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
Pardon me boys, is this the Special Interest Express?
The Washington Post published a smart editorial on Monday on why the proposed Railway Safety Act is a bad idea. The legislation is…
News Release
21st Century Worker Act Aims to End Worker Classification Confusion
Today, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the 21st Century Worker Act, a much needed practical step to clear up persistent confusion surrounding worker classification under…
News Release
92,000 jobs were lost in February, turbulent labor market continues: CEI analysis
The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report shows 92,000 jobs were lost in February, indicating a turbulent labor market. Given today’s report, attention will…
Search Posts
Newsletter
Healthcare Complexity, Union Politics and Insurance Markets
Critics question the unwieldy complexity of current healthcare legislation. A compromise version of the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” gains momentum in Congress. Florida Rep.
Blog
Elaine Chao: Union transparency “more important than Beck;” EFCA “terrible”
Today, at the Heritage Foundation blogger briefing, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao described the union transparency requirements introduced during the Bush administration as “more important…
Op-Eds
Don’t Ban but Expand Them
In proposing his new financial regulations this summer, President Obama pledged to get tough on the big Wall Street banks whose risky practices are…
Blog
Cash for Clunkers Sputters to an End
The Transportation Department announced today that it will wind down the Cash for Clunkers program, which the Obama administration promoted as a way to both…
Blog
Former ACORN Las Vegas Director to Testify against Organization
The former director of the Las Vegas chapter of the far-left advocacy group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has agreed to…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 34: Diabetic Truckers
It is a violation of federal regulations to “operate a commercial vehicle in interstate commerce” if you have insulin-treated diabetes.
Blog
OSHA Nominee Is Anti-Gun Ideologue and Junk Science Peddler
Obama has nominated David Michaels, an anti-gun activist, to head the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a powerful agency that regulates real…
Comment
Letter to Securities and Exchange Commission: Reforming Shareholder Director Nominations
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed rule governing shareholder nominations of corporate directors on behalf of the…
Blog
Don’t Forget Cap and Trade!
Even though 4 Democratic Senators are so nervous about the electricity tax called cap-and-trade they are urging their leadership to drop it from the…
Newsletter
TARP Transparency, Stimulating Recession and Union Arrogance
Congress cites a lack of financial transparency in a report sharply critical of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout. The economies of Germany and…
Citation
Forced Unionization: Card Check, Mandatory Arbitration, & Right to Work Panel
Americans for Prosperity Right Online Conference …
Blog
Democratic Senator Blasts Union Boss
It’s not every day that a Democratic Senator blasts a labor union, which is why the recent mini-controversy surrounding the nomination of United Transportation Union…
Op-Eds
Lesson From France-Recession Ends Without US-Style Stimulus
Op-Eds
Lesson From France-Recession Ends Without US-Style Stimulus
The recession has ended in France, which avoided adopting a massive stimulus package like Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package. France’s conservative President…
Blog
UBS-IRS deal — U.S. Constitutional liberties, privacy rights at risk after Obama bullies the Swiss
Lawyers for the U.S. government and the Swiss bank UBS AG have announced that they have reached a deal…
Blog
Smart Is As Smart Does
This picture accompanying this post is doing the rounds on the internet. The commentary normally reads: Below is a…
Blog
Policy Peril Segment 7: Fuel economy standards
Today’s excerpt from CEI’s film, Policy Peril: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself, is on two global warming policies Congress…
Op-Eds
Perverts Get Stimulus Money, Not Roads and Bridges
“Join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun,” urged a recipient of more than $250,000 from Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package, which received…
Blog
Hate Crime in St. Louis? Obama Backers Beat Up Black Critic of Health-Care “Reform,” Use Racial Slurs
Kenneth Gladney, a black critic of Obama’s health-care plan, was beaten, kicked, and called racist names by members of the SEIU, a…
Blog
Deficit Rises $880 Billion to Record $1.3 Trillion, Due to Massive, Unprecedented Government Spending
The federal budget deficit has already risen by $880 billion to an unprecedented $1.3 trillion. Most of the increase is attributable to recent…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 26: Fortune Telling in Maryland
You need a license to tell fortunes in Annapolis, Maryland.
Blog
Union Bosses Say the Darndest Things
As described in an OpenMarket post by CEI’s Ivan Osorio a couple weeks ago, the Teamsters union and UPS are currently lobbying Congress to…
Blog
The Right to a Green Job?
