Posts tagged free-market
Help Us Equip the Next Generation of Labor Policy Leaders: Future of Work Fellowship
July 28, 2026 // Institute for the American Worker is excited to expand its successful Future of Work Fellowship program by doubling the number of openings available to young policy professionals this fall. We will accept 20 fellows to join our professional development program, which takes place from Sept. 8 - Nov. 14 and is designed to cultivate the next generation of labor policy leaders.
Commentary: Australia’s Not-So-Super Retirement System
July 23, 2026 // In Australia the accountability problem is exacerbated by unions’ sway over a particular type of super fund. Known as industry super funds, these were originally set up by employers and unions to steward the savings of workers in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2025, ISFs controlled more than 40% of Australian superannuation assets. Under Australian law, employers and unions appoint directors to ISF trustee boards under what is called the equal representation model. Union leaders say this ensures that workers have some indirect influence over decisions made by ISF boards and managers. That claim is difficult to square with trends in union membership. The proportion of Australian employees who belong to unions fell from 51% in 1976 to 13.1% in 2024. Unions long ago lost the authority to serve as legitimate proxies for Australian workers.
Op-ed: Why teachers unions fear, and fib about, new federal program
July 7, 2026 // Perhaps the unions are right to be scared. Anything that introduces competition into the educational landscape threatens their monopoly. When you read between the lines of Weingartner and Pringle’s letter, you can almost hear the death rattle. But in the end, this isn’t about the unions. This is about kids who deserve a high-quality education regardless of their household income or zip code. And anybody who gets between them and their parents would be wise to choose their words more carefully.
Social conservatives split over abortion and transgender medicine in union contracts bill
June 16, 2026 // Beck said he believes abortion and transgender medical coverage would be “an easy thing” for arbitrators to use as a bargaining chip to reach an agreement on the three-person panel. “It’s going to be easy for the arbitrator to say, ‘OK, employer, I’m not going to make you pay the high wages that the union is demanding,’” Beck said as a hypothetical. ‘“But what I am going to make you do is I’m going to make you give generous health benefits and give very generous access to abortion on demand and give very, very generous access to so-called gender-affirming care.”
Why Would Any Republican Support Forced Unionism?
June 9, 2026 // What makes this even more shocking is that President Trump has proposed completely eliminating the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which the bill would supercharge. The president understands that contracts imposed by government bureaucrats are more likely to be based on political than economic logic, and that negotiations are better left to the private parties. Ironically, government-imposed contracts are likely to harm the workers whose union bosses are pushing this idea. Because when economics don’t add up, it’s the workers who pay in layoffs, reduced hours and the diversion of capital investments that would have raised productivity. This risks broader economic disruption by creating a threat perception that, at any time, a single union request could trigger a government-enforced contract clock. That perception would tend to chill hiring and investing, especially by smaller businesses that can’t afford to fight out an arbitration battle.
Republicans’ Latest Pro-Union Move Has Some Conservatives Sounding The Alarm
June 4, 2026 // Vinnie Vernuccio, the president of the Institute for the American Worker, also said that it would give “unprecedented power” to federal bureaucrats. He said that his organization was “proud to stand for union democracy by joining the larger coalition and sounding the alarm on this harmful legislation.” The Senate version of the proposal was introduced by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and also supported by Republican Senators Roger Marshall (Kansas) and Bernie Moreno (Ohio) and 12 other Democrats.
Op-ed: The right’s growing crackup over organized labor
May 14, 2026 // In the face of its growing crackup over organized labor, the Right is badly in need of developing a labor policy that is pro-worker without being pro-union. The best bet would be to coalesce around a flexible work agenda that empowers workers to achieve autonomy and agency in their employment arrangements. This policy agenda could take many different forms, but it might include championing the independent contracting status of gig workers while simultaneously expanding so-called portable benefit models that provide these workers with funds to access workplace benefits. This provides a more nimble, nuanced alternative to reclassifying them as employees or unionizing them. Or right-leaning politicians could seek to address issues like just-in-time scheduling, a common sore spot for workers in many industries, by striking a grand bargain with the business community regarding overtime averaging. By focusing on flexibility rather than cribbing the union political playbook, the Right can take a pro-worker stance without needing to fully repudiate its pro-business instincts.
Rachel Greszler: The New Right wants to help workers. Its labor policy will hurt them
May 13, 2026 // Wage mandates reduce employment, particularly among younger and less experienced workers. Sectoral bargaining risks cartelizing labor markets, reducing competition, and innovation. Legislation such as the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which would impose binding arbitration on employers, and the Warehouse Worker Protections Act, which would dictate warehouse operations, may aim to help a subset of workers. But the actual outcome would be less growth, reduced flexibility, and a step toward central planning: a guaranteed way to suppress and impoverish workers — just ask the former Soviet Union and East Germany. The Right is right to care about workers, not just for the economic benefits, but because work is a primary source of human dignity.
How a $15 minimum wage will regionally affect a diverse and unequal Virginia
April 28, 2026 // The age-old economic debate over minimum wage has been a sticking point between Republicans and Democrats in the Old Dominion, as Youngkin called the $15 minimum wage proposal a "one-size-fits-all mandate" that "ignores the vast economic and geographic differences," in his veto memo last year. "Implementing an arbitrary $15-per-hour wage mandate may not impact Northern Virginia, where economic conditions lead to historically higher wages, but this approach is detrimental for small businesses across the rest of Virginia, especially in Southwest and Southside," Youngkin wrote.
Right-to-work facts vs. myths
February 12, 2025 // What’s become evident over the decades is that right-to-work laws are associated with statistically significant gains in employment, particularly manufacturing employment, job opportunities, population growth and economic growth. If New Hampshire adopts a right-to-work law, we would expect to see improvements in all of those areas, along with an improvement in state business tax revenues resulting from the additional business activity. As for freedom vs. coercion, workers have First Amendment rights not to associate with or fund membership organizations that they choose not to join. If workers want to join unions, they should be free to do so.