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
National Review
A Less Perfect Union
Charlie Kirk’s tragic murder has had ramifications across America, but one of its strangest consequences has been to bring a venerable British institution to the brink…
Blog
Impasse over NLRB nominee may be just what unions want
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee yesterday approved one of President Trump’s nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main…
Blog
Next BLS head needs be an innovator, not a loyalist
President Trump nominated E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) because he wanted someone to modernize and update the agency’s methodology.
Search Posts
Blog
“A good time to start liquidating”
How damaging would the so-called Employee Free Choice Act be to businesses? Enough to force some healthy companies into bankruptcy. Specificaly, EFCA’s binding arbitration provision…
Op-Eds
Green Job Self-Destruction
In your article “Hopes for climate treaty set back by G20’s weasel words”, 5 April, you refer to a study by the University…
Citation
Lies Upon Ledbetter Lies
Blog
Trojan Horse “Food Safety” Law
A misguided bill, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, may shut down farmer’s markets and “drive out of business local farmers and artisanal,…
Dallas News
UNITE-HERE’s pressure campaign against a Dallas city project
Newsletter
Modified Mortgages, Unions Losses and Hurricane Insurance
The White House pushes mortgage companies to “modify” more home loans, while the number of defaults continues to rise. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) announces she…
Blog
Lincoln To Vote No on Card Check
Arkansas Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln announced today that she will oppose the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, also known as teh “card check” bill.
Dallas News
EEOC Willfully Violated Pay Law, Arbitrator Rules
Blog
The EEOC: “The Fox Guarding the Henhouse”
“The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, responsible for ensuring that the nation’s workers are treated fairly, has itself willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act…
Dallas News
Americorps Plan Will Waste Money on Ideological Causes
Despite exploding deficits, President Obama and congressional leaders are backing a $5.7 billion “national service” boondoggle. Obama’s proposed budgets, which break…
Blog
With or Without You
The Obama administration's ouster of GM CEO Rick Wagoner won't solve the auto giant's problems. It does, however, show the power that government now wields…
Blog
UNITE-HERE Civil War Sets Up AFL-CIO vs. SEIU Confrontation
Like the Cold War-era Third World civil wars in which the superpowers would fight each other by proxy, the increasingly bitter row within UNITE-HERE…
Washington Examiner
SEIU’s Advocacy for Card Check
Newsletter
Carbon Tariffs, Union Organizing and Geithner’s Toxic Plan
The House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing on the impact of global warming on international trade. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) announces that he…
Blog
Osorio: Specter Says ‘No’ on Card Check
An update from our very own Ivan Osorio: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) is expected to announce this afternoon that he plans to vote against…
Study
Card Check Double Standard
Unions’ Hypocrisy on the Secret Ballot…
News Release
The Two Faces of Big Labor
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Study
The Employee Free Choice Act Is Anything But
A Comparison of Labor Organizing Today vs. under EFCA…
Washington Examiner
Secret Ballots for Me, But Not for Thee
Washington Examiner
Card Check Undermines Free Choice
Blog
A Global Green New Deal – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Showing that he believes Al Gore’s typical misunderstanding that the Chinese word for crisis is made up of the characters for threat and opportunity (…
Blog
AIG Lies; Bonuses for Fannie & Freddie; Fed Explodes Money Supply, Risks Stagflation
It’s not just AIG, being bailed out for $170 billion, that’s using taxpayer money to give fat bonuses to its employees. The same thing is…
Blog
Show Your Work!
