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Solis: Labor Dept. Has ‘Obligation to Restore Trust and Hope’ of Workers |
Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) says she has “an obligation to restore [workers'] trust and hope” in the U.S. Department of Labor. Solis, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for secretary of labor testifed this morning before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Citing her union family upbringing, she said her vision of the Labor Department is “rooted in who I am”:
My father was a Teamsters shop steward who regularly told us about the opportunities his union association would bring to help secure our family a place in America’s middle class.
Disaster: Unemployment at 7.2 Percent. Real Rate 13.5 Percent |
The jobless numbers out today are worse than even the most pessimistic analysts imagined: 524,000 jobs lost in December, pushing the nation’s unemployment rate to 7.2 percent. Under the Bush administration, 2008 has become the worst year for job loss since 1945, with nearly 2.6 million jobs lost last year alone. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 11.1 million of America’s workers are unemployed.
December was the 12th straight month of job loss and included a loss of 21,400 jobs in auto and parts industries. From Bloomberg:
Manufacturing, which makes up 12 percent of the economy, shrank in December at the fastest pace in 28 years, Institute for Supply Management figures showed. Payrolls at builders dropped by 101,000 after decreasing 85,000. Financial firms reduced payrolls by 14,000, after a 28,000 loss the prior month. Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, subtracted 273,000 workers after a decline of 402,000.
Confirmation Hearings Today on Solis for Labor Secretary |
As Congress holds confirmation hearings on the nomination of Hilda Solis as secretary of labor this morning, we will get our first extended look at how she plans to return the U.S. Department of Labor to its primary mission of protecting the lives, wages and rights of working people.
Solis, a four-term U.S. House member from California’s 32nd District, was tapped last month by President-elect Barack Obama to be his secretary of labor. As today’s hearings before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee get under way, we will bring you updates.
As Obama said repeatedly throughout the campaign, the Bush administration and outgoing Labor Secretary Elaine Chao spent eight years attacking workers’ rights, strong workplace health and safety rules and unions while they carried the water for Big Business. Obama summed up the Chao regime this way:
Remember, this is supposed to be the Department Labor, not the Department of Management.
Welcome, New Neighbors! |
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OK, so our AFL-CIO building here in Washington, D.C., is surrounded by barricades. It’s for a good cause: Our new neighbor has set up temporary digs at the Hay-Adams across the street, and he carries a lot of Secret Service with him. The Secret Service has this need for, well, security.
But imagine what it’s like to be 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, whisked daily through concrete barriers and blockaded streets only to return home to a hotel room?
So we thought we’d brighten up their days a bit. From the seventh floor of our building, we’ve draped a one-story-tall and 67-foot-wide banner welcoming the two Obama girls.
That banner joins one we put up in the early hours of Nov. 5, just above our entrance, saying, “We’re Turning Around America.”
More U.S. Children Face Poverty |
Last year, the number of poor children in the United States increased by nearly half a million, to 13.3 million—and 5.8 million of those are living in extreme poverty. Nearly 9 million children have no health insurance. Those numbers are sure to rise as the nation plunges further into recession, says the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in its recently released report, The State of America’s Children 2008.
According to the CDF report, children in the United States lag behind those in almost all industrialized nations on key indicators. Our nation has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized countries in relative child poverty, the gap between rich and poor, teen birth rates and child gun violence. In addition, the United States is first in the number of incarcerated persons.
Rep. Ellison Shows How to Support Employee Free Choice |
As the new Congress kicks off its first week and we prepare for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, now is the time for political leaders to speak out for the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is a great example of how a political leader can educate the public and fight for workers as we work to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Ellison and other pro-worker members of Congress have come under fire from deep-pocketed Big Business lobbyists and corporate front groups that are expending millions on disinformation and false attack ads to scare voters and elected officials alike. But Ellison, an Employee Free Choice Act co-sponsor, doesn’t scare so easily.
Welcome, New Members of Congress! |
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| Sen. Kay Hagen, who defeated Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, and Rep. Paul Tonko of New York are among the new members of Congress who joined members of the AFL-CIO union movement at a reception in their honor. |
Before getting down to the serious business of fair pay legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, economic recovery and a whole host of other issues to change the nation’s stumbling direction after eight years of Bush rule, dozens of new members of Congress, and some veterans, got together with the labor movement last night.
At the AFL-CIO-sponsored reception at a Capitol Hill hotel, lawmakers, union leaders and legislative representatives mingled and talked about how a larger working family majority in both houses will impact upcoming legislative battles. In his welcoming remarks, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:
We know what our priorities are and we know how committed each and everyone of you are, as is the president of the United States, to the working family agenda.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told the crowd:
On behalf of the speaker [Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] and myself, we will never forget, we will look forward to going forward shoulder to shoulder, paycheck to equitable paycheck. I will tell you this as well, when people say they want to be a member of a union and sign up, we’re going to make sure that they have the ability to be a member of a union.
Survey: Public Strongly Supports Employee Free Choice |
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A new survey released today shows 78 percent of those polled want to see legislation that protects workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life—great news and a strong signal to Congress and President-elect Barack Obama that we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
The survey of 1,007 adults across the country, conducted Dec. 4-10 for the AFL-CIO by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, shows a striking level of support for the provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act and the freedom to form unions. This support crosses party and state lines, with 74 percent of those who identify as moderate or liberal Republicans in favor; conservative Republicans were the only group not expressing majority support. Support remains steady, even when those surveyed heard messages from both supporters and opponents of the bill.
Watch Mary Beth Maxwell Discuss Employee Free Choice on C-SPAN |
On Friday, Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” for a great interview about the importance of quickly passing the Employee Free Choice Act.
In the half-hour interview, Maxwell described our badly broken system for forming unions, how it has undermined workers’ bargaining power and the economy, and how the Employee Free Choice Act will restore workers’ freedom to form unions without corporate harassment and intimidation, allowing them to bargain for a better life. Maxwell took questions from viewers around the country and cut through the misconceptions about the Employee Free Choice Act.
Don’t Be Fooled: ‘SOS Ballot’ Another Corporate Front Group |
Another day, another shady front group trying to confuse and mislead workers. This time, a new group calling itself “SOS Ballot” is waging an under-the-radar state-level campaign to lock in corporate domination and prevent workers from exercising the freedom to bargain for a better life.
In five states—Nevada, Arizona, Missouri, Arkansas and Utah—SOS Ballot is gathering signatures, hoping to put initiatives on the ballot to prevent workers from opting to form unions through majority sign-up.
“SOS Ballot” is yet another misleadingly named corporate front group, with a secret funding base, aimed at keeping a firm corporate lock on workers and their ability to form unions and bargain.
Who’s behind it? A glimpse at their priorities: The group is chaired, according to its website, by former U.S. Rep. Ernie Istook (R-Okla.). Istook had a consistently anti-worker voting record in Congress, voting to block collective bargaining rights, eliminate overtime and block the enforcement of workplace safety and mine safety rules. The big-money donors behind this effort are hoping that hiding behind a clever name will convince us that this time, they only have workers’ best interests at heart.
Right.
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