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
News Release
Inflation increased by 0.2 percent in November but year-over-year inflation remains above the Fed’s target
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for November showed a 0.2 percent increase in inflation across all sectors, lower than market expectations. But the…
News Release
US economy added 64,000 jobs in November but underemployment and stagflation cause concern: CEI analysis
The US Labor Department released its report today on jobs added to the economy in November 2025, a modest gain. But underemployment and the…
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,…
Search Posts
Blog
D.C. Rail Fetishists Propose “Free” Trolleys
If you believe the “city of northern charm and southern efficiency” is geared solely toward imposing stupid, expensive directives on the rest of the country,…
Blog
Taxpayers to Put Up Billions More for Bailouts of Greece and Corrupt Mortgage Giant
Government-sponsored mortgage giant Freddie Mac is demanding another $10.6 billion in bailouts, which the Obama administration is expected to give it. Obama’s so-called…
Blog
General Motors Accused of Fraud Over Misleading Claim That It Paid Back Taxpayers; CEI Files FTC Complaint
The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a complaint today against General Motors with the Federal Trade Commission, over…
Op-Eds
GM’s Tricky Payback
President Obama’s tax-cheat treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, is trumpeting the fact that General Motors has paid back a small fraction of what taxpayers…
Blog
ObamaRail: Great for Railfans, Bad for Transportation
In 2000, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment (the “Monorail Initiative“) authorizing the creation of a high-speed intercity rail network. However, as the economy…
Newsletter
Anti-Immigration Backlash, Renewable Energy and Chris Horner’s “Power Grab”
California lawmakers call for economic sanctions against Arizona in retaliation for its new immigration law Documents show that Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi has…
Op-Eds
Seeing Red
On Monday in the Washington Times, Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger—a protégée of outgoing SEIU President Andrew Stern—defended her and…
Op-Eds
Conservatives, Disaster Awaits If We Don’t Embrace Immigration Reform
SB 1070, Arizona’s new and strict immigration enforcement law has torn a hole right through the center of American political discourse. Sold as an…
Citation
Union Election May Signal a Shift in Strategy
Blog
Hypocritical California Government Boycotts Against Arizona Over Immigration Law
“Representatives at three levels of California government were quick to call for economic measures against neighboring Arizona this week in the wake of its…
Blog
“Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Say the Stimulus Isn’t Working”
“Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the $787 billion stimulus package the president passed last year has helped create jobs, according to a…
Op-Eds
General Motors Still Losing Billions (Letter to the Editor)
The Washington Times was right to criticize the Obama administration for its misleading hype about General Motors repaying $6.7 billion of the $50…
Blog
Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Cross; Gay-Marriage Opponents Will Lose Privacy Battle; Controversial Judicial Nominees; Wal-Mart Faces Mega-Lawsuit
In a splintered ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that a trial judge erred in issuing an injunction against a cross honoring veterans. It…
Op-Eds
Republicans Can Win the Immigration Reform Battle
Arizona’s new strict anti-immigration law SB 1070 is the most recent and loudest salvo in the immigration debate. President Obama and the Democratic leadership…
Blog
ObamaCare Vastly Expands IRS Red Tape and Power, Raises Medical and Insurance Costs, Taxes, and Deficits, and Harms Very Sick People
“Billions of more documents” will be have to be filled out by small businesses for the IRS so that a “spendthrift Congress can shake…
Newsletter
Illegal Immigration, SEC Porn and Financial Reform
Arizona’s new immigration bill has brought immigration reform to the forefront of national debate. The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that employees of the…
Op-Eds
Economists: Stimulus Didn’t Contribute to Economic Rebound
“The recovery is picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, but economists think the government’s stimulus package and jobs bill had little to…
Reason
Legalize it (Immigration Edition)
American Spectator
Fixing America’s Immigration Black Market
From Arizona to the U.S. Senate, immigration is at the forefront of the national debate. Much of the concern revolves around this fact: There is…
Blog
“Economists: The Stimulus Didn’t Help”
“The recovery is picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, but economists think the government’s stimulus package and jobs bill had little to do with…
Blog
The War of the SEIU Succession Is Over, or Is It?
The battle over who would succeed outgoing Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern (picture above, next to President Obama) appears to be over,…
Blog
Center-Right Coalition Letter Opposes Toxic Provisions in Dodd Bill
Below is a letter sent today to the Senate that was signed by several prominent groups in the Center-Right Coalition expressing “grave concerns about the…
American Spectator
Andy Stern’s Debts
Purple may be the official color of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), but Andy Stern is leaving the union deep in the red.
