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
Court rejects New York bid to take over federal labor enforcement
An effort by the New York legislature to usurp the role of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency,…
Law & Liberty
America’s Hidden Judiciary
Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal regulatory agencies have their own court system for adjudicating disputes that businesses and citizens have with regulators. These agencies rely…
Blog
New York, California make a play for federal labor law enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency, currently lacks a quorum to act. Ordinarily, that type of federal…
Search Posts
Blog
UAW’s King Aims for Seat on the Board in Ford Negotiations
Openmarket.org United States manufacturing growth hits a two-year low. The stock market is fluctuating violently. Not to mention a steady rate of over 9 percent unemployment.
Blog
UAW’s King Aims for Seat on the Board in Ford Negotiations
United States manufacturing growth hits a two-year low. The stock market is fluctuating violently. Not to mention a steady rate of over 9…
Citation
Wisconsin Recall Goes Wrong Way for Labor
Blog
Canada’s PM praises trade pact with Colombia — a good act for President Obama to follow
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with his strong defense of Canada’s trade agreement with Colombia, provides a stark contrast with President Obama’s weak-kneed approach…
Blog
In Wisconsin Recall, Unions Run to Stay in Place
No matter what the outcome of today’s recall election, nothing substantive will change in Wisconsin. Even if organized labor were to sweep all six recall…
Blog
The “Obama Law” Devastates Impoverished People in the World’s Second Poorest Country, The Congo
People are going hungry, pulling their children out of school due to poverty, and joining criminal gangs to make ends meet in the poorest region…
Op-Eds
To Create Jobs, Streamline The Issuance Of Visas
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas recently outlined steps that would lower restrictions and regulations…
Blog
The ugly side of Big Labor
The Baltimore Sun On July 10, three Chicago-area Alderwoods funeral homes were viciously vandalized. All were Dignity Memorial network facilities that had also been targeted…
News Release
CEI Commends Rep. Issa’s Decision to Subpoena NLRB
Washington, D.C., August 8, 2011 — Today, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) subpoenaed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for all documentation regarding the board’s…
Op-Eds
Women in the Boardroom
SIR – From an American legal perspective, laws that mandate quotas for women on corporate boards in some European countries seem utterly bizarre (“The…
Products
Fred Smith Discusses Auto Worker Strike on CNN Crossfire
CNN CROSSFIRE, July 13, 1998 HEADLINE: Who Will Give in the Auto Workers Strike that Has Crippled GM? GUESTS: Michael Moore, Fred Smith BYLINE: Bill…
Blog
Hoover Didn’t Cut Spending, and Spending Cuts Didn’t Trigger the 1937 Roosevelt Recession
The false left-wing meme of the day is that the modest spending cuts in Sunday's debt limit deal are bad, because spending cuts caused the…
Op-Eds
The Tea Party and a Struggling Economy
Joe Nocera claims that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “cutting spending” in 1937 made the Depression worse. It was not budget cuts but costly liberal court…
Blog
USPS Bailout on the Horizon
Openmarket.org Before we even come close to paying off our current government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) or recoup taxpayer dollars from Federal bailouts (General…
Blog
Robert Reich Doesn’t Understand Surface Transportation Funding
Over at Salon, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a predictably empty article on the debt ceiling deal in which he denounces Republicans for…
Citation
Newly Exposed Labor Union Manual Advocates Using Intimidation Tactics
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on the Strike at World Trade Center
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the "work stoppage" at the construction site of the new world trade Center building in new York. Vincent…
Blog
License to Rent-Seek
Few regulations are more blatantly anti-competitive than occupational licensing.
Blog
Gender Quotas Spread in Europe, Mandated for Corporate Boards
After Norway adopted gender quotas for corporate boards -- requiring companies to have boards of directors comprised of at least 40 percent women -- large…
Blog
Legislative Band-Aids Won’t Fix the NLRA
Openmarket.org The House will vote on the Jobs Protection from Government Interference Act today. Sponsor Rep. Tim Scott and other representatives of Congress have proposed…
Blog
Legislative Band-Aids Won’t Fix the NLRA
The House will vote on the Jobs Protection from Government Interference Act today. Sponsor Rep. Tim Scott and other representatives of Congress have proposed numerous…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 28, 2011: Immigration Reform
President Obama made a speech on immigration reform this week. Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh dissects several bills already in Congress that would do just that,…
News Release
CEI to Score Vote on Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act
The House is expected to vote today on a bill that would rein in the overreach of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The…
Blog
Thousands of Jobs and Billions in Wealth Wiped Out by Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Provision
Thanks to the "conflict minerals" provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, thousands of the world's poorest people will lose their jobs. Why? Simply because they…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 187: Pedicabs
The DC City Council wants to require pedicab passengers to wear seatbelts.
