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
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…
Blog
‘With you or without you’ – The growing rift between unions and Democrats
A rift is growing between the Democratic Party and the labor movement. It was caused in large part by the party’s inability to move the…
News Release
Economy adds 139,000 jobs in May, labor market growth slows: CEI analysis
May added 139,000 jobs to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying unchanged at 4.2 percent. Trump’s policies, namely his mission to shrink the…
Search Posts
Blog
America Declines in Property Rights, Rule of Law
The World Economic Forum says that property rights are deteriorating in the United States, to the point where America ranks behind third-world countries…
Blog
New Stimulus Plan Gets Skeptical Response, Even From Democrats
Obama’s plan for $50 billion more in stimulus spending is getting a skeptical response even from some Democratic lawmakers. (We explained earlier why…
Blog
Obama Proposes $50 Billion More in Wasteful Deficit Spending
President Obama has proposed $50 billion more in deficit spending after his original $800 billion stimulus package…
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Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem
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Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem
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Vincent Vernuccio on Unemployment and Government Policy
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains why recent government policies have not solved the unemployment problem.
Blog
Unemployment Jumps to 9.6%, 54,000 More Jobs Lost
Unemployment went back up to 9.6%, as the nation shed 54,000 jobs in August. Yet Obama calls this “Recovery Summer.” This is…
Blog
Will Grading Cars Dispell or Enhance “MPG Illusion”?
As discussed in my recent post “Obama’s EPA: School Marms R Us,” EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) are…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Non-Union Union Pickets
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains the practice of labor unions hiring non-union workers for minimum wage to protest non-union wages on…
Blog
Record Federal Spending Increase Due to Wasteful Spending Like the Failed Stimulus Package
Federal domestic spending increased by a record 16 percent this year, thanks to wasteful spending by the Obama administration, such as its “huge economic…
Op-Eds
Mary Kay Henry Takes over SEIU
Full document available in pdf Originally appeared in…
Blog
Unions hire non-union protesters?
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqm5RRBCmiw 285 234]…
Blog
Video Exposes Labor Union Protesters – No “Living Wage,” No Health Insurance, No Union Membership
Video: Unions hire non-union protesters? Should labor unions pay their protesters the wages and benefits that the unions demand of other employers? CEI labor…
Citation
Caution: Big Labor Hypocrisy at Work
Op-Eds
Trading on the Recession
China recently overtook Japan as the second largest national economy in the world. Thirty years ago, when China began liberalizing its economy under the leadership…
Op-Eds
Unions Hire Non-Union Picketers
The Mid-Atlantic Region of Carpenters (MARC) is notorious for hiring non-union workers to walk their union picket lines. These paid non-union picketers are usually…
Citation
Caution: Big Labor Hypocrisy at Work
Blog
Obama’s EPA: School Marms R Us
The Obama Administration’s EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) are proposing new rules “labeling each passenger car with a government letter grade from A…
Blog
Money for Nothing
A Virginia man collected 12 years of salary despite never showing up to his government job.
Citation
Casey-Pomeroy Bill Would Bail Out PBGC, Union Pensions
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Visa Fee Hike Will Adversely Impact Indian Companies, Admits US
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Cos: US
Op-Eds
Dems Giving Support to Yet Another Union Bailout
The so-called Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act of 2010, introduced by Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.), got a huge boost when Senate Majority Whip Dick…
Citation
Visa Fee Hike Could Impact Indian cos: US
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Companies: US
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Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio argues against union pension bailouts.
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Bobby Bailout: Casey to Put Taxpayers on Hook for Teamsters’ Shenanigans
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Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains potential union pension bailouts.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 146: Airplane Child Seats
The NTSB wants to throw away 50 lives to save an estimated 1 or 2 lives.
Op-Eds
Repealing Birthright Citizenship is a Mistake America Cannot Afford to Make
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other congressional Republicans are floating the idea of abolishing birthright citizenship, which makes the children of undocumented immigrants automatic citizens,…
Blog
Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms and Countries, and Replacing American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
Our government spent as much money bailing out foreign firms as some countries spent on stabilizing their entire financial system. Much of the money…
Blog
Government-Sanctioned Lying and Reparations Increase National Debt: The Pigford Class Action
There are only 36,697 black farmers in the entire country, but in a class-action lawsuit, more than 86,000 African-Americans claimed to have suffered…
Blog
Why Government Layoffs Tripled in June
It wasn't because of spending cuts.
