SOLIS SAILS THROUGH SENATE HEARING, BUT PUTS EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE BEHIND OTHER LABOR DEPT PRIORITIES

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ilcaonline.org/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/75733

Friday, January 9, 2009

(PAI)

SOLIS SAILS THROUGH SENATE HEARING, BUT PUTS EMPLOYEE
FREE CHOICE BEHIND OTHER LABOR DEPT. PRIORITIES
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (PAI)—Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., President-elect Obama’s nominee as Secretary of Labor, sailed through her Senate Labor Committee confirmation hearing on Jan. 9, while putting the Employee Free Choice Act’s passage behind other Labor Department priorities.

Responding to repeated questions about the proposed law, labor’s #1 priority for the Democratic-run 111th Congress, Solis reiterated that both she and Obama backed it in the past. But asked by senators, most of them Republicans, about when she would push it, she replied that she had yet to discuss the legislation with the president-elect.

On that and on other pointed labor issues, her repeated reply was a variation of “I’ll get back to you.”

As for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining, she reiterated that “The president-elect believes workers should have a choice on whether to join a union” without committing herself to a specific method for doing so.

Nevertheless, senators from both parties backed her, indicating she’ll have clear sailing to take over the 17,000-worker agency that she called “one of the largest civil rights agencies” in the federal government, as it administers workforce justice programs.

“We are in a crisis situation and the public demands action from Congress right now to see relief provided” on the economy, she told supportive committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. Beyond that, she said she would “work hard every day to make sure middle-class families do not lose hope.”

FULL story at link.

[grantcart]

1. any controversial issues will not be addressed until after the stimulus package

has been passed.

[dcsmart]

2. i agree.

unfortunately, i am a pessimist. so, i am really not looking forward to many things changing for unions or workers. it will probably come down to direct action like the sit-in at Republic Windows to make clear what working people need. I do think we need to support the stimulus package, if it creates living wage jobs and long term employment. just throwing money around is not going to help....it is about wages and jobs. people cannot buy the junk, if they do not have jobs and spendable income.