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
When driverless vehicles are attacked, look for the union label
Self-driving cars are coming to major cities, and one group in particular is not happy about this: unions. An effort to bring self-driving vehicles…
Blog
The AI Jobs apocalypse gets postponed, as CEI predicted
The prophesies of doom that artificial intelligence would destroy jobs have been put on hold recently. Businesses, including the ones that use AI technology,…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Questioning the AI jobs doomsday with Sean Higgins
In this week’s episode we cover making home appliances great again, fighting price controls on health care, research on AI-fueled…
Search Posts
Blog
Another TSA Nightmare
The writer Andrew Ian Dodge shares his painful experience at the hands of the TSA at this link. The TSA inflicted prolonged pain on…
News Release
CEI Announces Launch of WorkplaceChoice.org
Washington, D.C., February 7, 2011 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce the launch of WorkplaceChoice.org, a new labor policy resource…
Blog
TSA Given Approval To Unionize
As the New York Times says, this is a debate that has been brewing for potentially a decade: the “right” for Transportation Security Administration…
Blog
The Double Edged Sword: How Union Leaders Support Policy that Hurts Union Members
In the 2008 and 2010 elections, labor unions were one of the largest contributors and supporters of President Obama and Democrats. Union officials applauded Obamacare…
Blog
When Unions Refuse To Take “No” for an Answer
By Barbara Comstock/Capital Research Center In November 2010, Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants voted against unionization. This was the third time that the employees have…
Blog
Arlington County Kills I-5/395 HOT Lanes Inside the Beltway
An innovative project that would have converted high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, increased highway capacity, reduced congestion, expanded transit, and improved…
Op-Eds
Leviathan
How many Americans work in government? That’s a difficult question to answer. Officially, as of 2009, the federal government employed 2.8 million individuals out of…
Blog
Smart-Growthers Still Upset by Introduction of Newfangled Horseless Carriages
As somewhat of an anti–“smart growth” groupie, I try to keep up with their various online writings. Everyday, it’s like finding buried treasure. Take yesterday,…
Citation
Is the TSA More Interested in Airport Security Or Supporting Unions?
Blog
TSA Shuts Door on Private Airport Screening Program That Exposed TSA’s Inefficiency
The Transportation Security Administration has shut the door on a private airport screening program that was making the inefficient agency look bad by outperforming it…
Blog
Full Employment, Motherhood, and Apple Pie
These are not good economic times for labor unions, whose membership continues a long decline in the private sector. However, they remain a potent…
Blog
Thundersnow and the Nightmare Commute
Last night’s Surprise Snowpocalypse froze traffic in place for upwards of 13 hours. Check out this visual above for where the traffic accumulated, from…
Blog
Marketing and Transit Shelters
Here’s a great example of private entrepreneurship making public life a little sweeter. Caribou Coffee has launched a new campaign in Minnesota, touting warmed…
Blog
The Supreme Court is NOT Pro-Business
Once again ruling against America’s employers, the Supreme Court Monday broadened the reach of the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s ban on retaliation. It overturned…
Citation
Thompson v. North American Stainless
Blog
Obama’s State of the Union Address: More of the Same on Trains
For the second year in a row, President Barack Obama has fretted over the “faster trains” of Europe and China in his State of…
Blog
Obama’s State of the Union: A Blueprint for Crony Capitalism and Costly Educational Failures
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for even more spending on his cronies — what he euphemistically referred to as…
Blog
Obama State of the Union Flunks Fact Check; More Wasteful Spending and “A Million Points of Trite”
The Associated Press fact-checked Obama’s State of the Union address last night, and found it to be misleading in many ways: “The ledger…
Blog
Special interests propel harmful legislation and block needed reforms
The Examiner At the end of The Wizard of Oz, the great and powerful wizard is revealed to be a little man behind a curtain,…
Blog
Thoughts on the State of the Union and Education in America
In the Washington Examiner, I discuss some of the president’s anticipated proposals in his State of the Union address today. The president is…
One News Now
UAW unhappy with success of foreign businesses
Blog
What Should POTUS Say During SOTU?
