It’s official, President Elect Barack Obama has tapped Hilda Solis to be his Secretary of Labor. And, unlike the “on the one hand, on the other hand” reaction progressives have had to so many Obama appointments, Solis is someone most embrace with both arms.
UNITE HERE President Bruce Raynor:
UNITE HERE is thrilled to have a proven advocate for working Americans named our new Secretary of Labor. With this appointment and a firm commitment to a stimulus package that helps working people including the Employee Free Choice Act, the President-elect is affirming his commitment to bring working families the kind of change they voted for. Representative Solis understands that unions are the key rebuilding and expanding the American middle class and restoring our economy. Rep. Solis has championed workers right to organize for family sustaining jobs. With a strong Secretary of Labor we will finally be able to address the crisis in labor law enforcement that has plagued our country for the past 8 years and build and create an economy that rewards work.
As someone who has pounded the pavement knocking on doors for Hilda Solis in her first upset campaign in California, I can tell you firsthand that this woman is about opening doors for millions of Americans who get up and go to work each day.
From the streets of Los Angeles where she marched with the janitors who were fighting for jobs with dignity that can support a family through SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaigns, to the halls of Congress where she has been an outspoken supporter of healthcare rights for all, a livable minimum wage, and workers’ right to come together for a voice on the job, Hilda Solis has never backed down from the good fight to make the American Dream available to all.
The daughter of two immigrant workers and union members and a board member of American Rights at Work, she will be a Secretary of Labor working men and women can finally count on to stand up and fight for them. For Representative Solis, the American Dream is not an abstraction. Her parents met in a citizenship class. She understands personally the challenges workers face in a global economy and the need for a bold new agenda that expands healthcare for everyone and gives American workers a greater choice and a greater voice. For Representative Solis, serving as Secretary of Labor will not just be a job, but the culmination of a lifetime of action serving as a voice for people who work.
Harold Myerson (writing for Tapped):
What does Rep. Hilda Solis, Barack Obama’s selection for secretary of labor, bring to the job? Only a record of passionate commitment to working people, a high level of political smarts, and some genuine displays of raw guts that could make her a star of American liberalism.
. . . .
In the House, Solis has continued to champion labor causes, immigrants’ rights, women’s health and environmental protections. She also worked closely with Rahm Emanuel in recruiting Democratic House candidates from the Southwest and Latino-dominated districts, so she brings to her new job a strong relationship with Obama’s incoming chief-of-staff. Now, she’s in the key position to promote the Employee Free Choice Act, which seems likely to be the most contentious issue on Obama’s agenda. But Solis has never been deterred by controversy.
[T]he green jobs movement is jumping for joy not only because she’s brown. It’s because she’s green. Through Solis, Obama makes clear his commitment to creating green jobs to lift the nation out of its current economic crisis.
Update: Some guy named Barack just chimed in (from his presser):
If jobs and incomes are our yardsticks, then the success of the American worker is key to the success of the American economy. For the past eight years, the Department of Labor has not lived up to its role either as an advocate for hardworking families or as an arbiter of fairness in relations between labor and management. That will change when Hilda Solis is Secretary of Labor. Under her leadership, I am confident that the Department of Labor will once again stand up for working families.
Hilda has always been an advocate for everyday people. When she received an award several years ago, she said, "Fighting for what is just is not always popular, but it is necessary." And that is exactly what she has done throughout her career, blazing new trails every step of the way. Whether it’s creating green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced or expanding access to affordable health care or raising the minimum wage in California, Hilda has been a champion of our middle class. And I know that Hilda will show the same kind of leadership as Secretary of Labor that she showed in California and on the Education and Labor Committee by protecting workers’ rights – from organizing to collective bargaining, from keeping our workplaces safe to making our unions strong.
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This is wonderful news, but a loss for her constituents.
It also means that there are no Cabinet positions left for openly LGBT Americans.
Time to speak up, Janet.
Teddy for Mayor of SF!
Dammit
Finally, a good pick!
OT: Breaking news — Positive ID of remains found in Florida — child is Caylee Anthony…
We return you to the regular thread in progress…
Howie Klein will be over the moon when he hears this news — he’s a big fan of Hilda Solis. She’s one of the few Incumbent Blue America candidates.
So no Mary Beth Maxwell? Great. Another FU to the GLBT community. At least they’re consistent, I guess.
I was both afraid and hoping that it was. Now perhaps she can rest in peace.
Tell that to Howie Klein. He’s a big Solis fan.
Sounds like a great pic. I hope she can work her way into becoming a member of Obama’s economics “team.”
