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
Obama Administration’s Pay Caps Reward Failure and Political Connections
The federal government has no problem paying exorbitant sums of money to people who head failed government agencies like Freddie Mac. Its CEO will receive…
Blog
Obama Accepts “Blasphemy” Exception to Free Speech
In USA Today, liberal law professor Jonathan Turley is criticizing the Obama administration for endorsing a “blasphemy” exception to free speech: “Around the…
Blog
Franken Uses Inflammatory Rape Claim to Destroy Arbitration of Employment Disputes, Including Disputes Totally Unrelated to Rape
Recently, the Senate voted to ban defense contractors — that is, much of American business — from contractually mandating arbitration of employment discrimination disputes. The…
Newsletter
Teacher Unions, Obama’s Climate Czar and Public Choice
Director Bob Bowden exposes corruption and waste in public schools in the new film The Cartel. Critics object to the potentially sweeping powers of President…
Blog
Defending free trade: the pending FTAs
The pending U.S. Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia are languishing in limbo, despite the fact that all three agreements will improve…
Blog
Eliot Spitzer Wants your Pension
Today, Slate features a rant by disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer that includes distortions and falsehoods so blatant that they wouldn’t merit…
Blog
How Much Harm Do Teacher Unions Do?
Plenty, according to the new film, The Cartel. The film purports to show “educational system like we’ve never seen it before. Behind every dropout…
Blog
More on Public Sector Unions
Slate blogger Mickey Kaus explains how public sector unions are driving state and local governments to the brink of bankruptcy (via Nick Gillespie at…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 60: Hybrid Car Noise
One advantage of hybrid cars is that they are quiet. Too quiet, some would say. Blind pedestrians may not hear a hybrid coming around the…
Blog
The Wages of Government Unions
The Economist‘s current Lexington column highlights the growing public resentment at the widening disparity between compensation and job security in the private and public…
Op-Eds
Our Nobel Prize Winning Immigrants
Americans dominated the 2009 Nobel Prizes for the sciences. Eight of the nine winners were American citizens. What is even more striking is that…
Op-Eds
Pomeroy’s Lucre for Labor
Rep. Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota Democrat, is drafting legislation that would amount to a massive, employer-crippling bailout for struggling union pensions. The congressman is trying…
Citation
ACORN’s Pension Shell Game
Blog
Unemployment Rises to 26-Year High of 9.8%; Obama’s Policies Worsen Unemployment and Credit Crunch
Unemployment has risen to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high. That’s much higher than the Obama administration predicted unemployment would rise, if Congress had refused…
Newsletter
Questionable Stimulus, EPA on CO2 and Underfunded Union Pensions
Experts question the economic wisdom of government stimulus spending. Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions point out the cost…
Blog
Stimulus Packages Don’t Work; Obama’s $800 Billion Stimulus Will Shrink the Economy
“Stimulus” packages that increase government spending don’t work, notes Harvard economist Robert J. Barro in the Wall Street Journal. The administration claimed that Obama’s…
Citation
High-Stakes Board Games: What Obama’s NLRB Might Do for Big Labor
News Release
Labor Unions Aim to Roll Back Pension Protections, Ramp Up Political Investments
Labor Unions Aim to Roll Back Pension Protections, Ramp Up Political Investments Pensions Should Invest to Profit Workers – Not Promote Union Politics…
Blog
Overpaid Bureaucrats Expand in Number and Pay
Thanks to the $800 billion stimulus package, and other huge government spending increases, the number of federal and state employees is projected to increase massively.
Blog
Big Labor’s Big Prize in Health Care “Reform”
In his Wall Street Journal column today, Holman Jenkins highlights one of the prizes at stake for organized labor in the current health care…
Blog
Rowdy Unionists Shout Down Opponents
Yesterday in Harrisburg, rowdy unionists disrupted a rally held by two Pennsylvania state legislators to promote legislation to end project labor agreements (PLAs), which…
Study
Your Retirement or Our Political Agenda
How Politicized Investment Strategies Threaten Workers’ Pensions…
Op-Eds
As Deficit Rises, So Too Does Number of Federal Employees
Thanks to the $800 billion stimulus package, and other huge government spending increases, the number of federal and state employees is projected to increase…
Study
The Politicization of the FAA Reauthorization Act
It is hard to imagine Congress looking for ways to saddle a key sector with new taxes and restrictions. But that is exactly what Rep.
Blog
New Study on How Government Employee Unions Squeeze Public Budgets
As in other states, government employee unions oppose cuts that would affect their members. All unions do this, but public sector unions are different.
