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
$800 Billion Stimulus Package Doled Out Based on Politics; Districts with High Unemployment Were Shafted
“How is stimulus money allocated? Unemployment isn’t a factor, but politics is,” found George Mason University researcher Veronique de Rugy in…
Blog
Public Employees’ Compensation Races past Private Sector Workers’
As union membership in government has outpaced that in the private sector, so has compensation. As the Washington Examiner reports: Compensation for…
Blog
CEI files amicus in Aussie bank case threatening national sovereignty
Headquartered in Melbourne, the second largest city of the land down under, National Australia Bank is firmly attached to its home country. The primary trading…
Op-Eds
Times vs. Times: The Truth on Union Corporate Influence
Once again The New York Times misses the big picture in its coverage of organized labor. The Old Grey Lady reports: [U]nion leaders had amassed an armory…
Op-Eds
To Thrive, U.S. Needs Skilled Immigrants
With the health care debate on temporary hiatus, the government’s attention will turn to the next topic: immigration reform. Most of the…
Blog
Health Care- Fix middle-class “medicine cabinet tax” in reconciliation
“They won’t be so opposed to it once they see what’s in it.” That’s the rationalization House leaders have given skittish Democrats to get them…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 129: Droves of Animals on Streets
Washington, DC city law states that “No loose herd or flock shall be driven or conducted in the District, except with a permit issued by…
Blog
Health Care Bill Would Vastly Expand IRS Power; CBO Ordered to Base Cost Estimate on False Assumptions
“House health care bill dangerously expands IRS power,” say a tax law professor and GOP leaders. The Washington Examiner says that “16,500 more…
Blog
Governors Criticize Health Care Bill for Increasing Unemployment and State Budget Deficits; Tax Increases and Medicare Cuts in Bill Rise
Governors are now criticizing the health care bill backed by the Obama administration, saying it will cause health care costs and state deficits to…
Newsletter
Jobs, Health Care, and Synthetic Trees
The Senate passes an $18 billion jobs bill. The Associated Press reports that health premiums will go up under health care reform. The Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
Will the Jobs Bill Create Any Jobs?
Over at the American Spectator, I explain why it won't, but a deregulatory stimulus would.
Blog
VIDEO: Alex Nowrasteh on National ID and Immigration Policy
CEI’s Alex Nowrasteh discusses E-Verify proposal on Fox News’ Fair & Balanced. …
Op-Eds
The ‘Hidden Lies’ in Obama’s Health Care Plan
Even the Associated Press admits that President Obama is not telling the truth about his health care plan and how it would affect health…
Blog
Barron’s on the Dire State of Public Employee Pensions
The current issue of Barron’s highlights the crushing burden that employee pensions are putting on state and local governments around the nation. The situation…
Blog
$3,000,000,000,000 in Tax Increases in President Obama’s Budget
The president’s proposed budget raises taxes by three trillion dollars over the next ten years, notes Washington fiscal analyst…
Op-Eds
Big Labor’s Big Disappointment
Recently Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the AFL-CIO executive council in Florida. As Ricky Ricardo used to tell Lucy, Labor thinks the Vice President’s…
Newsletter
Pensions, Immigration, and Airport Kisses
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is trying to prop up failed banks by encouraging public pension funds to invest in them. Sens. Schumer (D-NY)…
Blog
Thursday Immigration Meeting: Will Immigration Reform Be a Boon or Bust?
When Senators Graham (R-SC) and Chucky “I know nothing about business” Schumer (D-NY) come to a compromise on comprehensive immigration reform, the only…
Blog
Obama Administration Rewards Corrupt Mortgage Giants, Punishes Productive Private Banks, Fleeces Taxpayers and Responsible Credit Cardholders
The Obama administration wants to increase taxes on productive banks that are self-supporting, while exempting the mortgage giants and other companies that got massive taxpayer…
Newsletter
National ID, Eminent Domain, and the EPA
Legislators are working on an immigration reform plan that includes a biometric identification card for all American workers. The mayor of Detroit plans to employ…
Op-Eds
The Corker-Dodd-Alinsky Bill? : Center-Right Coalition Letter Warns about “Proxy-Access”
Capitol Confidential and Jim Hoft have done an excellent job laying out concerns with the potential “compromise” bill that comes out of Sen. Bob…
Blog
National ID Plan Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration But Will Kill Liberty
The Senate is working toward a ghastly compromise on immigration reform that includes a biometric national identification card for all Americans. The stated purpose…
Op-Eds
5 Reasons Why America Should Steer Clear of a National ID Card
A national ID hurts American workers while pretending to help them.