Citation
AFSCME’s War on Workers & Taxpayers: A Look Inside The AFSCME Playbook
The American Spectator
Obama’s Favorite Union Heavies
Unions thrive on workplace conflict. The AFL-CIO, for example, sponsors a "Bad Boss Contest," which awards the employee who submits the best story…
Blog
Judge Rules against SEIU in Fight with another Union
A judge has ruled that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) improperly benefited from an employer threatening workers with loss of raises in a 2010 election in California…
Bloomberg
‘You’re Fired’ Doesn’t Mean Fired to Four of 10 Air Controllers
Blog
Un-Essential Air Service
Want to get to Vegas from Ely, Nevada? How about a $5,223 plane ticket? Don’t worry. Its price tag is only $149…
Blog
Steve Wynn: Obama is the “Greatest Wet Blanket to Business and Progress and Job Creation in My Lifetime”
Even Democratic businessmen are getting disenchanted with the Obama administration and its knee-jerk hostility to anything that creates jobs or wealth. Las Vegas mogul…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 21, 2011: Stopping the Music
Labor Policy Counsel Vinnie Vernuccio, who coauthored a recent op-ed in the New York Daily News, finds that labor unions, by resisting necessary changes and…
Blog
Wasteful Education Spending Continues Despite Laughable Claim that Spending has Been Cut to the Bone
As Heather MacDonald notes, California state universities still are wasting plenty of money despite dishonestly claiming to have cut spending "to the bone”:…
Bloomberg
No Union, Including SEIU, Should Be Above the Law
Bloomberg
Labor Unions Stop the Music
Mozart and Chopin have never had a nemesis like a union scorned. All around the nation, orchestras and symphonies are going silent, crushed by inflexible…
Bloomberg
SEIU’s Dirty Tactics Exposed
Blog
Federal Job Security
More workers die than get fired at many federal agencies.
Bloomberg
July 19 Roundup: Will Congress Reverse This Term’s Much-Attacked SCOTUS Decisions?
Comment
Russ Brown to Testify Before the NLRB
Full Document Available in PDF Russ Brown, Vice President at the Labor Relations Institute, will…
Bloomberg
Vincent Vernuccio Exposes SEIU Manual of Dirty Tricks
Vincent Vernuccio discusses new attempts by unions, specifically SEIU, to pressure and coerce employers and corporations as a way to get around dwindling numbers.
Bloomberg
Vincent Vernuccio on SEIU Organizing Tactics Manual
Vincent Vernuccio discusses new attempts by unions, specifically the SEIU, to pressure and coerce employers and corporations as a way to get around dwindling numbers.
Bloomberg
Labor’s New Strategy: Intimidation for Dummies
In the past decade, unions have become increasingly desperate to obtain new dues-paying members. An example of how desperate can be found in a 70-plus-page…
Blog
$130,000 in Stimulus Funds Spent for Book on “White Privilege” that Attacks Colorblindness
The Omaha Public Schools spent $130,000 in federal stimulus funds to buy a diversity manual for 8,000 teachers, administrators, support staffers -- even…
Blog
Massachusetts’ Collective Bargaining Law: A Worry for the Obama Administration?
