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Solis: Labor Dept. Has ‘Obligation to Restore Trust and Hope’ of Workers |
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| Sen. Edward Kennedy made a special effort to take part in hearings on Rep. Hilda Solis, Labor Department nominee. |
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.
Making a rare appearance since he began undergoing treatment for brain cancer in the fall, committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) opened the confirmation hearing:
This is not an ordinary hearing because we are not living in ordinary times. Every day working families wake up to bad news, more jobs lost, more pensions gone, dreams that are disappearing.
We need leaders who understand what working families are facing in today’s economy. I believe Hilda Solis is just that kind of leader.
Says fellow California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Solis:
…is one person who has actually dedicated her life to public service and improving the lives of people in her state.
Obviously going to fight for worker rights, after all this, is the position of secretary of labor.
Solis pointed to four areas the Labor Department will address under her leadership:
- Improving skills development and job creation programs, including development of “green-collar” jobs;
- Assuring that workers get the pay they have earned working in safe, healthy and fair workplaces;
- Addressing the retirement security crisis; and
- Protecting every worker from job discrimination, regardless of race, sex, veteran status or disability.
A date for a confirmation vote has not been set.
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It is about time! But its not over with this one appointment. History has shown over and over again that complacency and waiting for those in power to do it for us does not work.
Even when the EFCA is passed it is just a stepping stone for the work that lies ahead for Organized Labor to get organizing. The building trades have a mafor enemy to deal with: the American Building Association bosses who will do anything to keep from paying a prevailing wage and refuse to have a Project Labor Agreement that gaurantees full payment of wages and fringe benefit to any and all Tradespersons working on any given job site they control.
We have to get out there and show what it means by working and living union means and how it has benefitted those of us who Chose To Be Union! Being union is a choice that was made by people like myself who know that you can’t get what you need by just waiting around for it to happen. Its good that I am fortunate enough to be a 2nd generation journeyman in the IUPAT but I did not get that privilege but getting a handout: It took going through an apprenticeship and then taking my lumps good and bad and having to give some lumps back when the work picture was down by getting out on the picket lines.
The Labor Movement has got to not sit back now we have to act. We elected a pro-labor President and have a suposedly pro-labor majority in Congress, but read in between the lines: they are Pro-Labor only if they get pushed to be Pro-Labor and we have got a lot of pushing to do!
We have got to make sure that if and when EFCA gets passed that there is no loopholes in it where the bosses can use it against us for a fast de-certification! I have been around the block and not new to the games that can be played: Politicians show up at our dooor every election year and after they get elected they forget about us. Well maybe we need to make sure they dont forget and keep bugging them to make sure so they wont!
i agree that our so calledpro labor pro working class elected officials need a lot of watching. they could not even stay by an agreement that they made about the new Sen. from Illinois.can we really count on them to stand strong when the needs of americas working people are attacked again and again by anti union pro big buisness politicians and company owners want to go around or change labor laws again.all of them from obama down to the newest ones must be reminded on a daily baisis. no one who cares abouy working people can stand back. dilligence and constant reminders to all them must be done.union members are under attack still and we must stand together everyday to keep our country and unions strong.
I hope the unions stop Bush’s Previous efforts and attacks by telling her to do away with the requirement to have to fill out Form LM 30 Labor organization officer and employee annual report. This is attack on the unions that preent our orginzing efforts. Local council Leader for NYSPEF (JLichak@pef.org)
A conservatively estimated 60,000 deaths occur in our country each year due to occupational toxic chemical exposures and resultant illnesses.(Leigh, et al, 2000; NIOSH; Steenland, et al, 2003). This is a disaster of monumental proportions that goes largely unrecorded. BLS records an additional over 5,000 worker fatalities each year due to workplace injuries. It is a major and costly labor issue – costly in lives, and costly in dollars. There are strategies within the purview of Department of Labor needed to protect the health and lives of American workers.
About 650,000 chemicals are in use in industry today. To date, we have regulated less than 500 of them, and most of those are woefully out of date. By comparison, the EU regulates 30,000 chemicals, and many that we allow here have long been banned in EU. Most EU businesses think that the costs of regulation are a price worth paying. Health benefits in 2003 were estimated at 50 billion euros over 30 years, vastly overriding estimated costs of three to five billion euros over 11 years.