Blog
The cut-and-paste Splinternet
The way Ben Kunz in a new Business Week artcle puts it, “Each device contains its own widening universe of services and applications, many…
Blog
Obama Nominates Left-Wing Extremist Goodwin Liu to Appeals Court; Liu is Possible Supreme Court Nominee
President Obama has nominated law professor Goodwin Liu, a left-wing extremist, to the nation’s largest federal appeals court, the Ninth Circuit. …
Newsletter
Blood Donation, Green Jobs, and the EPA
Sixteen Democratic senators sign a letter urging the FDA to overturn a 1983 ban on gay man donating blood. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-GA) tries to…
Blog
Green Jobs Fantasy
I have a piece in National Review Online today outlining the fantasy behind Sen. Lindsey Graham’s latest attempt to keep cap-and-trade alive. Here’s the beginning:…
News Release
Dodd-Corker Fed Bill May Contain Left-Wing “Shareholder” Power Grab
Dodd-Corker Fed Bill May Contain Left-Wing "Shareholder" Power Grab 17 Center-Right Groups Object to "Proxy Access" Provision Empowering Unions, Other Progressives Washington, D.C., March 3,…
Newsletter
SEIU, Insurance Rates, and Gun Control
President Obama appoints Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern to the deficit commission. Congressmen grill representatives of Anthem Blue Cross during a congressional hearing…
Op-Eds
Administration Keeping Cozy with Union Bosses
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to…
Op-Eds
Proxy Access: The Obama-Dodd-Alinsky Shareholder Jujitsu
What would Saul Alinksy do? In the wake of defeats for the Obama administration last month both with Scott Brown’s stunning Senate…
Op-Eds
Administration Keeping Cozy with Union Bosses
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations…
Blog
Obama Names SEIU’s Stern to Deficit Commission
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to…
Newsletter
Immigration, Bake Sales and Snow Removal
The Wall Street Journal reports that E-Verify, the federal database intended to track undocumented workers, actually fails 54% of the time. The New York City…
Blog
E-Verify is a Spectacular Failure and Should be Abandoned
The Wall Street Journal today reported that the E-Verify system, a Federal database designed to identify undocumented workers and prevent their employment, fails to…
Newsletter
Credit Cards, Organized Labor, and the Stimulus Anniversary
New credit card regulations go into effect this week. The Washington Post has a front-page story on the difficulty of…
Blog
Myths about Labor Myths
Sunday’s Washington Post features a supposed myth-debunking piece about organized labor that is so misleading that it’s hard to know where to begin driving…
Blog
CEI at CPAC this week!
CEI is co-sponsoring the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, which is expecting to draw a crowd of some 9,000 -10,000 people…
Blog
Not-so-Happy Stimulus Anniversary
The Obama administration and its allies are trying their hardest to put a happy face on the first anniversary of the the gargantuan $787-billion stimulus…
Blog
One cheer for Obama on nuclear energy
Obama has done something right concerning nuclear energy; credit where credit’s due. But he also did something very wrong, which we’ll get to. The president…
Blog
Space, the final private frontier
Here’s a case for private space exploration in the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, if we can ever get rid of NASA and the FAA,…
Blog
Pundits wiping “sneer” off Toyota’s face
Noteworthy is a tsk, tsk on page A1 of today’s Washington Post, “‘Toyota Way’ was lost on road to phenomenal worldwide growth.” More noteworthy…
Blog
Will Obama Recess-Appoint Becker?