Same here — but I had a bad feeling when the case first made the news that they weren’t going to find her alive. I mean, a MONTH before the little one is reported missing?!
I caught part of the press conference and the Sheriff really looked rattled.
Bristol Palin’s future mother in law busted on drug charges. (just to add a little levity to the proceedings)
thank you for a post that isn’t about Dick warren.
Hilda Solis should be a great Secretary of Labor at a very crucial time.
It is interesting to note that arguably the most progressive member of Bill Clinton’s cabinet, Robert Reich, was also Sec’y of Labor.
Coleman campaign back in court suing to eliminate duplicate ballots that cannot be tied to originals- hopes to keep sec of state from certifying election results although the ballots he wants thrown out may actually favor HIM….any port in a storm…
I saw that earlier. What a hoot.
Meth?
that was for rwcole@12
Preliminary reports have a meth lab in her home. We’ll see once the initial flash burns off.
Well, Palin wasn’t “Mayor of Meth-town” for nothin!
Yet another example of why it is so nice that the Republics are picking Palin as the future of their Party.
Explosive news. More Republican family values.
Ms. Solis is respected and well loved in SoCal. The loss to her constituents will be more than made up for by what she can do for the rest of the US.
Hilda and the Sanchez Sisters are responsible for showing the women around here, esp. Latinas, that they can, too, play hardball with the boyz. There will be many choices this time around for her replacement.
Mary Beth seems to be happy about it was well…
http://newmexicoindependent.co…..-secretary
We’re just so used to being in the back of the bus, it’s become our homo way from home.
;)
I’ve never had any doubt that Latino women could play hardball with the boyz.
New gooper fund raising film bein shot “Knocked up in a meth lab” Spinetingling suspense and drama with heart warming ending.
Good Choice!
This is troubling news. The next thing you know, Obama will try to appoint an EPA head who actually cares about the enviroment.
OT: Franken up by 285.
The Solis nomination is good news in what has been between otherwise bleak and awful selections. I haven’t heard if she is a good manager but at least she will be able to begin the process of rebuilding a department that has been completely gutted by Mitch McConnell’s wife Elain Chao.
My friend who was a labor organizer in Berkeley during the 80’s was frustrated because the women she was organizing, at first, didn’t think they could be businesswomen or, really, organize anything. Karin thought it might have been male influence from the household.
Now, it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. A generation of Yes, We Can urging from many quarters of our society had turned it around.
“Knocked up in a Meth Lab” sent tingles up Tweetie’s leg
As far as I know, he still hasn’t.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wo…..o_pre.html
As a Chicano from the Sonoran Desert, I find her nomination quite gratifying.
However, she will face many considerable difficulties along the way during the next 8 years. As such, permit me to emphasize one particular aspect regarding labor here in the USA, and done so with a possible ’story’ still yet to remain to be untold.
Thus, the convergence of Solis and the rejection by Xavier Becerra, also a Progressive, for Trade Representative, tells me that President-Elect Obama is either uninformed of or is rejecting the “need” for Congressional approval of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Take, for example, should EFCA be embedded into our Free Trade Systemic, the reduction in the migratory behavior for those seeking work in the USA, would be reduced. Additionally, the added benefit for inclusion into the FT Systemic, means that a nation such as Mexico, would have to discontinue their “ownership” of Organized Labor. To wit, the government would no longer own a ‘union’ and this ownership would revert to the affected members in similarity to what transpires daily in the USA.
And to me, this means that Becerra, highly cognizant of what is transpiring in the labor movement, here and throughout the Latin America Region, took the decision that Obama was not willing to go the extra mile to be a “stand-up guy”. Consequently, when McCain distanced himself from his own immigration legislation, Chicanos came to the conclusion that McCain was not a “stand-up guy”. Needless to say but I will, here in Arizona, Chicanos voted upwards of 85% for Obama, and our spouses voted upwards of 75% for Obama, and which is of course and as usual, quite different from America’s presumptive Conventional Wisdom given to us by the litany of and from the bald-headed white guys.
And could this failure of Obama to “stand-up” for and on behalf of Chicanos, lead to a drop-off of political support for Obama in the years ahead?
Jaango
Hooray for Hilda indeed. She sounds like a keeper all the way and I am happy to have her as Labor Secretary. But I hope like hell she doesn’t get marginalized the way Robert Reich did in the Clinton years. It was the deregulating ‘free’ marketeers who prevailed then, notably Mr. Summers and Mr. Rubin. Just look at what a fine mess they got us into! And they’re both baaa-ak.