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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News from EPI › The Amazon election in Bessemer showcased our broken union election system and why we must pass the PRO Act
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News from EPI › EPI applauds House passage of the PRO Act
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What we learned from the UK case rendering Uber drivers employees
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The Trump administration finalizes rule attacking federal workers’ right to union representation in workplace discrimination cases
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The Biden administration can reverse much of Trump’s bad labor policy without Congress
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EPI comments on NLRB’s proposed revisions to voter list contact information
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50 reasons the Trump administration is bad for workers: President Trump has said he would ‘protect’ and ‘fight for’ workers. Instead, his administration has systematically done the opposite.
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Workers are striking during the coronavirus: Labor law must be reformed to strengthen this fundamental right
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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