It's not easy being a governor or state legislator these days. With states facing deep budget deficits, state lawmakers around the nation are working to…
Blog
Obama Makes Deficit-Reduction Deal Harder by Appearing to Plot to Use Tax Increases for Spending, Rather Than Debt Reduction
Publicly, President Obama has suggested a grand bargain to get America's staggering budget deficits under control, a deal in which Republicans would agree to…
Blog
Immelt Pleads for Tax Holiday to Enhance GE Rent-Seeking
Yesterday, arch rent-seeker Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric CEO and Obama’s job czar, headlined the “Campaign for Free Enterprise” job summit. In typical fashion, Immelt had…
Blog
Stimulus Dollars Funded Mexican Coffin Industry through “Operation Fast and Furious”
Not content with just using American tax dollars to subsidize foreign "green jobs" that replaced U.S. jobs, the Obama administration used stimulus dollars…
Blog
Unemployment Rises, Driven Up By Failed Government Policies
U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest number of workers in nine months . . . Non-farm…
One News Now
Unions ‘Have Nowhere Else To Go’
One News Now
Vincent Vernuccio Criticizes TSA Push for Unionization
Vincent Vernuccio again slams the TSA, this time for stealing from passengers and failing to do a better job of policing their own, while…
Blog
Mica and Duncan’s Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill Calls for 42% Cuts from SAFETEA-LU Levels
Today, House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Highway and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.) announced they would be introducing a $230-billion,…
Blog
New Video on the D.C. Taxicab Medallion Bill
Reason.tv has a new video up today, “D.C. Taxi Heist: How a new law would screw drivers and riders,” that explains why Washington’s proposed…
Blog
Public-Sector Unions in the Northeast are a Tough Group to Please
Openmarket.org The cozy relationship between liberal governors in Northeast states and Big Labor is becoming strained. Elected Democrats are realizing how strongly strings were attached…
Blog
Public-Sector Unions in the Northeast are a Tough Group to Please
The cozy relationship between liberal governors in Northeast states and Big Labor is becoming strained. Elected Democrats are realizing how strongly strings were attached to…
Blog
The National Labor Relations Act Turns 76
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) turns 76 today. This day should give pause to those who have been following the National Labor Relations…
Blog
Third Time’s the Charm: Ray LaHood Announces TIGER 3
Late last week, the Department of Transportation announced it was launching a third round of TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery -- I feel…
Blog
Liberal Judges: Equality Violates Equal Protection Clause; Taxpayers to Pay More Due to Ruling
Last week, a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which amended Michigan's constitution in 2006 to ban racial…
One News Now
Another Horselaugh for the Sixth Circuit
One News Now
Is the Stimulus Creating Jobs, or Killing Them?
Blog
Chicago Mayor Emanuel Gives Unions a Choice: Concessions or Layoffs
Leaders of government employee unions must be feeling lonely these days. Across the country, Democratic state and local elected officials — traditional union allies —…
Blog
Keeping the “Free” in Free Trade
Yesterday, Senate Republicans successfully blocked a Finance Committee meeting to consider free trade agreements (FTA) with Korea, Colombia, and Panama. The reason? President Obama…
Study
Labor Unions and the Democratic Party
Full Document Available in PDF Recently AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka compared…
Study
Financial Attack
Full Document Available in PDF Led by the radical Service Employees International Union (SEIU), left-wing unions and activist…
Letters
Coalition Letters Opposing E-Verify Mandate
CEI has signed coalition letters to both the Senate and the House of Representatives opposing H.R. 2164, which would mandate the use of the bureaucratic…
Blog
In Wisconsin, Smaller Class Sizes through Fiscal Restraint
Of the various hyperbolic leftist talking points against the recently enacted Wisconsin collective bargaining law, the “war on teachers” was easily the most shrill, dumb,…
Blog
Alabama’s Dangerous Crackdown on Undocumented Workers
You might’ve read about the unintended consequences of Georgia’s crackdown on undocumented workers. Well, the same thing is about to happen in Alabama.
Blog
Farm Workers Win in California
Late last night Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the California farm workers “card check” bill SB 104 for. The bill would have abolished workers right to…
Blog
Senate Judiciary Committee Pushes False Claim that Supreme Court is “Pro-Business”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is bashing the Supreme Court today as pro-business in a hearing that began at 10:30 a.m. Two of the…
Blog
Union Sign Shows Big Labor Distaste for Competition
UAW local 599 President Bill Jordan misses the forest for the trees, as is typical for union officials. A photo from the Carpe Diem…
Blog
Setting the Record Straight: Trade Creates Wealth
In his article “…
Blog
Food Stamp Nation
"Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no monthly income. Thirty-five states have abolished asset tests…
One News Now
Obama’s Non-Action On NLRB, Boeing ‘Very Telling’
Blog
Stealing You Blind: The Fate of Greece
Rioters have taken to the streets in the Greek capital of Athens. While not as unusual an occurrence as it is in Athens, Georgia,…
Blog
DOL Looks to Increase Fiduciary Standards without Following Procedure Standards
Openmarket.org The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a new rule to broaden the definition of fiduciary. Fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act…