Newsletter
Opposing Net Neutrality, TSA Unionizing and Banning Soft Toilet Paper
The Washington Post editorializes against the FCC’s proposed “net neutrality” regulations. The American Federation of Government Employees seeks to unionize airport safety screeners and other…
Blog
Union Blocks Action Against Dangerous Bus Drivers at DC Metro; Obama Expands Union Power at Expense of Airline and Rail Security
Thanks to their union, bus drivers for Washington’s Metro system can be dangerously incompetent and still draw a government paycheck, avoiding discipline for repeated…
Citation
Misunderstanding the Court
Op-Eds
Biased Reporting of Supreme Court Fuels Leftist Resurgence
American law has moved in a leftward direction over the last 20 years, steadily restricting use of the death penalty and criminal sentencing, and…
Blog
Biased Press Coverage of the Supreme Court Fuels Leftist Resurgence
American law has moved in a leftward direction over the last 20 years, steadily restricting use of the death penalty and criminal sentencing, and expanding…
Blog
Obama Slaps Unconstitutional Gag Order on Critic of His Health Care Plan
While Obama ally ACORN attempts to gag whistleblowers who exposed its role in a recent scandal, the Obama administration is trying to gag…
Blog
DC Councilman Graham’s Chief of Staff Indicted on Bribery Charges Related to Taxi Legislation
Graham's chief of staff, Ted Loza, has been indicted on bribery charges relating to the taxicab legislation.
Blog
Hard-Left Obama Policies Draw Criticism for Undermining Democracy, Security, and the Rule of Law
In his 2008 campaign, Barack Obama talked a lot about “bipartisanship,” but in office, he has governed from the far left, on both domestic and…
Blog
Gypsy Cabs Coming soon to DC?
If you’ve ever been to Brooklyn, you’ve almost certainly seen firsthand the shortage of taxis that has been created by New York City’s licensing restrictions,…
Blog
Big Health and Energy Tax Increases for the Middle Class from Obama and Liberal Congressmen
Even the trimmed-down version of Obama's health-care plan recently announced by a ranking Senator contains lots of tax increases for the middle class.
Citation
Labor Bosses Still Expecting Bailout
Blog
Solis Tells AFL-CIO: “I am proud and humbled to be your humble servant…”
The AFL-CIO, at its recent convention in Pittsburgh, had much to celebrate, including the fact that a Labor Secretary showed up to pay tribute to…
Blog
Obama scolds Wall Street, but targets Main Street with regs
One year after the Wall Street meltdown, President Obama…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 50: Tires from China
The burden is on tariff supporters to explain why they think people who live in one country are more deserving of economic opportunity than people…
Blog
Obama Administration Undermines Airline Security and Railroad Safety: 9/11 Lessons Ignored
In the aftermath of 9/11, Congress foolishly shifted airline security screening to the inept Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has failed to detect explosive ingredients…
Op-Eds
9/11 Ignored-Obama Undermines Airline and Train Security
In the aftermath of 9/11, Congress foolishly shifted airline security screening to the inept Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has failed to detect explosive…
Blog
To Heckle the President, or Not?
Politicians make themselves look bad far more effectively than any heckler could. They don’t need the help.
Newsletter
Obama’s Health Care Speech, Minority Underemployment and Investing in Global Warming
President Obama’s national health care address receives mixed reviews. DC Progress hosts a panel discussion on the problem of “underemployment” among locals in Washington, D.C.
Blog
Project Labor Agreements’ Dire Effects on Minority Contractors
Today, DC Progress, a public policy organization that focuses on the District of Columbia, hosted a panel on the issue of underemployment. DC Progress…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 48: Barbers in Nevada
Want to be a barber in Nevada? You’ll need to get a license first. One of the requirements is a chest X-ray, of all things.
Op-Eds
Obama’s Own Economic Advisor Criticizes Budget Plans
Martin Feldstein, an economic advisor to Obama, criticized “ObamaCare’s Crippling Deficits” in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, noting that “the higher taxes, debt payments and…
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. The Wall…
Blog
Happy Labor Day!
In a new poll, Gallup finds public support for organized labor at its lowest level since it began taking the survey. Gallup finds organized…
Newsletter
Labor Lobbying, India’s Greenhouse Gases and Honduras’ Financial Struggle
Labor unions gear up to lobby for the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act,” which could impose binding federal arbitration in union disputes. India’s emissions of…
American Spectator
Big Labor’s Benefits
Are unions giving Democrats a free pass on card check? At first look, it appears that way.