Freedom Action‘s Myron Ebell, while he isn’t optimistic, answers on a POLITICO forum: In an ideal world, President Barack Obama would use his…
One News Now
Obama Backs Collective Bargaining for Airport Screeners
Blog
Andrew Sullivan Blames Tea Party for Budget-Busting Deal That He, Not It, Supported
The deficit is largely the result of “feel-good” bipartisan policies supported by the political establishment. But rather than taking credit for the deficit it…
Blog
Students Learn Less in College, Even As Education Spending Skyrockets
“Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don’t…
Washington Times
UAW Doesn’t Care What You Think
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Bob King recently pledged $60 million of his union’s money to pressure foreign automakers into unionizing their employees. He…
Washington Times
Critics say NLRB pursuing card check outside legislative process
The Republican victories last November dashed organized labor’s hopes of Congress passing the Employee Free Choice Ace (EFCA), especially its card check provision, which would…
Blog
New York City Taxi Alliance Opposes Competition
From their webpage, we see a press release denouncing Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to allow livery cars (limousines, personal hired cars, etc.) to pick…
Blog
Vincent Vernuccio on Unions’ Public Image
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxnvlndMyjY 285 234]…
Blog
Merit-Based Pay Benefits Baltimore
A milestone achievement has occurred in Baltimore: teachers with the recently negotiated contract will receive merit-based pay. This is a striking difference from the…
Blog
An Incrementalist Approach to Transportation Extremists
Architecture writer Karrie Jacobs has a new article up at Metropolis magazine’s website, “The Incrementalists,” in which she derides the supposed slow-and-steady course chartered…
Blog
King Ignores His “Principles”
UAW’s president Bob King has already blatantly disregarded his “Principles for Fair Union Elections.” In his effort to unionize foreign automakers, it is clear the…
Blog
Harper’s vs. UAW
When can one expect leftists to oppose unionization of a business? When it’s their own. That’s the case at Harper‘s magazine right now, where some…
Blog
Will UAW Seek Foreign Help to Unionize American Workers?
America has a vibrant and successful auto industry — just largely outside of Detroit. For years, many foreign automakers’ American divisions have been successful at…
Blog
NLRB Litigates for Less Freedom
n another demonstration of the overreaching power of the federal government, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is preparing to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South…
Blog
NLRB Litigates for Less Freedom
In another demonstration of the overreaching power of the federal government, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is preparing to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South…
Washington Times
Unions Increasingly Unpopular
Washington Times
Vincent Vernuccio on Unions’ Public Image
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the recent attempt of a union to gain public support…
Blog
D.C. Installs Private Car Charging Station
Remember when the Prius first hit the market, and the D.C. Beltway authorities opened the HOV lanes to electric cars as an incentive to switch?…
Blog
CEI Podcast for January 12, 2011: Public-Private Partnerships
Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner talks about his new CEI Issue Analysis, "The Limitations of Public-Private Partnerships."…
Blog
US Loses Ground in 2011 Index of Economic Freedom
The U.S. dropped from 8 to 9 on the just-released “Index of Economic Freedom” put out by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street…
Blog
Troubles in Central Planning: New York City Cabs
Via the New York Times, an article with empirical evidence that regulatory incentives encourage cabs to disappear around 5pm, just when they are needed…
Blog
Employee Rights at the Discretion of Unions
The AFL-CIO has filed a formal complaint against Roquette for the ongoing lockout of union employees. The union claims that Roquette refused their terms of…
Blog
Commonsense Proposals for Sustainable Government
In the midst of federal and state deficits at record levels, politicians are attempting to run the government similar to a business. Elected officials are…
Yahoo News
Experts say Metro escalator woes product of union inefficiency
Blog
SEIU Arbitrates Life or Death
In two recent reports revolving around the Service Employee International Union have shown their callous disregard for human life, in the name of contract negotiations…
Blog
Committee Name Change Puts Big Labor on Offensive
In the midst of the Republican takeover of Congress labor union officials have been vigilant to the changes that are sure to come concerning labor…
Blog
Committee Name Change Puts Big Labor on Offensive
In the midst of the Republican takeover of Congress labor union officials have been vigilant to the changes that are sure to come concerning labor…
Blog
More Signs of Incompetence in Washington, D.C. Transit System
In the latest sign of dysfunction at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (“Metro”), the struggling subway system has appointed a supervisor of escalators…
Blog
What Government Unions Want: One, Two, Many Californias
That the large Republican gains in the 2010 midterm elections pose a setback for organized labor’s agenda is hardly news. What will be newsworthy is…
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