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
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,…
Law & Liberty
America’s Hidden Judiciary
Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal regulatory agencies have their own court system for adjudicating disputes that businesses and citizens have with regulators. These agencies rely…
Blog
New York, California make a play for federal labor law enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency, currently lacks a quorum to act. Ordinarily, that type of federal…
Search Posts
Blog
CEI Weekly: United Auto Workers Shut Down GM Plant
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI staff. This week features Vincent Vernuccio's October 1st interview on Fox Business' Varney &…
Blog
How Not to Tackle Congestion
The Transport Politic’s Yonah Freemark today posted an article praising the anti-automobile policies of Paris’ Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and delivering what he seems to believe…
Blog
Private Employers Cut 39,000 Jobs in September
The private sector shed 39,000 jobs in September. Liberal journalists claim this was “unexpected.” This reveals their shaky grasp of economics. If you…
Blog
Vincent Vernuccio on Union Shutting Down GM Plant
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31i-rRUnMc8 285 234]…
Blog
Skilled Immigrants: More, Please
For every H-1B position requested, U.S. technology firms increase their employment by five workers. The government's artificial limit on skilled immigration is prolonging the recession.
Blog
Job Losses and Productivity Gains
I came across this chart tracking U.S. manufacturing jobs and U.S. productivity over the past 38 years (posted yesterday by Mark Perry). It’s worth…
Blog
Sharing Isn’t Caring
Late last month, Washington, D.C. launched its Capital Bikeshare (“CaBi” to its groupies) program to much acclaim from the usual suspects — New Urbanists and…
Blog
Texting on the Stygian Ferry
“Border collie jill surveying the view from atop the sand dune.” Those were the last words of Malibu plastic surgeon Frank Ryan, best known for…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Hosts Labor Policy Reception
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI staff. This week features CEI's Labor Policy Reception.
Op-Eds
Raise the H-1B visa cap
Rupert Murdoch’s and Michael Bloomberg’s testimony Thursday on Capitol Hill about immigration reform missed one timely and important mention. October 1st marks the beginning of…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Union Shutting Down GM Plant
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how the UAW chose to shut down a GM plant in Indiana instead of accepting a…
Blog
New EPA Rules Will Cost More than 800,000 Jobs
New EPA rules will cost more than 800,000 jobs, probably far more, according to a newly released congressional report. That includes the EPA’s…
Blog
An Unpaid Internship at the White House
@whitehouse on Twitter alerted me this morning that applications for internships at the White House are due by October 3. I couldn’t help but look…
Citation
U.S. Citizenship: A Brass Ring for Terrorists?
Products
So. SEIU’s Andy Stern Leaving, or Pushed Out
Blog
Unfair ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’ Shafts Workers With Hazardous Jobs
We wrote earlier about the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill of Orwellian deception that would result in employees unfairly receiving equal pay…
Blog
Distracted Driving Kills, But What About Dysfunctional Policy?
The Obama administration, having succeeded in bringing about economic recovery and having nation-built a democratic Afghanistan, has set its sights on another pressing…
Blog
General Motors Now Admits It Didn’t Repay Bailout Money
Contrary to its claims in TV ads earlier this year, General Motors has now admitted that it did not repay…
Blog
Senators Challenge Administration’s Big Labor Giveaway
Despite all they have gotten from the Obama administration, many union leaders have vented their frustration over Democratic lawmakers’ failure to enact the unions’ top…
Blog
Michigan Child Care Workers May Get their Day in Court against Forced Unionization
Today, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a lower court to explain its dismissal of a class action lawsuit challenging a forced unionization scheme for…
Blog
The Dead Weight Loss of Union Disputes
At Reason Hit & Run, Tim Cavanaugh provides a good observation on the ongoing dispute between the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and…
Op-Eds
California’s Union War
Voting began Monday in one of the most disputed union elections in recent years. The contest pits the powerful Service Employees International Union…
Op-Eds
The War Between SEIU and NUHW: What it Tells Us About Card Check
The battle between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) started coming to a close at several northern California…
Blog
Two Health Care Unions Battle Each Other for Members
Voting began today in one of the most disputed union elections in recent years. The contest pits the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU)…
Blog
Obama Administration Mandates More of the Risky Loans That Spawned the Mortgage Crisis
The federal government is now expanding the affordable-housing mandates that helped spawn the mortgage crisis by goading mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to…
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…
Citation
Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem
Citation
Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem
Citation
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
Citation
Visa Fee Hike Will Adversely Impact Indian Companies, Admits US
Citation
Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
Citation
Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
Citation
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
Citation
Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Companies: US
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio argues against union pension bailouts.
Citation
Bobby Bailout: Casey to Put Taxpayers on Hook for Teamsters’ Shenanigans
Citation
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…
