Obama's Great Pick for Labor Secretary -- Ultra Progressive Hilda Solis

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/114097/obama%27s_great_pick_for_labor_secretary_--_ultra_progressive_hilda_solis/

Obama's Great Pick for Labor Secretary -- Ultra Progressive Hilda Solis

By Van Jones, Huffington Post. Posted December 19, 2008.

Appointing Solis, Obama has made clear his commitment to creating green jobs to lift the nation out of its current economic crisis.


President-elect Barack Obama got it right when he announced Representative Hilda Solis as his pick for the next secretary of labor. Headlines are heralding her as the first Latino to hold the post. But the 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.

We're thrilled that Hilda Solis shares the green jobs vision. In fact, she's already helped make it real. Rep. Solis was the original author of the Green Jobs Act, and our Green For All team worked closely with her in 2007. During that year's Congressional session, she worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle and was instrumental in getting that hallmark legislation passed. Her work demonstrated her commitment to a socially responsible, clean-energy economy that will create millions of good-paying jobs and save our environment. She is the right secretary of labor to take advantage of a great opportunity not only to make America's economy stronger by making it greener, but also to make Americans living in poverty part of a revitalized middle class.

As Obama raises his right hand on inauguration day, he should be signing new green jobs bills with his left. Early next year, Green For All will join a coalition of groups advocating for the Clean Energy Corps. The Clean Energy Corps is a combined service, training, and job-creation effort to combat global warming, grow local and regional economies, and demonstrate the promise of the clean energy economy.

You'll hear more from Green For All in the upcoming year. We're a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy, strong enough to lift people out of poverty. By advocating for local, state and federal commitments to job creation, job training, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy -- especially for people from disadvantaged communities -- Green For All fights both poverty and pollution at the same time. For more information, please visit our web site.

[snowbear]

1. She sounds like a great pick !!!!

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(( ))

[babylonsister]

2. Yes, she does!

I posted this for those who complain no progressives have been selected for Obama's cabinet. Maybe this will help. Or not.

:fistbump:, larissa!

[snowbear]

3. Hilda Solis

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[Coexist]

4. K & R!

[snowbear]

5. Solis is the 3rd Hispanic in P/Elect's Cabinet now, right?

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~Richardson
~Salazar
~Solis

Is that correct?

~~~~

[high density]

6. Wrong, it's a horrible pick because she's not GLBT

Come on, get with the program. DU is all GLBT vs. everybody else these days. And she's Catholic, too! Gawd, the atheist crowd is going to be pissed.

[babylonsister]

7. I am trying to

concentrate on other things going on in this country/world. There's nothing any of us can do about Warren, I'm thinking. :shrug:

[lapfog_1]

8. Except what's been done...

express our outrage. But less inward and more outward. change.gov.

Picket the transition headquarters. Protest and march.

Keep the pressure on the media to make this a "big deal". To the point where they are playing the bigots words over and over. And Obama WILL do to him what he did to Wright.

I only wished the rest of DU would help out instead of apologizing.

[babylonsister]

9. The media is covering it, and we have written letters. And who's apologizing?

I wrote change.gov, I've voiced my support for the GLBT community, I've expressed my disappointment at Warren being picked. But this is not the only issue we need to pay attention to.

This thread is about a great Obama pick, btw. Are we allowed to share good news?

[lapfog_1]

10. There have been a number of apologists. Even more "explainers"

and a large number of "get over it, it's what Obama promised he'd do" folks.
and quite a number of "Didn't you listen to him during the campaign" types.

My favorite is still the super-secret plan to bring Warren and his entire flock (and by extension, millions of evangelicals) to see the light and that we NEED them to pass some sort of legislation package (but not equal rights) that will be good for the "gays".

and my other favorite... "there are more important things right now than gay rights and Obama knows what he is doing so STFU already"

[IsItJustMe]

12. No way in hell you can please everyone all the time.

[snowbear]

19. You're always the voice of reason~~~

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~~~~~

[ogneopasno]

11. I don't know anything about her. What are her labor qualifications?

[babylonsister]

13. Here's some info:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-solis19-2008dec19,0,9325.story

snip//

Elected to Congress in 2000 from a district that includes swaths of East L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley, Solis has consistently voted in support of labor's interests. A congressional voting analysis conducted by the AFL-CIO showed that she voted with organized labor 100% of the time last year.

She supported measures increasing the minimum wage, making it easier for workers to organize and preserving a ban on privatizing jobs at the Labor Department. Other labor groups that study congressional voting patterns gave her a 100% rating in 2005 and 2006.

J.P. Fielder, spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, suggested that Solis' voting record is overly weighted in labor's favor. "The business community recognizes that economic growth has happened in a number of non-unionized states. She has sided with the AFL-CIO in 97% of the votes that she has cast on the Hill," he said.

Solis also serves on the board of directors of American Rights at Work, which advocates for the right to form unions and bargain collectively. The chairman is former Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, who was also in the running for the Labor secretary

[trof]

15. Her parents are immigrants and union members.

Dad from Mexico and mom from Ecuador (I think).
Dad is union organizer and mom is United Rubber Workers.
Heard on CBS this morning.

[ogneopasno]

16. Has she ever been a union member?

[trof]

18. Don't know but I bet she's been raised right.

[reggie the dog]

14. cool

[glitch]

17. Good! K & R nt