Demand for wind turbine blades in Europe has slipped, apparently, so a British company that makes them, Vestas, has plans to let go 625 workers…
Blog
Billions More for Wasteful Auto Bailouts
The auto bailouts keep expanding. Billions more are going to be spent on wealthy auto-dealers, cash-for-clunkers, politically-correct cars few people will buy, and excessive benefits…
Newsletter
Heat Waves, UAW Arrogance and the Costs of Obesity
Locations across the nation see record-cold summer temperatures, confounding global warming predictions. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) chastises United Auto Workers chief Ron Gettelfinger for refusing…
Blog
The Wall Street Journal on the Union Pension Debacle
Two weekend Wall Street Journal editorials sum up well the ticking time-bomb of underfunded union pension funds. First, the dire state of many union…
Blog
UAW Gives Taxpayers the (Gettel)finger
Considering the enormous amounts of cash that the federal government has hurled at the auto industry since the start of the financial crisis, recipients…
Blog
Exploiting the Minimum Wage
Young people with little or no work experience may not be able to offer $7.25 per hour worth of productivity; small wonder so many of…
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Destroys Cheap Health-Care Options, Raises Taxes, Breaks Promises
In 2008, Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. But he is now breaking that promise by…
Newsletter
Labor Politics, Government Paternalism and Tobacco Profits
Labor unions push to establish “binding arbitration” in contract negotiations. The nomination of law professor Cass Sunstein to oversee new federal regulations moves forward. Cigarette…
Citation
Employee Free Choice Act Is Coercive Even Without Card Check
Blog
NRO on EFCA’s Binding Arbitration Provision
Today’s National Review Online editorial looks at the so-called Employee Free Choice Act’s arbitration provision, which would subject newly unionized companies to having a…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: Sliding Car Doors
A new set of rules for sliding car doors will come into effect on September 1, 2010.
Newsletter
Big Labor in Congress, Private Conservation and White House Science Policy
Potentially dramatic changes in U.S. labor law make their way through the legislative process. Efforts to eliminate E. coli contamination on farms leads to unintended…
Blog
Union Pension Fund Bailout Taking on a New Form
Senate Democrats and organized labor leaders are reportedly near a deal on removing the card-check provision from the s0-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That…
Blog
George Will on the UPS/Teamsters Campaign against FedEx
Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” describes a world in which the utopian dream of equality has been achieved beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings: “Nobody was…
Blog
Health care taxes — devastating effects for NYC
Lead headline on the Drudge Report today – “Terrifying 57% tax looms for biggest earners in NYC.” It links to a…
Op-Eds
Obama Administration = Waste, Corruption, Corporate Welfare
Rapidly-rising Medicare spending already threatens “to crush the federal budget,” and much Medicare spending is wasteful, yet the Obama Administration claims it can somehow…
Blog
Reason’s Shikha Dalmia on EFCA’s Binding Arbitration Provision
With Al Franken joining the Senate, public attention is again turning to the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In the weekend Wall Street Journal,…
Newsletter
Sotomayor in the Senate, The New GM and State Farm in Florida
Judge Sonia Sotomayor prepares for her confirmation hearings in the Senate. A slimmed-down General Motors emerges from bankruptcy. Florida’s insurance commissioner claims to have “a…
Citation
They’re From the Government, And They’re Here To Help (Set Your Contract Terms)
Citation
Card Check’s Dirty Little Secret
Blog
Reason’s Michael Moynihan on the SEIU Chavistas
At Reason Hit & Run, Michael C. Moynihan looks at the Service Employees Internatinoal Union’s harassing of broadcasters who air ads opposing the so-called…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Size of Your Carry-On Bags
The Securing Cabin Baggage Act wouldn't add to security, wouldn't make flying more convenient, and may well be the result of rent-seeking.
Blog
Washington Post Sells White House Access to Lobbyists, and Misreports Obama Health-Care Facts
Until it was publicly-exposed, the Washington Post was selling its access to the White House to lobbyists. As Politico reported, “For…
Op-Eds
Government-Forced Contracts are Card Check’s Real Threat
The Employee Free Choice Act includes a Card Check section to eliminate the secret ballot in union organization elections. The outcry against this antidemocratic process…
Blog
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of White and Hispanic Firefighters in Ricci v. DeStefano
The Court reversed a decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, including Judge Sonia Sotomayor. . . The Supreme Court held that this was…
Newsletter
Waxman-Markey in the Senate, Tobacco Regulation and Big Labor’s Payday
The Waxman-Markey climate bill passes the House of Representatives. President Obama signs a new law expanding federal regulation of tobacco products. The Waxman-Markey climate bill…
Blog
Krugman Undermines Waxman-Markey Job Creation Claims
Today, National Public Radio held a pep rally for the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, with Paul Krugman as head cheerleader. No critic of the bill…
Blog
Green Pork and (Davis) Bacon
The alliance between organized labor and leftist environmentalists remains as strong as ever. As Carter Wood at Shopfloor.org notes, the Waxman-Markey climate change bill…
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