Great News for the American Worker

...From Joe Sudbay in the America Blog.com on Thursday 19 February....


Finally, A Labor Secretary Who Supports Workers: What a Concept !

For the last eight years, America's workers have had the crap kicked out of them by the Bush administration and Republicans on the Hill. We had an anti-labor Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, who is married to the vehemently anti-labor GOP Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell. Those two are worth millions (she was on 13 corporate boards before becoming Labor Secretary) so you can imagine they didn't have much in common with people who actually work for a living. Chao and McConnell were a potent (and very wealthy) combo determined to undermine the safety and job security of America's workers:

When it comes to workplace-related issues such as mine safety, the McConnell-Chao marriage presents an intriguing target for industry donors. At the Labor Department, Chao has taken what some reports say is a relaxed attitude toward the regulation of coal mines and an approach that labor unions perceive as hostile.

Sometimes Chao achieves what her husband cannot in the Senate, such as a wage freeze her department instituted on certain farmworkers.

Chao attends her husband's fund-raisers, chats with his donors and seeds her agency with his former aides.

Those days are so over. On Tuesday, the full Senate is expected to confirm Hilda Solis as the new Secretary of Labor. She was confirmed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee late last week. The Republicans have been doing their best to prevent this nomination. Their tactics and arguments have been ridiculous. Wonkette captured the absurdity of the GOP's position in a post titled, "She's no Elaine Chao: Labor Nomination Held Up Due To Nominee’s Support Of Labor."

The GOP Senators didn't want Solis to have any involvement with the Employee Free Choice Act, which Elaine Chao was lobbying against right up til the end of the Bush administration. If the Republicans had their way, Solis probably wouldn't be able to get involved with the key responsibilities of the Department of Labor like job creation, unemployment benefits, mine safety, job retraining, worker safety and fair wages.

But, Solis is going to be the Labor Secretary despite the GOP. SEIU put together a video of her in action. What a difference an election makes.

It should give great comfort to America's working men and women. They'll have a champion in the Cabinet. This will be another in what will hopefully be a string of victories for Americans.

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After nearly 30 years of regular stringent anti-worker and overly pro-corporation stances in the Executive Branch, this is indeed a refreshing change. But there is a tall vast amount of work that needs to be done to improve the lives and well-being of workers and one cannot be optimistic much will get accomplished.

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