The economic burden for work injury, occupational toxic exposure and illness, $170 billion dollars, falls mainly on families (44%) and on taxpayers (18%); with only 27%, on average, being paid by the employer and/or workers’ compensation insurer (Leigh, et al, 2000).
OSHA’s reliance on voluntary compliance has to go. But more than that, employers must be made responsible and accountable to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace for workers, and liable for civil and criminal penalties when they do not.
Depraved Indifference: the Workers’ Compensation System, the result of five years of research and interviews lays out what we need to do as a nation to change this, to save worker health and lives; and by extension, save the environment.
Patrice Woeppel, Ed.D.
Author, Depraved Indifference: the Workers’ Compensation System
National Call In Days to Support HR 676
The second Call-In Day on January 15th will target the Washington DC offices. This Call-In Day has four objectives:
1. If your Rep. hasn’t already, tell them to co-sponsor HR 676.
2. If your Rep. is a past co-sponsor, thank them and urge them to co-sponsor again.
3. Ask your Rep. to attend a special briefing about HR 676 and its economic impact on January 28th from 3-5pm in Room 2237 of the Rayburn Building.
4. Ask your Senators to introduce a companion bill to HR 676 in the Senate.Please follow the following steps for a successful phone call. It’s very important that you complete step 4 and report to us that you made calls. Thanks!
Step 1–Is Your Rep. Already an HR 676 Co-Sponsor?
Find out if your representative supports HR 676.
Step 2–Find Your Rep.’s DC Office Phone Number
If you don’t know your congresspersons’ DC office phone number, please follow these five easy steps: 1. Go to http://www.VoteSmart.org.
2. Enter your ZIP code in the top left of the page.
3. Click on a congressperson.
4. Click on “Complete Contact Information” under their photo.
5. Their phone numbers and addresses are under their photo.
Step 3–Call Your US Rep. and US Senators
Call, email, or fax your US Representative and US Senators. We prefer that you call over fax or email.Draft scripts are below (activists should tweak the call scripts as appropriate for their individual groups). It should also be noted that a high volume of calls have been getting through to Congress, so some activists suggested shortening the script as the call-in day progresses.Ask for the Chief of Staff or Healthcare Aide to leave your message and use these scripts to help shape the message of your call.If your Rep. IS an HR 676 Co-sponsor:
Hi, my name is ______. I am calling to thank Representative ______ for his/her support of HR676, John Conyers’ National Health Insurance Act. Conyers already reintroduced HR676 and I want to reaffirm my support for HR676, single payer healthcare legislation and ask Rep. ______ to do the same by signing on again as a co-sponsor working for true reform of this terrible healthcare system. l also request that the Congress person, or a staff member, attend a briefing about HR 676 and its economic impact on January 28th from 3-5pm in room 2237 of the Rayburn Building. With cost-savings estimated at $1.1 trillion dollars over ten years, plus guaranteed health coverage for every American, single-payer national health insurance must be part of our economic recovery plan. If you have any questions about single payer or about me, please call me at ______. Thank you.If your Rep. is NOT an HR 676 co-sponsors:
Hi, my name is ______. I am calling to urge Representative _______ to support of HR676, John Conyers’ National Health Insurance Act. Conyers already reintroduced HR676 and I want to reaffirm my support for HR676, single payer healthcare legislation and ask Rep. ______ to do the same by signing on as a co-sponsor and working for true reform of this terrible healthcare system. I request that you attend a special briefing about HR 676 and its economic impact on January 28th from 3-5pm in Room 2237 of the Rayburn Building. With cost-savings estimated at $1.1 trillion dollars over ten years, and guaranteed coverage for every American, single payer national health insurance must be part of our economic recovery.If you have any questions about single payer or about me, please call me at ______. Thank you.Message to your US Senator:
Hi, my name is ______. I am calling to urge Senator ______ to sponsor companion legislation in the Senate to HR 676, the National Health Insurance Act, that will implement a national single-payer health care system in the United States.The current health care legislation posed for discussion in the Senate is using the failed Massachusetts reform as a model for the nation. The reform in Massachusetts is leaving thousands uninsured and is far too expensive to be sustained because it leaves profit in the middle of our health care system. In the most recent election, local ballot initiatives supporting single payer and opposing individual mandates passed by landslide margins in all ten legislative districts where they appeared. With almost all precincts tallied, roughly 73 percent of 181,000 voters in the ten districts voted YES in support of a single-payer system. Say no to Massachusetts style health care, and yes to single payer health care as proposed in HR 676.