Fiona Harvey of the FT is one of the better journalists covering the environmental beat, but I’m afraid that is a bit like saying that…
Newsletter
Mandating Efficiency, Infighting at SEIU and Privacy Mavens Try to Shut Down Google
Congress considers new regulations on energy efficiency for home appliances. One of the nation’s largest unions faces dissention in its ranks. The Electronic Privacy Information…
Blog
Postmodern Union-on-Union Fight
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is being denounced by a group of its own employees for doing, well, nothing wrong or illegal, but something…
Blog
Hypocritical Posturing By Obama Over AIG Bonuses
In response to public outrage, Obama is belatedly criticizing the millions of dollars in bonuses that AIG, which is being bailed by taxpayers at a…
Blog
Mexico wants to keep on trucking
Mexico said it would impose tariffs on about 90 U.S. exports in retaliation for a recent bill that violates the North America Free Trade…
Blog
With news coverage like this…
…does organized labor need a PR operation? In today’s Politico, Jeanne Cummings repeats — without qualification — the half-truth that supporters of the so-called…
Newsletter
Turning Down Stimulus Dollars, Legal Malpractice and a “Socialist” President
A group of governors turn down federal stimulus funding for their states, citing the strings attached by Congress. The Supreme Court rules that drug maker…
Washington Examiner
Obama and Dodd Hypocritical on AIG Bonuses
In response to public outrage, Obama is belatedly criticizing the millions of dollars in bonuses that AIG, which is being bailed by taxpayers…
Washington Examiner
Obama and Dodd Hypocritical on AIG Bonuses
In response to public outrage, Obama is belatedly criticizing the millions of dollars in bonuses that AIG, which is being bailed by taxpayers…
Blog
Bailouts for Liars, Illegal Aliens, and Undeserved Bonuses
Insurance giant AIG, bailed out by taxpayers for $170 billion, is using taxpayer money to pay executives in the division that brought…
Blog
The Socialism that Dare not Speak its Name
“Socialism” is dead, according to Matthew Dallek, writing in the Politico. I put the term in quotes, because what Dallek defines as socialism is…
Blog
An Explosion of Litigation
Already burdened by $8 trillion in new federal spending commitments and the likelihood of higher taxes to pay for bailouts,…
Blog
States Revolt against Card Check
State legislators are unhappy about the prospect of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) being imposed on their constituents’ businesses. That was a central…
Blog
Economists Give Obama Failing Grade; New Bailouts Demanded As Obama Breaks Promises
Obama gets a failing grade from economists. “U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to…
Newsletter
More Newspaper Layoffs, Card Check Filibuster and Obama’s Failing Grade in Economics
The print news industry takes another hit as The McClatchy Company, the nation’s third largest newspaper publisher, announces plans to layoff 1,600 fulltime employees. Sen.
Blog
Eugene Scalia on Card Check
With passage of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) growing more in doubt, organized labor and its Congressional allies are resorting to pushing the…
Blog
Going Ballistic on Card Check
Today’s Wall Street Journal, in an editorial, notes organized labor’s latest hardball tactic in its effort to help enact the so-called Employee Free…
Newsletter
Cybersecurity Turf War, Strongarm Union Tactics and a Beer Battle in Colorado
President Obama’s chief of cybersecurity quits, citing overbearing control by the Department of Defense’s National Security Agency. Prominent Democrats come out against changes…
Washington Examiner
Card Check Could Also Mean Wage and Price Controls
Blog
Obama Insults America’s Allies, Endangers Economy
Not content with endangering the economy by pushing through $8 trillion in bailouts and welfare, Obama has now insulted the…
Blog
Buffett Opposes Card Check, but Don’t Forget Binding Arbitration
Rumors of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) being introduced in the current Congress have come and gone — and will come again. Yet…
Washington Examiner
More of Justice Ginsburg’s Political Activism
Blog
$8 Trillion in Bailouts; Undeserving Rich Benefit
Federal bailouts and related spending proposed by the Obama Administration now total 8 trillion dollars, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.
