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
Blog
Pardon me boys, is this the Special Interest Express?
The Washington Post published a smart editorial on Monday on why the proposed Railway Safety Act is a bad idea. The legislation is…
News Release
21st Century Worker Act Aims to End Worker Classification Confusion
Today, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the 21st Century Worker Act, a much needed practical step to clear up persistent confusion surrounding worker classification under…
News Release
92,000 jobs were lost in February, turbulent labor market continues: CEI analysis
The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report shows 92,000 jobs were lost in February, indicating a turbulent labor market. Given today’s report, attention will…
Search Posts
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…
Citation
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.
Op-Eds
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…
Citation
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…
Blog
TSA Trifecta
First, a TSA manager at Dulles airport has been arrested for running a prostitution ring. Second, two Miami TSA employees were arrested for trashing a…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 29, 2012: The History of American Immigration in Six Minutes
Immigration Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh talks about the reasons behind the major historical shifts, and suggests reforms that would make today's immigration system fairer and…
American Enterprise Institute
Will Congress Stop NLRB?
Imagine an election in which one candidate may campaign for a year while the other is only allowed to enter the race a week before…
American Enterprise Institute
Will Congress Stop NLRB?
Imagine an election in which one candidate may campaign for a year while the other is only allowed to enter the race a week before…
American Enterprise Institute
The Founders’ Immigration Policy
Today is the anniversary of the passage of America’s first immigration and naturalization law, the Naturalization Act of 1790. Passed in the first Congress, it…
Forbes
Ma Bell’s Long Legacy of Unsustainable Pensions Is Alive and Well
“Communism,” comedian Lenny Bruce once quipped, “is like one big phone company.” This dated joke refers to the monolithic phone company known as “Ma Bell,”…
Blog
Rhode Island Pension Reform Shows Boldness Pays
Across the nation, large and growing budget deficits have forced politicians from across the political spectrum, including some Democrats, to seek to bring public employee…
Blog
Department of Labor Companionship Rule Doesn’t Comply with Best Practices
Openmarket.org Last Wednesday, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein sent a memo to executive agency heads concerning the cumulative effects of regulation…
Blog
The $400 Pizza
The reason it cost $400 was not because of restaurant business practices but because of television labor practices.
Blog
Department of Labor Companionship Rule Doesn’t Comply with Best Practices
Last Wednesday, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein sent a memo to executive agency heads concerning the cumulative effects of…
News Release
Obama Admits Postponing Policy Solutions Until After Election
Washington, D.C., March 26, 2012 – Oops. President Obama was caught Monday on a live microphone asking outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for more…
Forbes
Civil Rights or Dues: The Truth Behind the UAW Protests of H.B. 56
This month, the United Auto Workers (UAW) bussed out-of-state activists into Alabama to protest what they describe as several car companies’ insufficiently strong opposition to…
Blog
Some Good News on Pensions, for a Change
Over the last four years, state governments across the nation have been trying to bring their labor costs under control, especially pensions, which are now…
Blog
National Debt Skyrockets Under Obama, Far Faster Than Under Bush
CBS News finally reports the obvious: the national debt increased more in President Obama’s first three years in office than in the entire eight years of…
Forbes
NLRB Touts Union Election Record
From Michael P. Tremoglie’s article on LegalNewsLine: Vincent Vernuccio is the Labor Policy Counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He found the NLRB’s…
Blog
AFSCME leadership fight will shape public employee union future
Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow Matthew Patterson Featured in The Washington Examiner Unions are salivating at the opportunity to take down their arch-nemesis, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott…
Forbes
AFSCME Leadership Fight Will Shape Public Employee Union
Unions are salivating at the opportunity to take down their arch-nemesis, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker. Last year, Walker curtailed the collective bargaining power of Wisconsin’s…
Blog
Bill Clinton’s Economic Nationalism
Over at RealClearPolicy, I recently reviewed Bill Clinton’s latest book, Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy. You can…
Blog
House Should Reject Senate Highway Bill, Move for Another SAFETEA-LU Extension
Just before 1pm today, the Senate passed its surface transportation reauthorization bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21, S. 1813). MAP-21…
Blog
Student Loans: America’s Next Debt Bomb
I understated things earlier when I wrote that the student loan bubble “may” explode in taxpayers’ faces, as law professor Glenn Reynolds pointed…
Forbes
Immigration Restrictions Incentivize Corruption
The allegations surrounding Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu and his attorney Chris DeRose are what tabloid writers dream of. It’s got it all: a…
Blog
If PBGC Cannot Go On Taking Over Pensions, It Will Stop
Herbert Stein’s law — “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop” — is being proven right once again. This time, what cannot go…
Washington Times
Raising the Tipped Minimum Wage Does More Harm Than Good
Politicians and interest groups playing the gender card to push their agendas is nothing new. But recently, it seems to be getting harder, as they…
Washington Times
Economic Rebound in Doubt as 10 Percent of All US Workers Employed Just ‘Part-Time’
From Gene J. Koprowski’s article in The Daily Caller: “The ‘recovery’ is weak and may sputter,” Hans Bader, a scholar and economics expert…
Blog
Higher Education Bubble May Explode in Taxpayers’ Faces
"61 percent of folks with a student loan are not paying," notes Andrew Gillen, Ph.D., of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Many…
Blog
Structural Factors of the Municipal Pension Crisis
Public employee pensions are sinking local governments. Over the last four years, they have even pushed some municipalities into bankruptcy -- from Vallejo, California, to Central…
Blog
Ma Bell Is Long Gone, but Her Pension Costs Remain
AT&T is asking the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents a large segment of its workforce, for benefit concessions, as it tries to rein…
Blog
Senate Should Reject Anti-Tolling Highway Bill Amendment
I previously wrote about Sen. Herb Kohl’s (D-Wisc.) terrible amendment to the Senate’s MAP-21 bill that would allow the Department of Justice and Federal…
Washington Times
Is Your Company Ready to Meet its New Disability Hiring Quota?
