CEI - New Labor Policy Video: The Life of Julius

CEI Produces Counterpoint to Obama's "Life of Julia"

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 29, 2013 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute unveiled a new video today: “The Life of Julius: How Unions Hurt Workers.” The two-minute animated film can be viewed on YouTube or at CEI's labor policy website WorkplaceChoice.org.

“The Life of Julius,” like the Obama campaign’s controversial “Life of Julia,” follows the life of a working American. Julius is an African-American man who has suffered under pro-union labor policies.

For example, as a 17 year-old in search of his first job, Julius finds that the labor pool in his hometown is artificially small thanks to minimum wage laws, which have been promoted by labor unions for decades.

Later in life, as a father and home-owner in his 40s, Julius finds that the collective bargaining agreements of public-sector workers have driven his taxes up, leaving his family with less take-home pay for groceries, gas, and vacations.

Finally, at the end of his working life, a 64 year-old Julius is looking forward to retiring on the pension fund he's contributed to for decades. Unfortunately, the unionized workforce at his company has driven the enterprise into insolvency by increasing labor costs to unsustainable levels. The company is forced to shut its doors, and Julius finds he has an empty nest egg, just when he needs it.

"The Life of Julius" tells the story of how the average person is affected by politically empowered unions and the laws and regulations they support. Watch the video here.

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CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Life of Julius video, GOP v Margaret Thatcher, and Calif. chemical regulation

Meet Julius: How Unions Hurt The Average Worker

Julius is an African American man living in modern-day America. Julius is a fictitious character, but the problems he faces are real problems that real people face every day. He wants the American Dream. He wants prosperity and opportunity. He wants his kids to have a better life than he did. When he retires, he wants to know that his years of hard work have meant some level of comfort in his old age.

In other words, Julius wants what all of us want. Unfortunately, his economic hopes are continually frustrated in ways both large and small, both obvious and subtle, by a powerful force: labor unions.

Please come see Julius’s story at WorkplaceChoice.org, and share with your friends and family. After all — you are Julius. And so are we all. > View the video

GOP vs MARGARET THATCHER - MATTHEW MELCHIORRE & RYAN YOUNG American Spectator: Republicans Dishonor Thatcher Margaret Thatcher got entrepreneurialism. Why won’t the GOP? Margaret Thatcher’s passing led many around the world to reflect on her legacy. In the United Kingdom, reactions ranged from fond remembrances by supporters to street protests by detractors. In America, Republicans have lionized her, highlighting her strong ideological bond with Ronald Reagan. But today’s GOP seems to have strayed very far from the Reagan-Thatcher vision. This is especially true in the fields of financial and fiscal policy.  > Read the full commentary > Interview an expert

BPA CHEMICAL RISK - ANGELA LOGOMASINI Openmarket.org: Why BPA (And Other Chemicals) Don’t Belong On Proposition 65 If you want to have fun in California’s Disneyland, avoid reading the warning signs saying that products used in the park may give you cancer and reproductive problems! They’re not just a buzz kill, they are plain dumb and misinformed. But it’s state law that they be there. California’s nonsensical Proposition 65 law directs regulators to place chemicals on a “toxic” substances list, and then forces companies to issue warning labels when they use these substances to make consumer products and food. But regulators list chemicals for myriad stupid reasons.   > Read more > Interview Angela Logomasini

More in the news... Will EU “Cultural Diversity” Exception Undermine U.S.-EU Trade Talks? Obama’s Controversial Nominee for Labor Secretary To Be Voted On Maryland Bill Will Force Teachers To Pay For The Privilege Of Going To Work Regulation Roundup New York Times: Obama Administration Discrimination Settlement Was “Magnet For Fraud” That Enriched Trial Lawyers

CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Labor unions & nursing homes, military pushing green energy, learning from Europe's mistakes, and more

LABOR UNIONS - MATT PATTERSON

Washington Examiner: Op-Ed: Unions euthanize nursing homes

Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their care. Others -- according to reports -- actively sabotaged their patients' medical care -- though thankfully, no one was irreparably hurt.

This is no fairy tale, but a real life horror show that unfolded recently in New England. Last July, HealthBridge Management, which operates 32 nursing care facilities, was confronted with an employee walkout at five of its Connecticut nursing homes.

The striking workers were members of New England Health Care Employees Union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International.
 > Read more

> Interview Matt Patterson

GREEN ENERGY - WILLIAM YEATMAN Globalwarming.org: Second Order Mission Creep: U.S. Military Gets into Investment Banking To Advance Green Energy Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. military is exploring how to bundle renewable energy contracts into securities (à la subprime mortgages), in order to better leverage taxpayer dollars to pay for more green energy. Is anyone else discomfited by this second order mission creep? The military is supposed to be fighting wars. Now, it’s getting into complex, risky investment banking. So that it can generate more green energy. > Interview William Yeatman

AMERICA'S MISTAKES - IAIN MURRAY PJ Media: A ‘Europeanization’ Warning at CPAC “I see America making the same mistakes Britain has made over the past 15 years,” said Iain Murray. “America is not that far gone yet, and the fact it retains some competitive federalism in the states is a source of hope, but the regulatory Leviathan in this city threatens to swamp the American spirit.” Murray, a native of Britain residing in the United States, provided an overview of the many policies he considers to have put Britain down the road to “Europeanization.” “Two things happened to promote the shift from conservatism in Britain: bureaucratic centralism and the election of Tony Blair,” said Murray.  > Read more > Interview Iain Murray

More in the news... Republican National Committee To GOP: Be More Libertarian A Quick Investigation Of Central Bank Redistribution CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Carbon tax folly, labor union v. Hostess Twinkies, and the war on coal

CARBON TAX - CHRISTOPHER HORNER

Orange County Register: New carbon tax would be folly

A proposed carbon tax is actually about finding a new, massive and ultimately expanding revenue source, an ATM machine, a European-style revenue gusher to fund a European-style government.

When the carbon tax's proponents can acknowledge these things, or demonstrate that they are not true, we can have a useful debate over their new energy tax. > Read the full commentary on OCRegister.com

> Interview Christopher Horner

UNION v. HOSTESS TWINKIES - CRISSY BROWN Openmarket.org: Union Strike-Showdown Could End In Hostess Shutdown They are messing with our Twinkies. Upset over cuts to pensions and salaries brought on by a new collective bargaining contract, employees of Hostess, which makes Twinkies, Wonder Bread and other iconic snacks, are on strike. The workers, members of Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), walked out Nov. 9 to send the message recent changes to their compensation package are “outrageous.” > View the full commentary on Openmarket.org   > Interview Crissy Brown

OBAMA WAR ON COAL - MARLO LEWIS Forbes: Why You Should Care That Courts Overturn EPA's Carbon Pollution Standard The 2012 elections ensure that President Obama’s “war on coal” will continue for at least two more years. The administration’s preferred M.O. has been for the EPA to “enact” anti-coal policies that Congress would reject if such measures were introduced as legislation and put to a vote. Consequently, defenders of free-market energy are stuck playing defense and their main weapon now is litigation. This is a hard slog because courts usually defer to agency interpretations of the statutes they administer. But sometimes petitioners win. > View the article on Forbes.com > Interview Marlo Lewis

WORLD PREMIERE! The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil short film > Tweet about I, Pencil > RSVP to today's screenings in Washington, D.C.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.