Op-Eds
Illegal Immigration: Virginia Should not try to be Another Arizona
Virginia has been thrust into the center of the immigration debate recently. Del. Robert Marshall asked Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to issue an opinion about…
Blog
Around the Country with Public Sector Unions
It’s often a sign that a problem is turning into a crisis when the public outcry over it becomes ubiquitous. That seems to be the…
Blog
House Approves Obama’s $26 Billion Public-Employee Bailout By a Vote of 247-161
The House has just approved President Obama’s $26 billion public-employee bailout by a vote of 247 to 161. Billions will now go disproportionately to…
Blog
Oh, the Horror! Budget Cuts Mean Pampered Artists Get Less Government Money to Insult Taxpayers
Thanks to budget cuts under England’s new Conservative coalition government, “London may no longer be ‘a beacon for controversial pieces’ such as last year’s…
Op-Eds
Bailing Out Teachers
Democrats on Capitol Hill are literally taking food out of the mouths of the most needy to pay back their political cronies. Today, the House…
Blog
Obama Justice Department Uses Americans with Disabilities Act to Harm the Disabled, Risk Lives, and Undermine Safety
“Amazon.com . . . tried to sell a talking Kindle reader, but” the Justice Department “said it couldn’t because the button to make the…
Blog
131,000 Jobs Lost in July; Obama Aide Abandons Ship; Economists Criticize Obama; More Bailouts
“Non-farm job losses hit 131,000 in July,” on top of a loss of 97,000 jobs in May and June. Another Obama economic advisor is…
Blog
Obama Pushes More Bailouts; Nobel Laureate Criticizes Obama Policies
Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith criticizes the Obama Administration’s stimulus package and skyrocketing deficit spending, saying that deficit-financed stimulus is “the problem, not the…
Newsletter
The Politics of Booze, Challenging Obamacare and “Paycheck Fairness”
Beer wholesalers have been throwing massive amounts of money at Washington. A federal judge in Virginia allows the state’s lawsuit against Obamacare to proceed. The…
Blog
Paycheck Fairness Act Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work
The Obama administration wants to force employers to pay some people equal amounts for doing unequal work, through a deceptive bill known as the Paycheck…
Citation
Immigration and SB1070: Arizona Republicans’ Tempest in a Tea Party?
Op-Eds
Department of Labor Inspector General Nominee: Too Political, Too Controversial
Fresh from the recess appointment of former SEIU lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, President Obama has nominated another controversial figure to…
Blog
In defending Kagan, Media Matters embraces Bush Justice Department
Well, who woulda thunk it?! George W. Bush’s Justice Department is now considered a citadel of wisdom by the legal eagles at the liberal Media…
Citation
Why Democrats are Pushing the $165 Billion Union Pension Bailout
Newsletter
The Origins of Environmentalism, a Shady Attorney General and Immigration Lawsuits
The inability of the Democratic majority in Congress to pass a climate change bill causes activists to question the state of the environmental movement. CEI…
Blog
Jim Hood: Another of the Nation’s Worst State Attorneys General
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has a truly awful record, as today’s Wall Street Journal notes, citing his links to trial lawyers who tried…
Op-Eds
Arizona’s Immigration Surprises
Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, which goes into effect on July 29, has been a rallying point for many conservatives. It reinvigorated the lackluster administration of…
News Release
Judge’s Injunction on Arizona Immigration Law Doesn’t Stop Law’s Harmful Impact
Washington, D.C., July 28, 2010 — Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law goes into effect Thursday, despite a partial injunction handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge…
Op-Eds
Bill Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work (Letter to the Editor)
Diana Furchtgott-Roth was right to criticize a bill that would require some people who do unequal work to be paid equal amounts. The perverse “Paycheck…
Newsletter
Online Privacy, Food Safety and Unemployment Benefits
The Senate Commerce Committee prepares for a hearing on consumer online privacy. Environmental groups sue to compel the Food and Drug Administration to ban the…
Blog
Who is Elizabeth Warren and why does Big Labor Love Her?
