CEI Podcast For July 25, 2013: The UAW And Chattanooga
Have a listen here. The United Auto Workers union is campaigning to organize a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. Senior Fellow Matt Patterson talks about his recent trip to Chattanooga, where he...
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Is the AFL-CIO Biting off More than it Can Chew?
Organized labor has long been a major force within the broader progressive coalition at the Democratic Party’s left wing. Unions regularly work with environmental and other non-labor advocacy groups...
View ArticleThe Rip-Off that Is Occupational Licensing
Occupational licensing rules allow trade schools in some states to force students to attend them, enabling the schools to charge students lots of tuition for training that is not worth remotely what it...
View ArticleDetroit Bankruptcy Focuses Attention on Public Pensions
For people watching it from afar, the bankruptcy of Detroit — the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history — may have brought a sense of relief in the fact that they live somewhere else. But...
View ArticleThe Misleading Push for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with...
Last year, the Senate did not ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with supporters falling just short of the two-thirds vote needed for ratification of a treaty....
View ArticleALEC Puts Forth Ideas for State Pension Reform
Public awareness of the scope of the state public pension crisis seems to be growing every day. That’s a welcome development, in that it has led to state officials to look for ways to reform their...
View ArticleLabor Department Meddles in California Transit Dispute
California public transit unions seem to have found a new, powerful bargaining tactic: If you don’t get your way in the legislature, threaten your state’s transportation funding. And it helps to have...
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Labor Unions Blast Obama’s American Airlines-US Airways Merger Lawsuit
Last week, the Department of Justice and six state attorneys general filed suit to block the planned merger of American Airlines and US Airways. I criticized the lawsuit here on several grounds. One of...
View ArticleDetroit’s Pension Fight: Coming to a City Near You?
The bankruptcy of Detroit is an unusual event, but its uniqueness lies mainly in its severity. Municipal governments across the nation are struggling to bring their own finances under control, and for...
View ArticleCourt Strikes Down another Obama NLRB appointment
If you cant’ get legislation through Congress, then make policy through regulation. Until the courts get in the way. The former has been the Obama administration’s approach to implementing policies it...
View ArticlePresident Obama: Cut Law School from Three Years to Two
President Obama, a lawyer who once was a lecturer at the University of Chicago, recently urged law schools to reduce the length of study from three years to two, reported The New York Times: President...
View ArticleLobbyists at the State Public Trough
Who is a public employee? The answer to that should be simple: Someone who works directly for a government entity. But in 20 states, the definition of public employee for pension purposes includes...
View ArticlePlaying Politics with Public Pensions
Many public pension plans around the nation are severely underfunded. The 2008 financial crisis, which wiped out many pension investments, has focused the public’s and policy makers’ attention on the...
View ArticleScholars React to President’s Call to Shrink Law School from Three Years to Two
We earlier discussed (and agreed with) President Obama’s suggestion that law schools cut their length of study to two years from the current three years. At Above the Law, Elie Mystal urged Obama to...
View ArticleNew Estimate: Public Pensions Underfunded by $4.1 Trillion
One of the challenges in addressing the underfunding of public pensions is determining how big the funding gaps are. Estimates vary because of disagreement over accounting methods. State pension...
View ArticleLongshore Union’s Exit from AFL-CIO Illustrates Bad Feature of U.S. Labor Law
The largest longshoremen’s union in the West Coast has decided to leave the AFL-CIO. While this may be an internecine organized labor fight, it illustrates a major problem with U.S. labor law. In an...
View ArticlePrivate Lobbyists and Public Pensions Don’t Mix
Government officials mismanaging public funds is nothing new. But giving public pensions to private lobbyists is a new low. A recent Associated Press report uncovered that at least 20 states supply...
View ArticleLabor Department Imposes Disability Hiring Quotas, Even in Divisions that...
The Obama Labor Department has just finalized rules that will effectively require businesses that get federal contracts to adopt a 7 percent hiring quota for the disabled. Much of the American...
View ArticlePublic Pensions Are Not Property
Across the nation, state and local governments in dire financial straits face great difficulty in their efforts to bring their budgets under control. Pensions are one of the biggest drivers of...
View ArticleRacial Preferences and Red Tape Grow Under Federal Dodd-Frank Act
Last Friday on National Review‘s The Corner, Roger Clegg wrote about the 2010 law governing the financial sector, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the racial “diversity quotas” that may come into being under a...
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