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
The Daily Signal
How Many Biden Appointees ‘Burrowed in’ to the Permanent Bureaucracy?
The Daily Signal cited CEI’s expert on political career placements Sean Higgins, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, also highlighted the threat of…

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)…
Search Posts
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”:…
Citation
No Union, Including SEIU, Should Be Above the Law
Op-Eds
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…
Citation
SEIU’s Dirty Tactics Exposed
Blog
Federal Job Security
More workers die than get fired at many federal agencies.
Citation
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…
Citation
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.
Citation
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.
Op-Eds
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…