blog
What the Washington Post Cited: “Severe Shortage of Skilled Factory Workers As Government Encourages Students to Pursue White Collar Jobs”
The Washington Post cited my blog post, “Severe Shortage of Skilled Factory Workers As Government Encourages Students to Pursue White-Collar Jobs,” in a…
Blog
SB 1070 Summary: Read Arizona’s Controversial Immigration Law!
Arizona’s controversial immigration law -- SB 1070 -- heads to the Supreme Court this week. One can only hope that the Justices do a…
Blog
Super Mario Hasn’t Saved Italy’s Entrepreneurs
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is full of optimism these days. He has claimed to achieve “historic” reform in Italy’s labor market and to beat…
American Enterprise Institute
US Airways And American Airlines Seek A Deadly Embrace
As the legacy airlines limp toward oblivion crippled by expensive labor contracts, efficiency-killing work rules, and massive unfunded pension liabilities, word comes that the pilots,…
News Release
CEI to Score Senate Vote on NLRB Ambush Election Rule
Washington, D.C., April 23, 2012 – This week, the Senate is expected to vote on S.J. Res 36, the Joint Resolution of Disapproval to…
American Enterprise Institute
Right to Work
Vincent Vernuccio on Right to Work…
American Enterprise Institute
Labor Union Sues Indiana, Calls Working Alongside Nonunion Employees ‘Slavery’
From David Martosko’s article in The Daily Caller: Competitive Enterprise Institute labor policy counsel Vincent Vernuccio told the Mackinac Center that “it’s insulting to the…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 19, 2012: Right to Work Laws and Compelled Speech
Indiana is becoming a right to work state, which means unions will no longer be able to force workers who don't want their representation to…
American Enterprise Institute
Compulsory ‘Free’ Speech
What is free speech? Is it the right to speak out and give money to causes, politicians and push ideas? Is it the ability to…
Blog
What the Redskins Can Teach Loudoun County
Proponents of Phase II of Dulles Rail often appeal to the notion that having a metro station marks a community as significant. Metro seems to…
American Enterprise Institute
Union PACs
Vincent Vernuccio on Union PACs…
Blog
Department of Transportation Bureaucrats Fail Tolling 101
Peter Samuel's extremely valuable TOLLROADSnews brings us this gem, "FHWA Office of Highway Policy Information - sloppy & stupid”: So under Toll Facilities, New…
Blog
Union Recalcitrance on Race Relations
Openmarket.org Recent events have exposed unions’ troglodytic views on race relations. Basically, unions seek to preserve the current racial makeup of their workforce, regardless of…
Blog
Union Recalcitrance on Race Relations
Recent events have exposed unions’ troglodytic views on race relations. Basically, unions seek to preserve the current racial makeup of their workforce, regardless of changes…
Blog
99% Spring: An Anatomy of Destruction
Openmarket.org The establishment left’s weeklong protest training, deemed the 99% Spring or Shareholder Spring, is an effort to train 100,000 activists in civil disobedience…
Blog
On the waterfront: Mob stench still fouls New York Harbor
CEI Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs and Research Associate Jack Mann Featured in New York Post As he tries to clean house at the bloated…
Blog
99% Spring: An Anatomy of Destruction
The establishment left’s weeklong protest training, deemed the 99% Spring or Shareholder Spring, is an effort to train 100,000 activists in civil disobedience to achieve…
Blog
Big Push for Costly “Comparable Worth” Legislation Coming? Lilly Ledbetter Returns to the Stage
Lilly Ledbetter, who made false claims about her pay discrimination lawsuit, has returned to the political arena, as you can see at…
American Enterprise Institute
On the Waterfront
As he tries to clean house at the bloated Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, new PA chief Pat Foye’s thorniest problem will…
American Enterprise Institute
Louisiana’s Taxpayer-Funded Public Employee Contracts Could be Opened to Public Scrutiny
From Kevin Mooney’s article in The Pelican Post: Even with the compromise, Vincent Vernuccio, a labor counsel with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI),…
American Enterprise Institute
The Occupy, MoveOn.org, SEIU, AFL-CIO, DNC Street Mobs Start Spring Training
Rejoice, those of you who believe that democracy is about making clear and honest choices. Clear steps toward transparency and accountability may have begun. All…
Blog
Grow Economy by Cutting Law School Subsidies
The economy remains slow, recovering from the recession at an unusually low rate, partly due to economically-harmful Obama administration policies. "U.S. stocks fell, dragging…
American Enterprise Institute
Removing H-1B Visa Quotas Will Create American Jobs
The U.S. government began accepting applications for H-1B high-skilled work visas this week. As the requests pour in, U.S. business leaders are already telling Congress…
American Enterprise Institute
Walker’s Reforms Stand Up in Court, On Balance Sheets
Asked recently if he was a “union buster,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker answered, “I know that collective bargaining is not a right; it’s an expensive…
Blog
Leon Panetta, Master Negotiator
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has admitted to racking up over $800,000 in government travel costs for weekend trips back to his home in California.
Blog
NLRB’s Union Ambush Election Rule
Center for Individual Freedom Trey Kovacs, policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, discusses the dangers of the National Labor Relations Board's attempt to impose…
American Enterprise Institute
Coalition Challenges Conn. Governor on Labor Issue
From Michael P. Tremoglie’s article in Legal Newsline: “It is just one more example of the (Service Employees International Union’s) campaign of stealth…
Blog
Multiemployer Pensions, the Tragedy of the Commons, and the “Last Man Standing” Rule
The “tragedy of the commons,” as described by the late ecologist Garrett Hardin, generally refers to the depletion of a finite resource caused by…
Blog
Economic “Recovery” Is Slow and Weak Due to Obama Administration Policies
Typically, after the economy suffers an unusually severe recession, it bounces back in an unusually rapid recovery -- what some economists and others refer to…
News Release
H-1B Visa Applications Start Today, But Reforms Desperately Needed
Washington, D.C., April 2, 2012 — Today the government will begin accepting applications for the H-1B visa, a highly coveted but overly regulated work visa…
American Enterprise Institute
Judge Rules in Case Over Wis. Collective Bargaining Law
From Michael P. Tremoglie’s article in Legal Newsline: According to Vincent Verduccio, the labor policy counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington,…
Blog
A Response to Cato’s Tim Lee on “Private” Turnpikes
Cato Institute adjunct scholar Tim Lee has an article up on The Atlantic‘s website, entitled “The Mirage of Free-Market Roads.” In it, he lays out his…
Blog
Throw Dulles Rail Under the Bus
Openmarket.org Last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the Fairfax Board of Supervisors granted the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors a 30-day extension…
Blog
Will Congress stop NLRB?
CEI Labor Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs and Research Associate Jack Mann Featured in The Washington Examiner Imagine an election in which one candidate may campaign…
Blog
Throw Dulles Rail Under the Bus
Last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the Fairfax Board of Supervisors granted the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors a 30-day extension to review…
