Jan 2009 Vol. 12 No. 1

Political Update

Finally, a friend leads the US Labor Department

President-elect Obama’s nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor "will restore the Labor Department to its core mission—to defend workers' rights," said NCCRC Executive Officer Bob Alvarado.

During her time in the California Legislature and in Congress, Solis has put together an outstanding record on labor issues. She backed extending unemployment benefits, increasing the federal as well as the state minimum wage, and she supports the Employee Free Choice Act to protect the right to organize. Solis has been a leading advocate for investment in green jobs and green job training. She has opposed job-killing free trade agreements, and has fought for tougher workplace safety standards.

"She’s always had a good relationship with the Carpenters Union in California," Alvarado said. "We know her, we’ve worked with her—she gets what California carpenters and other building trades workers are looking for."

The daughter of immigrants—her father a Teamster shop steward, her mother a member of the United Rubber Workers—Solis was elected to Congress in 2000 after serving on the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees, in the state Assembly, and as the first Latina elected to the state Senate. As chair of the state Senate Industrial Relations Committee she worked hard to protect easily exploited, low-wage workers through enforcement and strengthening of state labor laws.

"Congresswoman Solis’ confirmation will reflect a sharp departure from the failed, anti-worker policies of the Bush era, to a new era in which the people in charge actually care about working families," Alvarado said.

In Congress, with a 97 percent pro-labor voting record, Rep. Solis co-authored the Green Jobs Act, which later became part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The Green Jobs Act authorized $125 million for workforce training programs targeted to veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth and individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

She also co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act, supported the Davis-Bacon Act, fair and equal pay laws for women, tough workplace safety standards, and bolstering the rights of federal workers. Testifying before a Senate Labor Committee earlier this month, Solis cited her "union family upbringing" as shaping her vision of a renewed, activist Labor Department.

As Secretary of Labor, Solis will have extensive authority to issue and enforce workplace regulation, especially in the area of wages and hours and safety. "We must enforce federal labor laws and strengthen regulations to protect our nation’s workers, such as wage and hour laws, and rules regarding overtime pay and pay discrimination," she said.

Alvarado said, "These are issues which should top the Labor Department’s agenda but sadly, have been ignored or undermined during eight years under George W. Bush and his appointees. After eight years of woeful mismanagement at the Labor Department, Solis will bring energy, experience and dedication to help lead working families back to prosperity."

Solis pointed to areas the Labor Depart-ment will address under her leadership:

• improving skills development and job creation programs;
  
• Assuring enforcement of federal wage and hour laws, including Davis-Bacon;
  
• Strengthening enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety and Mine Health and Safety Acts, which have been weakened by the Bush Administration;
  
• Addressing the retirement security crisis; and
  
• Protecting every worker from job discrimination, regardless of race, sex, veteran status or disability.

With the support of a Democratic majority, "we expect quick confirmation for Hilda Solis, and we look forward to working closely with the Labor Department," Alvarado said. "It will be a relief to have the daughter of a shop steward, a real friend of working families, in that position."

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