Blog
George McGovern on Card Check
Former Democratic Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern continues to speak out against the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which he has described as an…
Newsletter
$75 Billion for Bad Mortgages, Card Check in Congress and Lowering Global Warming Expectations
The White House unveils the details of its $75 billion mortgage “rescue” spending package. Democrats in Congress push for changes in labor organizing rules. President…
Blog
New Study Shows Job Loss Data under Card Check
This week, Dr Anne Layne-Farrar, an economist with the Law and Economics Consulting Group, published a new study in which she analyzes the likely…
Blog
Imagine There’s No Agency
Washington spends and regulates, and it’s hard to make it stop doing either. Government agencies and programs attract constituencies that want to keep them around,…
Newsletter
Beer Taxes, the Beige Book and Drug Safety Before the Supreme Court
Oregon becomes one of the states seeking to raise new revenue by increasing taxes on beer. The Federal Reserve releases its…
Blog
Distorting the News, to Obama’s Advantage: Ledbetter v. Goodyear and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Distorted press coverage of a Supreme Court decision gave a big boost to the Obama campaign, which made the decision a major campaign…
Blog
GM Volt may not be cost-effective for consumers, study says
A study by Carnegie Mellon finds that the Chevy Volt, GM’s rechargeable battery-driven car designed to go 40 miles on electricity, is “not cost effective in any scenario,” Bloomberg…
Blog
DC on the School Reform Front Lines, Again
Today’s Washington Post features an editorial that strongly criticizes Congressional Democrats’ rush to kill the District of Columbia’s school voucher program, which enjoys bipartisan…
Blog
Zero-Based Governing and Improving the State of the Union
Removing burdensome regulations on small business hasn’t figured much into the economic recovery program thus far. Too bad. Alternatives to “spendulus” and the “Bailout to…
Blog
SOTU Watch: New Labor Secretary
The Senate confirmed Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor this afternoon. It will be worth watching whether President Obama acknowledges her confirmation…
Blog
SOTU Watch: Energy Claims
The President might make various remarks relating to energy tonight. These are likely to center around grandiloquent claims as to the effectiveness of “green jobs”…
Blog
SOTU Watch: Card Check
In President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight, one thing to watch for is mention of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) —…
Blog
Carney Takes on Stimulus on Liddy, Osorio Takes on Card Check
Today, I was on the G. Gordon Liddy Show, to discuss the current prospects of the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, as…
Blog
Top Ten Federal Rules to Jettison — According to Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration’s Regulatory Review and Reform initiative (r3) has a new compilation of rules that need reform, according to small businesses across…
Blog
To Know Card Check is to Hate it
A recent survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted in January by the consultancy McLaughlin & Associates, finds an overwhelling majority opposed to the so-called…
Blog
Obama’s Futile Attempts at Foreclosure Avoidance
If the government wants to spend $75 billion to help troubled homeowners, it would be better off giving a tax holiday to families subject to…
Blog
NADA report proves California waiver would create regulatory patchwork
A front-burner issue facing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson is whether to grant a waiver under the Clean Air Act allowing the California…
Blog
The Birthday of an Entrepreneur
February is an important month in the history of American commerce. In a few days will be the birthday of one of the country’s earliest…
Washington Examiner
When Mexicans Have More Rights than U.S.
The Obama Administration and its nominee for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, are seeking to all but eliminate the secret ballot in union elections, a…
Washington Examiner
Mexico’s Supreme Court and the Superiority of Secret Ballots
Blog
UNITE-HERE to Disunite?
UNITE-HERE, the 450,000-member textile and hospitality union, is embroiled in a “civil war,” according to its president, who is now openly considering breaking up the…
Blog
The Prince and the Paupers
I still regard myself as a loyal subject of Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, but it’s hard not to come over all Cromwellian when…
Blog
Why “doing nothing” is something really big: Stopping the Anti-Stimulus
Robert Higgs, he of the famous “ratchet effect” theory of government growth (up but never down in answer to a crisis), has…
Newsletter
Stimulus Showdown, New SEC Rules and Obama’s Labor Pains
Aides on Capitol Hill prepare for negotiations between House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill. New Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro…
Blog
Today’s Gift to Big Labor
Even as the nomination of Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary remains stalled due to tax and potential ethics rules troubles, organized labor got a…
Blog
More Questions about Solis
Today’s Washington Examiner proposes some questions which Senators should ask Obama Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis. Solis is treasurer and a member of the…
Blog
For Obama, No Solace in Solis
This afternoon, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee abruptly canceled a session to consider the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) for Labor…
Washington Examiner
Obama’s Top Economic Adviser Conceding ‘Considerable Uncertainty’ About Stimulus Jobs Claims
Blog
Stimulus Plan Repeats Mistakes That Spawned Great Depression
The European Union is threatening a trade war over provisions in the $800 billion “stimulus” package backed by Obama and Congressional leaders. The Great…
Newsletter
Stimulus Transparency, Springsteen on Wal-Mart and the Mirage of Green-Collar Jobs
Developers launch StimulusWatch.org to keep track of the hundreds of billions of dollars Congress is planning to spend to stimulate the economy. Bruce Springsteen grabs…
Blog
Springsteen clashes with Obama advisor on Wal-Mart
In between playing at the Lincoln Memorial for Barack Obama’s inaugural concert and performing the half-time show last night at the Super Bowl, Bruce Springsteen…
Newsletter
Green Stimulus, Bottled Water and Big Labor Infighting
Congress sets aside billions in the economic stimulus package for environmentally oriented energy and infrastructure projects. The New York Times’ “Freakonomics” column debunks the argument…
Blog
Unions Stall on EFCA, Advance Elsewhere
The Democratic Congress’s failure to pounce instantly to pass the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also known as the “card check” bill, presents a…
Blog
SEIU Split in California?
