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StumblePublished Wednesday, April 22, 2009 | 9:58 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, April 22, 2009 | 5:23 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will be in Las Vegas on Thursday to attend a utility workers union conference.
A spokeswoman confirmed that the secretary will be attending the Power for America National Conference sponsored by the Utility Workers Union of America.
No other information about her trip was immediately available. But Nevada has many issues needing the secretary’s attention – from double-digit unemployment to workplace safety enforcement after the construction deaths on the Strip.
Solis is something of an expert in green jobs, having authored key legislation as a congresswoman on job development in the energy sector. She penned an op-ed with Energy Secretary Steven Chu (also invited to attend the conference) on the Obama administration’s energy agenda that appeared in various newspapers today.
Nevada’s Republicans in Congress issued a joint release tonight on the eve of Solis’ visit noting she supports the Employee Free Choice Act they both oppose.
The bill would make it easier for unions to organize, but is strongly opposed by the business community.
The release, one of the few issued jointly by the Republican Sen. John Ensign and Republican Dean Heller, is here.
“As Labor Secretary Hilda Solis prepares for her first official visit to Las Vegas, Senator John Ensign and Congressman Dean Heller reminded Nevada employees and employers that legislation she supports, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), would be disastrous to an already struggling economy and threatens job growth and opportunity among minorities.”
Low-Wage Workers Need Employee Free Choice to Join Middle Class
by Seth Michaels, Apr 22, 2009
http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/04/22/low-wa...
Low-wage workers would benefit the most from the better benefits, wages and on-the-job treatment that come with forming a union and bargaining--yet these workers are also the most vulnerable to anti-union coercion and intimidation from their bosses. So Jobs with Justice (JwJ), along with a broad coalition of community groups, is hitting Capitol Hill today to push for the Employee Free Choice Act and the freedom to bargain.
Workers and advocates from around the country are visiting senators and letting them know the facts about why this bill is critical to restore workers' freedom to form unions and bargain. JwJ kicked off the day with a briefing featuring author Barbara Ehrenreich, experts on labor policy and the workforce and workers who have fought to form unions.
Johanna Moon, a UAW member, has waited more than two years for a fair first contract.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) explains how the Employee Free Choice Act can help build our economy.
As Ehrenreich says, our nation's economic crisis can be traced back to declining conditions for the millions of workers at the mercy of bosses and whose wages and benefits aren't enough to get ahead.
We've been so unequal as a society that it's collapsing out from under us. Easy credit became a substitute for decent wages.
This is related to a sharp decline in bargaining power--workers have no power and no rights in the workplace. The Employee Free Choice Act, Ehrenreich says, is both a human rights measure and an economic stimulus measure.
Kim Gandy of the National Organization for Women (NOW) says there's a huge difference in benefits and wages for low-wage workers who have unions compared with nonunion workers, and this is especially true for women.
Gandy talked about the disadvantages workers face when trying to form a union--they are up against a "cottage industry" of anti-union consultants and high-paid lawyers whose goal is to block workers from forming unions and who are dumping millions into scare tactics and misinformation. Gandy said the campaign is comparable to the insurance companies' misleading, big-dollar fight against health care reform in the early 1990s.
One of the real advantages of unions is that not only do they improve conditions for workers in unions, but they impact social and economic progress for all of us.
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/