The Dodd–Frank Financial Regulation Bill, which President Obama signed today, created yet another Czar to head yet another Executive Agency, the…
Blog
Automakers Face Potentially Massive Race-Discrimination Class-Action Lawsuit Thanks to Obama Administration
“Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout — closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and Chrysler…
Blog
Richard Blumenthal Rated Second-Worst Attorney General in America
Connecticut Attorney General Dick Blumenthal has just been rated the second-worst state attorney general in America by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in its recent…
Blog
President Obama Signs Dodd-Frank Financial “Reform” Bill: 2315 Pages of Special-Interest Payoffs
President Obama today signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” bill, the “most sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial market regulations since the Great Depression.”…
Newsletter
Elena Kagan’s Nomination, Obama Signs Financial Regulation Bill and Defending the Right to Work
The Senate Judiciary Committee approves the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today President Obama will sign recently-passed financial regulation bill into…
News Release
Extending Unemployment Benefits Will Increase Unemployment, Hurt Economy
Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010—The Senate today approved an extension of federal unemployment benefits to a maximum of 99 weeks. This move is likely to…
Study
Union Pensions in Crisis
Full Document Available in PDF Union pensions are in trouble, and financial watchdogs such as Moody’s…
Citation
Union Hiring Unemployed to Walk Picket Lines
Vincent Vernuccio on Fox Business, Varney and Company http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4285533/unions-hire-unemployed-to-walk-picket-lines/?playlist_id=87060 …
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Non-Union Union Pickets
Competitive enterprise institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains potential union pension bailouts. …
Op-Eds
Michigan a Right to Work State?
Oakland County Sherriff Mike Bouchard, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, called for making Michigan a right to work State in a…
Blog
EPA, Not Jones Act, Blocked Dutch Skimmers
It was apparently the EPA, not the Jones Act, that blocked Dutch skimmers from cleaning up the oil spill in Louisiana in late April:…
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, Immigration and Climate Legislation
The Senate prepares to vote on a financial regulation bill. A Heritage Foundation report finds that deportation of undocumented immigrants has fallen during the Obama…
Blog
Heritage Foundation Wrong on Obama Immigration Enforcement
The Heritage Foundation’s Matt Meyer wrote here that the Obama administration’s year old worksite audit program is resulting in “far fewer deportations of illegal immigrants.” …
Blog
Readers Contest Factcheck.Org’s “Oil Spill, Foreign Help, and the Jones Act”
FactCheck.org argued that the Jones Act, which ordinarily bans both foreign ships and foreign crews from working in U.S. waters, did not interfere with foreign…
Blog
New “stimulus plan” brewing in Congress
It is actually less of a “stimulus” plan and more of a “get government out of the way and stop inhibiting growth” plan. A bi-partisan…
Blog
Unintended Consequences of Unemployment Benefits
This letter of mine ran in today's New York Times in response to Paul Krugman's July 4 column.
Op-Eds
Bad Immigration Laws Are for Repealing, Not Enforcing
Immigration reform is at a crossroads. When Arizona passed its anti-immigration law in the spring, it said it was doing so because the federal government…
Op-Eds
Will 2010 be the Year States say Enough is Enough?
For decades, government employees at every level have received steadily increasing compensation—including salary, pensions, and health care benefits—thanks to the political clout of public employee…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: May – June 2010
To view this issue of the CEI Planet, please click here to download the PDF file. Below are selected articles from the May-June 2010 issue: Collective…
Newsletter
Regulating Strippers, Blowout Prevention and Kagan’s Hearings
Missouri enacts “anti-stripper” legislation placing new restrictions on adult entertainment establishments. The House of Representatives holds a hearing on the Blowout Prevention Act. Elena Kagan’s…
Blog
Liberal Senators Make False Claims About Supreme Court’s Ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, During Kagan Confirmation Hearings
Liberal Senators like Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) are peddling fables about a Supreme Court ruling, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Blog
Anti-stripper law could create more prostitution
As so many journalists have punned, recently passed anti-stripping legislation makes the “Don’t Show Me” state a far more appropriate nickname for Missouri. Yesterday, Gov.