News Release
Gov. Brewer Signs Arizona Immigration Enforcement Bill
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Blog
Public Employee Unions’ Suffocating Grip on California
The current issue of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal features a must-read account of how government employee unions have turned California into “The Beholden…
Blog
General Motors Repays Tiny Portion of Taxpayers’ $50 Billion Bailout; Obama Backers Bash Critics of Bailout
President Obama’s tax-cheat treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, is trumpeting the fact that General Motors has paid back…
Blog
The Private Provision of Surface Transportation Infrastructure in the United States
Private sector involvement in surface transportation infrastructure is not new. Public and private turnpikes—roads that require the payment of a toll for passage—have existed for…
Newsletter
Salt Police, Pensions and Union Contracts
The FDA is launching a new initiative to limit the amount of salt in processed food. The White House task force on the middle class…
Blog
SEIU Recruits College Students as Muscle
At Biggovernment.com, the writer known as Liberty Chick offers a good, concise summary of the corporate campaign being waged by the Service Employees International…
Blog
Big Labor Pension Strategy: United States of Argentina?
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern made a big splash last week, when he announced his retirement from leading what is arguably America’s…
Blog
Taxpayers Take Another Hit from Obama; Administration Panders Yet Again to Big Labor
Taxpayers will pay billions more due to an executive order signed by President Obama that effectively restricts federal construction contracts to the minority of construction…
Newsletter
Unions, New Taxes and GM Crops
Andy Stern is leaving his post as head of the Service Employees International Union. The Obama Administration may soon propose a Value Added Tax (VAT).
Blog
Stern Jumps off Sinking Pension Ship
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern plans to retire as head of the union that he helped to transform into the most…
American Spectator
Fix America’s Immigration System by Focusing on Security
America’s immigration bureaucracies are rife with waste and inefficiency. Yet taxpayer dollars are not the only thing they put at risk. The nation’s security…
Spectator
Coal Workers Are Heroes
American Spectator discusses the West Virginia coal mining tragedy with Iain Murray. The coal mining tragedy in West Virginia shows that we should…
Spectator
I Got People Too
Like John, I "got people" too. Here is a summary of points made in response to the question by my Competitive Enteprise Institute colleague,…
Spectator
Dem-Packed NLRB May Rush Through Pro-Union Rulings
Newsletter
State Pensions, Cesar Chavez, and Wine Deliveries
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is trying to boost the state economy by reforming state employee pension plans. President Obama declares March 31th “Cesar Chavez Day”…
Spectator
National ID Card could be the cornerstone of comprehensive immigration reform
Spectator
Realistic Immigration Laws are Needed (Letter to the Editor)
Rep. Lamar Smith’s "Adhere to rule of law on immigration policy" (Nation, March 24) argues that conservative principles demand a respect for the rule…
Blog
Intern Sweatshops?
Jeffrey Miron comments on state officials’ claim that increasing the use of unpaid (or barely paid) interns might run afoul of minimum wage laws.
Blog
Virginia Shows the Way in Taking on the Pensions Crisis
As the federal government continues to expand at an ever-growing pace, the Old Dominion is doing things differently. As The Richmond Times-Dispatch explains,…
Blog
Cesar Chavez Day – Interesting Timing
March 31 was Cesar Chavez Day. Cesar Chavez Day has been celebrated in California for some time. But this year, for the first time, it…
Blog
The Numbers on Public Sector Unions and State Debt
In today’s Washington Examiner, David Freddoso outlines the close correlation between state government debt and public sector unions. As he notes, “the states with…
Blog
The Case Against Subsidized High-Speed Rail
President Obama’s stimulus package set aside $8 billion in subsidies for high-speed rail projects in the United States (known as the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail…
Blog
Coming Soon: The Auto Purchase Mandate
As threatened, the new CAFE standards have arrived, with the EPA muscling in on territory reserved by statute to the Transportation Department. As Marlo Lewis…
Blog
Bailout Watch: Union and Public Employee Pensions
As the strain on state and local government budgets around the country worsens, public employee unions have gone on the defensive, painting themselves as scapegoats…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 131: Airport Vendors
Laws are supposed to be made by legislative branch, not the executive. What we have here is one more case of regulation without representation, out…
Newsletter
Big Labor, Stimulus Money, and the Census
Washingtonian magazine interviews union president Andy Stern. The Mercatus Center publishes a study on how the $800 billion stimulus package was distributed. Daily Kos reports…
Spectator
Scuttle the National ID (Letter to the Editor)
The article "Immigrant rights advocates pressure Obama" (Politics, March 12) detailed this month’s White House immigration meeting but curiously omitted talks about a national…