With the nomination of former SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) most likely dead in the Senate, the…
Blog
Driving the Bus all the Way to the Bank
Investment bankers and lawyers, move aside. If you want a truly high-powered salary, try driving a bus. Last year, the Madison, Wisconsin’s highest paid city…
Blog
The Economics of Charging for Airline Amenities
As of May 1, American Airlines will charge $8 to customers who want to use a blanket and pillow. Why don't they just include the…
Blog
Do Corporations Have Free Speech Rights? The Supreme Court’s Ruling in Citizens United v. FEC
In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court recently struck down restrictions on…
Newsletter
Cybersecurity, Global Warming and Organized Labor
Congress considers a bill to fund new cybersecurity initiatives. In the wake of ClimateGate, climate change alarmists are now having to defend the scholastic integrity…
Blog
Government Unions up, Private Sector Unions down but not out
The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of the crucial shift in union membership that reached a tipping point last week: More union members…
Newsletter
Labor Relations, Alito’s Silent Protest and a New Editor Takes Charge
President Obama nominates union attorney Craig Becker to a seat on the National Labor Relations Board. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito makes headlines for…
Blog
Why Supreme Court Justice May Have Been So Annoyed at the President’s State of the Union Address
At the president’s recent State of the Union address, he misleadingly attacked the Supreme Court for supposedly “…
Blog
The Nation Confirms Craig Becker’s Radicalism
Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) associate general counsel Craig Becker, who has been nominated to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Obama,…
Blog
The High Cost of Project Labor Agreements
At Biggovernment.com, Mandy/Liberty Chick provides a comprehensive overview of project labor agreements (PLAs), which impose onerous conditions on contractors who wish to bid on government…
Blog
School Choice: Mankind’s Doom
A new study opposes school choice on the grounds that it would contribute to global warming.
Op-Eds
The Corporate Library: Servant of Special Interests
Full Document Available in PDF Labor unions, left-leaning foundations and activists declare their support…
Blog
The Money behind an Anti-Tea Party Hatchet Job
My colleague Lee Doren uncovers the money behind an online hatchet job on the tea party protests: I just came across a new website…
Blog
Lou Dobbs Believes Own B.S.
For years Lou Dobbs made a living trying to convince Americans that illegal immigrants and their supporters were waging a war on the…
Blog
“Here’s a way of paying for things that’s not going to cost you anything.”
Public employee unions, as I’ve noted previously, make up a permanent lobby for bigger government. Now they have a major victory. Oregonians who went…
Blog
SEIU and the Shareholder Resolution Weapon
At Biggovernment.com, blogger Mandy/Liberty Chick has a good, concise account of the rise of shareholder resolutions as a favorite tool of organized labor. By…
Blog
SEIU Suffers a Major Loss in California
The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has taken a major hit from a rival union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which is…
Newsletter
Murkowski vs. EPA, Public Sector Unions and Ozone Rules
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) leads the opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. For the first time in…
Blog
More Union Members now Work for Governments than for Businesses
For the first time in U.S. history, the majority of the country’s union members work for government, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. For…
Blog
Obama’s Glass-Steagall 2.0 could crash financial system
President Obama’s proposal today to bring back…
Blog
Populism, jobs and the economy — where do we go from here?
Scott Brown’s decisive victory in the Massachusetts Senate race has upturned the Democrats’ Progressive agenda. Brown, “the people’s seat” senator, had a resonant message…
News Release
Report Card for the Obama Administration
One year ago today, Barack Obama took the oath of office as President of the United States. Since then, he and his appointees have had…
Blog
Trumka: “Well, I’m not done.”
Showing a stubborn belligerence more commonly seen in the coal mines where his father worked than in the leader of one of the largest…
Blog
New Federal Program Kills Jobs, While Costing Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars
A federal biofuels program enacted in the name of fighting global warming and reducing dependence on foreign oil is instead killing jobs while perhaps…
Blog
Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says Obama Policies Delaying Economic Recovery
In the Wall Street Journal, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and others explain how President Obama’s policies are delaying and retarding the inevitable economic…
Blog
Thinking outside the box on security
The Washington Post editorial, “In the wake of Flight 253, the TSA must get more anti-terrorist tools” makes a short-sighted argument for increasing resources for…
Blog
Serial Rapists Roam Free in D.C. as the D.C. Government Shields Ex-Cons from Discrimination
The D.C. government sometimes has more empathy for criminals than for their victims. In December 2007, the D.C. Council voted to…
Blog
Richard Epstein: “Deregulation Now”
In his Forbes.com column, University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein offers a simple proposal for reviving the economy: “Deregulation Now.” His proposals are…
Op-Eds
Letter to the Editor: TSA Doesn’t Need Any More Obstacles
The Examiner was right to oppose unionizing the Transportation Security Administration, which would harm airline security and reduce its effectiveness. But the TSA is…
Blog
Public Sector Unions’ Heavy Burden on Taxpayers
As the old saying goes, when you start getting flak, you must be over the target. That seems like a good reason for the hysterical…
Op-Eds
Change We Can Really Believe In
Over the last century, America has lurched down a path toward statism. And Presidents Bush and Obama accelerated the expansion of government power by…
Study
The Ultimate Payoff
Full Document Available in PDF The December issue of Labor Watch looked at the growing influence of the 2.1-million…
Op-Eds
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes.