Ousted officials from a Bay Area local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced yesterday that they were forming a new union, and…
Blog
Obama Distorts Ledbetter v. Goodyear Case, In Signing Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
In signing his first bill into law, Obama didn’t let facts get in the way of a good story, or milking a political wedge issue.
Blog
CA Restaurant & Bar Owners (not drinkers) Will Feel the Pinch of Nickel Tax
February 1st 2009 is the day that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s per-drink tax increase will go into effect throughout the state. The tax…
Blog
Stay Put, Now Go
Today, Spiked Online features two worthwhile pieces on two different ways in which environmental correctness can be deployed to disguise class snobbery — against two…
Blog
Apparent Hold on Solis Nomination
The confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Labor Secretary has run into an unexpected delay, as an unidentified Republican senator appears to have…
Blog
Krugman is Wrong – Again!
Boy, that wacky Paul Krugman. The newly-crowned Nobel laureate (they should be allowed to wear a laurel wreath everywhere they go, so we’d know of…
Blog
Robbing Driving Peter to Pay Train-Riding Paul
Facing a budget shortfall, officials of South Florida’s Tri-Rail commuter train are seeking help from the state — or rather, from drivers who rent cars…
News Release
CEI Unveils Agenda for Congress
Washington, D.C., January 26, 2009—With the incoming Obama administration and the opening of the new Congress, the House and Senate are…
Newsletter
$1 Million Federal Jobs, Green Energy and Union Dues
Public interest groups launch a campaign to encourage citizens to read Congress’ proposed $850 billion stimulus bill. Representatives of renewable energy companies acquire enhanced influence…
Blog
The New Green Economy?
I’ve spent a while crunching the numbers relating to energy and environment spending in the stimulus bill. The bill will spend about $80 billion on…
Blog
Whither Union Transparency?
As Barack Obama is sworn in as the nation’s 44th President today, Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) will likely be the next Secretary of Labor. As…
Blog
How gullible are we?
Scrolling through the $825 billion dollar monstrosity, my first question is–how many unemployed construction workers do they think there are? Don’t they realize that…
Newsletter
Geithner’s Tax Trouble, Paycheck Protection and Obama’s Science Advisor
Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner comes under fire for past irregularities with his income taxes. The House of Representatives approves the misleadingly-named “Paycheck Fairness Act.” NASA…
Blog
The Paycheck Fairness Act: Equal Pay Baloney From the Press
“News” stories on legislation often read like lazy summaries of press releases put out by the bill’s sponsors. That’s particularly true for so-called “equal pay”…
Washington Examiner
Geithner’s Nomination
Washington Examiner
Why Geithner Is A Bad Choice
Washington Examiner
The Embattled Geithner’s Nomination
Blog
A State-Level Counter to Card Check
As disappointing as the 2005 Kelo v. New London ruling was for supporters of strong property rights, the ensuing months saw a healthy — and…
National Association of Manufacturers
Obama and the Keynesian Revival
The National Association of Manufacturers discusses Iain Murray's National Review article on Obama's Keyenesian revival. Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute makes…
Newsletter
Union Scandal in California, Alternative Energy Promises and Short-Selling on Wall Street
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) finalizes a controversial merger of its California locals into one state-wide “superlocal”. President-Elect Obama promises to double the nation’s…
CNS News
Economists Say Bush ‘Chucked’ Free Market Principles Long Before Financial Crisis
CNS News discusses President George W. Bush's move away from free market principles. However, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute told CNSNews.com that…
Blog
SEIU’s California Scheming IV — and Illinois, too
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) finalized a contentious merger of several California locals into a statewide “superlocal.” Sal Rosselli, the head of one of the…
