"The Labor Department should not represent only that part of the work force that is unionized," says Elaine Chao, labor secretary under George W. Bush. "It should be responsible for the overall welfare of the entire American work force."This former progressive member of the House, Hilda Solis, was the wrong person for the position. There has never been anything moderate about any of her stance on issues while in the House as her and Pelosi were joined at the hip to push the Obama agenda.
She received 100 percent ratings from several pro-labor groups for the years 2005 through 2007, and was a major recipient of union political donations. United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta is one of Solis's role models.
Solis was not a member of the Education and Labor Committee, but championed the Employee Free Choice Act and was the only member of Congress on the board of American Rights at Work, a pro-union organization that strongly supports the act, for whom she served as treasurer starting in 2004.
During her tenure in the House Solis was an advocate of comprehensive immigration reform.
Now you know a small part of Solis' background which is very socialist/progressive it makes you wonder how that nomination sailed through the Senate. Then you remember we had so few Republicans in the Senate at that time it made no difference. Elections have consequences and Solis as Labor Secretary is one of those.
While Republicans recognize that elections have consequences and Solis is the Labor Secretary who is in lockstep with public service unions, the Democrats didn't get the memo that they not only lost big in the US House but in States across America like Wisconsin where the taxpayers have had it with their coddled public service employees.
Labor secretary steps out in Wisconsin union fightSolis talks about growing up in a union household and being biased in favor of unions. Her Dad was a steward -- my Dad was President of his Local and have the exact opposite opinion of unions and why I support Right to Work for every state. No person should be forced to join a union period. There is absolutely no need for unions in the public sector.
By: Byron York 02/28/11 8:05 PM
Chief Political Correspondent
President Obama is staying mostly quiet about the union battle going on in Wisconsin. His labor secretary, Hilda Solis, is not.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis participates in a regional summit
at Philadelphia Community College with educators, business leaders
and foundation representatives in Philadelphia, Monday, Feb. 28, 2011.
The secretaries (Solis and Duncan) visited Philadelphia to promote
collaborations that will help adult learners join the work force as well
as obtain college degrees. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
"The fight is on!" Solis told a cheering crowd at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting over the weekend in Washington. Giving her support to "our brothers and sisters in public employee unions," Solis pledged aid to unionized workers who are "under assault" in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
It's no surprise Solis sympathizes with the unions against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget reform proposal. After all, Solis often tells audiences how proud she is that her father was a Teamsters shop steward and her mother belonged to the United Steelworkers union. "Admittedly, I am a little biased," she told the DNC, "because ... I come from a union household."
But is it the role of the secretary of labor to take sides in a fight that pits public employee union members against workers and taxpayers who support Walker's reforms? After all, the Labor Department mission statement says its purpose is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States." It doesn't say anything about unionized wage earners, job seekers, and retirees.
....
Solis, on the other hand, is speaking out loudly on behalf of the unions, and doing so in the frankly political atmosphere of a DNC meeting. Her remarks over the weekend instantly made her the most outspoken member of the Obama administration on the issue. But it turns out her Labor Department colleagues are not eager to discuss the secretary's position.
In response to an e-mail inquiry, department spokeswoman Evangelina Garcia directed any questions about Solis' speech to the DNC. When asked whether Solis was speaking in her role as labor secretary -- after all, she began the relevant part of her DNC speech by saying, "As your secretary of labor, I've been following the developments in Wisconsin ..." -- Garcia did not respond.
Asked whether Solis supported the actions of Wisconsin Democratic state senators, who have fled the state to prevent a debate and vote on Walker's proposal, Garcia again did not respond. Later, another spokeswoman also directed inquiries to the DNC. Reached by phone, a DNC official said, "I'm going to let the speech speak for itself." In other words, no comment all around.
The reticence at Labor reflects the fact that the Obama administration is trying to thread a particularly tiny needle in the Wisconsin controversy. Everyone knows the president and his administration are firmly behind the protesters; union support was critical to Obama's election in 2008 and will be critical to his re-election effort in 2012.
But we have just had an election in which voters nationwide sent the message that they want their public officials to do something about federal spending, and in Wisconsin in particular, voters concerned about spending elected a Republican governor, state Assembly and state Senate. The White House is in no mood to alienate all those voters, at least over Wisconsin.
So administration officials are trying a light touch. And so far, union leaders have cut them plenty of slack. When asked on NBC Sunday whether Obama should be doing more on the unions' behalf, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, "I think he's doing it the right way."
But Solis, passionate advocate for unions, apparently didn't get the memo. And from her, it appears, we are hearing the administration's true voice.
Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blogposts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
A lot of public school teachers have joined associations who lobby for benefits but it is their choice to join. These professional educator associations are providing a true service to their members and the member can be assured that any money given does not go to one political campaign. These associations are truly non-partisan and work to support their members from benefits to additional sources for becoming better teachers.
We find it strange that no one from the Labor Department wants to comment about Solis' remarks to the DNC where we believe she spoke what Obama feels but will not say in public. He is too weak of President to say what he really thinks about the unions. Bet if he decided not to seek reelection, he would be out demonstrating in Madison in full solidarity with the unions. He has taken a political calcuation and that has turned out to be keeping quiet on the unions except when he lectured Governor's yesterday not to villify public service union members.
He missed the boat on that as well as Governor Walker has gone out of his way to commend the public workers in Wisconsin and put the debate back to it is an economical issue where public service benefits have grown way out of proportion to their salaries, but that doesn't suit the Obama agenda or that of the mainstream media.
Never support strikes but frankly I would support a strike of broadcast media in their support of the Wisconsin public service union. Just think -- a day, a week, or a month without being told what to think by the mainstream liberal media! Works for me!
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