Areas of expertise
Labor and employment law • Collective bargaining • Union organizing • Regulatory policy
Biography
Celine McNicholas is EPI’s director of government affairs and labor counsel. An attorney, her current areas of work include a wide range of workers’ rights issues, including labor and employment law, collective bargaining, and union organizing. She was a core member of EPI’s Perkins Project on Worker Rights and Wages Policy Watch, an online resource that tracked federal actions affecting working people and the economy during the first year of the Trump administration. McNicholas continues to monitor and analyze the Trump administration’s labor and employment policies.
Before joining EPI in 2017, McNicholas served as director of congressional and public affairs and as special counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). At the NLRB, she counseled presidential nominees to the board and the general counsel throughout the Senate confirmation process. In addition, McNicholas was responsible for the agency’s congressional affairs work including all agency oversight matters. From 2009 to 2013, she served as senior labor counsel to Ranking Member George Miller (D-Calif.) for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. She advised Rep. Miller on legal issues surrounding the Fair Labor Standards Act, National Labor Relations Act, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Davis Bacon Act, Service Contract Act, and project labor agreements. Before working for the committee, McNicholas was a legislative staffer for both U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak from Pennsylvania and U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas from Massachusetts.
A native of Philadelphia, McNicholas is an avid baseball fan, amateur baseball historian, and runner.
Education
J.D., Villanova University School of Law
B.A., Mount Holyoke College
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Republicans and corporate interests exploit coronavirus crisis to erase companies’ liability
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Congress must include worker protections in the next coronavirus relief bill: We need an Essential Workers Bill of Rights
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The next coronavirus relief package should provide aid to state and local governments, protect employed and unemployed workers, and invest in our democracy
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Trump’s corporate-first agenda has weakened worker protections needed to combat the coronavirus
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Workers Memorial Day highlights Secretary of Labor Scalia’s failure to protect workers during the coronavirus crisis
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The Trump administration has weakened crucial worker protections needed to combat the coronavirus: Agencies tasked with protecting workers have put them in danger
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The next coronavirus relief package must include funding to safeguard our democracy: Voting by mail and online voting must be considered
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A ‘phase four’ relief and recovery package should provide economic assistance to state and local governments, extended unemployment benefits, and better protections for workers and jobs
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In midst of a pandemic, Trump’s NLRB makes it nearly impossible for workers to organize a union
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Here are safeguards needed in bailout packages to protect working people and fight corporate greed
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News from EPI › EPI applauds House passage of comprehensive labor reform legislation—the PRO Act
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Three Republican-appointed white men are now deciding whether you have rights on the job
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News from EPI › New Trump NLRB election rule betrays the workers it is meant to protect
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How California’s AB5 protects workers from misclassification
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Trump’s labor board wants to deprive graduate student workers of their basic right to form unions
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News from EPI › EPI applauds House’s passage of the FAIR Act
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Letter opposing the nomination of Eugene Scalia for Labor Secretary
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Why Eugene Scalia is the wrong person for the job
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August Recess 2019: A look back at the House’s legislative victories that benefit working people
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Proposed rule to privatize the federal Employment Service would likely reduce services for unemployed workers