Blog
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes, Harms Economy
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes. The Wall Street Journal…
Minneapolis Star Tribune
LETTER: The Minimum Wage: It’s a Job Killer and a Job Repressor
A Dec. 30 letter by a former career Labor Department bureaucrat claimed the haves have had it in for the have-nots for decades because the…
Blog
TSA Praises Itself After Year of Security Lapses; Obama Administration Backs TSA Unionization at Public Expense
In a year-end message to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff, the agency praised itself for a “very good year” in airline…
Blog
MI Senate not “FAIR” and it’s a good thing
The Michigan Senate recessed last week without passing the proposed insurance reforms that would, among other things, prevent insurers from using factors such as…
Newsletter
Fewer Hurricanes, Union Lobbying and the Individual Mandate
Financial losses from natural catastrophes decline significantly from 2008. Labor unions continue to lobby for the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act. Health care legislation may…
The Economist
Letter to the Editor in the Economist
SIR – Public-sector unions have entrenched their privileges through a combination of political dynamics that have proven extremely difficult to overcome. For example,…
Blog
Say No to EFCA in 2010
Given the amount of palm-greasing that was required to get reluctant moderate Democratic senators to vote to end debate on Obamacare, it's unlikely that those…
The Economist
No Government in the Bedroom
Three cheers for the judge in Los Angeles who dismissed the petition to mandate condom use in adult films. While the spread of sexually…
Blog
Michigan’s population leak
In a preview to the 2010 census, Michigan learned this week that it was one of only three states to lose members of its…
Blog
Terrorist Charged After Trying to Blow Up Plane; Government Undermines Airline and Railroad Security
An alleged terrorist from Nigeria has been charged with plotting to blow up an airliner. He carried explosives onto a plane…
The Economist
Comprehensive Redux
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act (CIR ASAP) was introduced last week by Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois…
Blog
An unhappy ending for CA’s adult film industry?
One reason people enjoy pornography (apart from the obvious benefit) is that it allows them to fantasize about activities in which they cannot or do…
Blog
FDIC Prepares for “an even-larger number of bank failures” in 2010
[T]he increase is intended to “ensure that [they] are prepared to handle an even-larger number of bank failures” in 2010.
Blog
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Helps Highly Skilled Immigrants
Section 320 of the The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 H.R. 4321 (CIR ASAP) is fantastic. It exempts…
Newsletter
Immigration, Smoking Bans and Sarbanes-Oxley
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduces comprehensive immigration reform legislation. The Colorado Supreme Court upholds a ban on smoking in stage performances. The battle over the…
Blog
The Economist on Government Employee Unions
The current issue of The Economist leads off its United States section with a story on public sector unions that breaks down the issue very…
News Release
Comprehensive Immigration Bill Helps H-1Bs, But Hurts All Employers
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill a Mixed Bag Bill Helps H-1Bs, But Hurts All Employers Washington, D.C., December 15, 2009—The Competitive Enterprise Institute obtained an…
Newsletter
EPA Power Grab, Antitrust for Insurance and an Immigration Stimulus
The Environmental Protection Agency finds that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. The Senate may vote to repeal health insurance companies’ longstanding exemption from…
The Economist
Immigration Limits Don’t Protect Us
Patrick J. Buchanan’s "Halting immigration would be an instant stimulus package" (Dec. 9) blithely ignores economic reality when he states that a moratorium on…
Blog
Tarp the TARP and give small biz relief from Sarbanes-Oxley and other burdensome regs
Statement of John Berlau, Director of CEI’s Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs, on extending TARP for small business and on Rep. Barney Frank’s plans to…
Blog
Did Deregulation Cause the Great Recession?
Over at RealClearMarkets, I explain why the answer is a resounding no. Over 30,000 total new rules passed during the Bush years. Hardly any were…
Newsletter
Credit Card Fees, Immigration Reform and Heading off an EPA Power Grab
The U.S. looks to Australia’s experience with regulating credit cards fees. Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs softens his longtime anti-immigration stance. Environmental groups petition the…
The Economist
Let Immigrants Power America’s Scientific Prowess
The melee surrounding President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize distracted everyone from another potential Nobel controversy. Of the eight American citizens who received Nobel…
Study
Organization Man
How Andrew Stern Plans to Transform the Union Movement…
The American Spectator
