Solis: We’ll Work Hard to Pass Employee Free Choice Act
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the AFL-CIO’s 26th Constitutional Convention today that she and the Obama administration will join with workers to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
In the first address by a labor secretary to an AFL-CIO convention in more than eight years, Solis, the daughter of union members, said unions are more important than ever in today’s economic crisis:
Workers are under assault and they need the voice on the job that unions provide. I believe and I know union jobs are good jobs.
She quoted President Obama’s Labor Day speech when he said:
That’s why I support [the Employee free Choice Act]: to level the playing field so it’s easier for employees who want a union to form a union. Nothing—nothing wrong with that. Because when labor is strong, America is strong. When we all stand together, we all rise together.
Obama to Address AFL-CIO Convention
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President Barack Obama will address our AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, marking a major shift in the relationship between the union movement and the White House. For the past eight years, the Bush administration waged war on America’s workers, and union members took a big step toward taking back America by playing a major role in electing Obama and a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Obama will address a convention that will make history by electing a new leadership team. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is retiring after 14 years at the helm.
Along with Obama, the Sept. 13-17 convention will hear from many prominent political and union leaders, including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Caroline Kennedy and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous.