Has the economy got you worried about reelection? Looking for clever ways to showcase your bona fides as a promoter of “fairness,” champion of the…
Blog
European Union Pushes Discriminatory Gender Quotas for Corporate Boards
The European Union (EU) could not keep member states like Greece from cheating on EU budget rules, resulting in Greece's fiscal collapse and the current…
Blog
Pension Funds are For-Profit
Openmarket.org California’s Constitution clearly states the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS) singular motive is to make profits. I point this out in “Mixing Pensions…
Blog
Pension Funds are For-Profit
California’s Constitution clearly states the California Public Employees' Retirement System's (CalPERS) singular motive is to make profits. I point this out in “Mixing Pensions with…
Blog
Trey Kovacs: Mixing pensions with politics
Labor Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs Featured in The Orange County Register Who here is better to run a business? In 2011, Apple recorded a net…
Blog
Obama Administration Seeks Quotas Based on Disability, Race, and Perhaps Sexual Orientation
The Obama administration is pushing quotas in the workplace and higher education, seeking to force businesses that have federal contracts to hire at least…
Washington Times
Liberals Need to Choose: Welfare State or Immigration
Overcoming the costs of the welfare state is the biggest challenge faced by proponents of immigration reform. The perception that immigrants use and abuse the…
Washington Times
The Autoworkers Obama Left Behind
From Michelle Malkin’s column: Thanks to a separate Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we already know that…
Washington Times
Mixing Pensions With Politics
Who here is better to run a business? In 2011, Apple recorded a net profit of $6.62 billion and its highest September earnings ever. The…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 1, 2012: A Highway Bill Everyone Can Hate
Land-Use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner explains why almost nobody is happy with how this year's highway bill is turning out.
Blog
UAW: Building taxpayer burdens
By Trey Kovacs and F. Vincent Vernuccio, The Washington Times President Obama and United Auto Workers(UAW) President Bob King are touting the “achievement” of the auto…
Capital Research
The Battle for New England
Full Document Available in PDF New England is generally considered among the most leftleaning regions of the country. This perception is largely…
Capital Research
Letter to the Editor: What Is the Place of Unions Today?
Richard D. Kahlenberg and Moshe Z. Marvit argue that unionization should be legally recognized as a civil right. They are correct that freedom of association…
Capital Research
UAW: Building Taxpayer Burdens
President Obama and United AutPresident Obama and United Auto Workers (UAW) President Bob King are touting the “achievement” of the auto bailouts while slamming Republicans…
Blog
Think of the Children
Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, has alleged that Rahm Emanuel privately told her that “25 percent of the students in this…
Blog
Airline Carbon Taxes: The EU vs. the World
On Tuesday and Wednesday, representatives from 23 nations gathered in Moscow to discuss their response to the European Union’s mandatory airline carbon taxes. CEI’s Fran…
Blog
Workers Deserve the Right to Remain Silent
Openmarket.org The California Legislature is considering a “Public Employee Bill of Rights” that (among other things) would restrict the state’s ability to hire outside contractors…
Blog
Workers Deserve the Right to Remain Silent
The California Legislature is considering a “Public Employee Bill of Rights” that (among other things) would restrict the state’s ability to hire outside contractors and…
Forbes
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Real Crisis
On February 1, American Airlines—which declared bankruptcy last November—announced plans to end defined benefit pensions as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring plan. If approved…
Forbes
An Unintended Consequence
From George Leef’s post on the National Review Online: Thanks to the college-for-everyone mania, we have a shortage of workers capable for doing…
Blog
Severe Shortage of Skilled Factory Workers As Government Encourages Students to Pursue White-Collar Jobs
The government has encouraged people who once would have become skilled and valuable factory workers to instead go to college and work in white-collar jobs, contributing…
Blog
Government-Funded Job Training “Might Not Work”: Washington Post
Even a liberal Washington Post writer admits that taxpayer-subsidized job training “might not work,” despite its popularity with politicians, and President Obama’s desire to spend billions more…
Blog
Is the Obama Administration Trying to Expand Federal Collective Bargaining?
An Obama-created board within the federal Office of Personnel Management's recently approved "an outline of a report due to President Obama in May on personnel issues…
Blog
Connecticut Government Focuses on Non-Union Worker Collective Bargaining “Options”
Yesterday, the next step toward Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy completing his scheme to force unionize personal care attendants took place. CTNewsJunkie.com reported: The four-member…
Staff & Scholars
Sean Higgins
Research Fellow
- Deregulation
- Labor and Employment
Ryan Young
Senior Economist and Director of Publications
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Ivan Osorio
Editorial Director
- Labor and Employment
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International