Blog
DOL Looks to Increase Fiduciary Standards without Following Procedure Standards
The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a new rule to broaden the definition of fiduciary. Fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act…
One News Now
Louisiana Lawmaker’s Push for Transparency in Collective Bargaining Gains National Currency
One News Now
Lawyers have incentives to bring more lawsuits
Re: “Trial lawyers won’t give up on Wal-Mart lawsuits,” June 24 Diana Furchtgott-Roth notes that lawyers typically get a percentage of a worker’s winnings in…
News Release
Conservative, Libertarian Leaders Discuss Regulatory Burdens, Fiscal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory E-Verify Legislation
Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, June 30th, conservative and libertarian leaders will host a press conference call on controversial immigration enforcement legislation the House Judiciary…
One News Now
Ginsburg Gives Conflicting Statements on Class-Action Suit
Blog
Taxpayers vs. the Post Office Bureaucracy
When it comes down to outdated business model of the Post Office vs. taxpayers and postal workers, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sides with taxpayers and…
Blog
Rail Carriers, Shippers Battle Over Regulation Before the Surface Transportation Board
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I've been involved in an ongoing proceeding before the Surface Transportation Board, the independent Department of Transportation agency…
Blog
Georgia’s Immigration Folly
Who’d of thought it: cracking down on immigrant workers hurts the economy? Georgia’s learning the hard way as farms lose laborers and crops go…
Blog
A Definition of Unsustainable: The Long-Term Budget Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office has released its latest edition of the Long-Term Budget Outlook, and it makes for grim reading. Federal debt is currently…
Blog
What Unions Could Learn from AARP
Last week the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) announced a major policy shift regarding Social Security. Formerly seen as the largest opponent to…
Blog
Stealing You Blind: Plans for Future Theft
One of the themes of Stealing You Blind is how public sector unions have worked with politicians to organize an industrial-scale transfer of wealth…
Blog
More Proof That Unions Don’t Improve Schools
Schools in right-to-work states (where unions are weak) are getting better and better over time compared to schools in heavily-unionized states. As Walter Russell Mead…
Blog
Another Union Handout from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Today the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed a new regulation that would speed up the union election process from 45-60 days to about 10-21…
Blog
CEI Submits FOIA Requests to DOT Over California High-Speed Rail
This morning, the Department of Transportation should receive the two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests I submitted on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
One News Now
Republicans, Employers Cry Foul on New Labor Dept., NLRB Rules
Republicans and employers across the country are calling foul in what is seen as a double whammy from the Obama administration this week. The…
Blog
Supreme Court Overturns Certification of Class-Action Lawsuit Against Wal-Mart in Multi-Billion Dollar Lawsuit
Yahoo! News reports that "the Supreme Court has ruled for Wal-Mart in its fight to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of…
One News Now
Law, Fairness, and Wal-Mart v. Dukes
Blog
In Journalism, Scaremongering Pays — Or, Is Ethical Journalism an Oxymoron?
As legal commentator Ted Frank notes, ABC was rewarded for deliberate scaremongering and deceptive reporting that created needless fear and anxiety among Toyota owners…
Blog
Government-Subsidized Murder: Cannibal Ph.D Candidate Studies Homicide at Taxpayer Expense
"While pursuing a PhD in “homicide studies” at the British taxpayers’ expense, a man with a long history of criminal violence became a…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 15, 2011: Do ATMs Kill Jobs?
In a recent NBC interview, President Obama blamed ATMs for taking away bank tellers' jobs. Communications Coordinator Lee Doren points out that innovation doesn't affect…
Blog
Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Collective Bargaining Law, Reversing Court Ruling Striking It Down
In a 4-to-3 vote, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld the state's new law limiting collective bargaining with government-employee unions. As the Heritage Foundation's…
Blog
Ending Project Labor Agreements Vote Determines Congress’s Agenda: Jobs or Cronies?
Openmarket.org In a vote today, the House of Representatives will determine whether federal construction projects will be open to competitive bidding. In 2009, President Obama…
Blog
American Sociological Review Finds that Right-to-Work States are Better for Business
The June publication of the American Sociological Review contained research on right-to-work states. The research in “Laws of Attraction: Regulatory Arbitrage in the Face of…
Blog
More Free Speech Violations in New Mexico? Prior Restraint Against Billboard Likely
Last year, a New Mexico court issued a domestic-violence restraining order against David Letterman on behalf of a deluded woman who had never met…
Blog
Ending Project Labor Agreements Vote Determines Congress’s Agenda: Jobs or Cronies?
In a vote today, the House of Representatives will determine whether federal construction projects will be open to competitive bidding. In 2009, President Obama issued…
Blog
Unions kill jobs: Just ask the unemployed in South Carolina
The Examiner With an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, South Carolina is in dire economic straits, and so in desperate need of the 1,000 jobs…