Blog
Supreme Court Dooms Chicago Gun Ban; Obama Judicial Nominees Oppose Gun Rights; Religious Clubs Lose First Amendment Case; Removal of High-Ranking Bureaucrats Made Easier
The Supreme Court doomed Chicago’s handgun ban Monday by ruling 5-to-4 that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments…
Citation
Spreading Lies on the Ledbetter Case
Blog
Life Imitates The Simpsons – again
The Politico reports that Sen. Harry Reid (D.-NV) has hit on a new scheme for passing the chronically unpopular climate legislation that has been…
Op-Eds
Arizona Declares War on Capitalism
The most persistent misunderstanding about Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, SB 1070, is that it is about security. The law’s supporters argue that there is…
Blog
New Federal Interference With Oil-Spill Clean-Up: Feds Stop Louisiana From Dredging Needed to Create Protective Sand Berms
A TV station in New Orleans reports that “the federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand…
Blog
Stimulus Package to Cost $75 Billion More Than Predicted; Plus, Government-Employee Bailout Sought
The stimulus package is going to cost at least $75 billion more than the $787 billion the Obama administration claimed, according to the Congressional…
Op-Eds
Constitutionality Aside, Look at the Economic Damage
Last week, the Obama administration confirmed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will file a lawsuit to challenge Arizona’s immigration law, SB 1070 before…
Op-Eds
The Great Immigration Deception
Arizona’s controversial immigration law and Democratic responses to it have ignited a fierce political fight that will only intensify as the law goes into…
Newsletter
Oil Spill Assistance, Immigration Crackdown and Money for Nothing
The White House refused to allow foreign ships to assist with cleanup of the BP oil spill. Arizona’s immigration crack-down inspires a public referendum on…
Blog
Obama Administration Blocks Clean-Up of Oil Spill by Louisiana and Foreign Allies By Imposing Red Tape
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf…
Op-Eds
The New King of Detroit
Yesterday, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) named Bob King as its new president. Does this mean a change in direction for one of…
Blog
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech last night, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such…
Study
A Drought of Reason and Investigation
An Examination and Critique of the Center for Immigration Studies’ “A Drought of Summer Jobs”…
Blog
Financial “Reform” Bill Engages in Racial Engineering, While Ignoring Corrupt Mortgage Giants
Congress and the Obama administration refused to do anything about the corrupt government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even though administration…
Blog
Obama Blocked Clean Up of BP Oil Spill by Friendly Countries; International Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the…
Blog
Obama Wants Taxpayers to Cough Up $50 Billion To Bail Out Public-Employee Unions
President Obama now wants Congress to spend $50 billion to keep state governments from laying off government employees. In essence, this is a bailout…
Op-Eds
Obama Refuses to Waive Law to Allow Foreign Help With Oil Spill
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of…
Blog
Obama Fires Inspector General Who Uncovered Fraud, and Honors Defrauder Instead
Earlier, President Obama fired the inspector general for the AmeriCorps program after he uncovered fraud by Obama crony Kevin Johnson. (Johnson did not…
Newsletter
Murkowski v. EPA, Big Labor and Debit Card Fees
The Senate will vote today on Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act. Arkansas…
Op-Eds
Halter’s Loss a Major Blow for Big Labor
Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s failure to win his state’s Democratic nomination was a crushing defeat for organized labor, which went all-out…
Blog
BP Supported Obama Stimulus Package, Global Warming Bill, and Corporate Welfare; BP Bankrolled Obama Campaign
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
Blog
Halter’s Loss a Major Blow for Big Labor
Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter’s failure to win his state’s Democratic nomination is a crushing defeat for organized labor, which went all-out in…
Blog
Obama Uses BP Oil Spill to Push Corporate-Welfare-Filled Global Warming Bill That BP Once Lobbied For
Talk about chutzpah. President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global…
