President-elect Obama’s choice for Secretary of Labor portends difficult times for Corporate America. His choice is Hilda Solis, a congressional representative from East L.A., who has consistently supported the interests of organized labor in the House of Representative. In fact, according to an analysis conducted by the AFL-CIO, Ms. Solis voted on behalf of the interests of organized labor 100% of the time.
As expected, she supports the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, supports increasing the minimum wage, and is against privatizing jobs in the public sector. In addition, Ms. Solis is on the board of directors of American Rights at Work, a pro-union advocacy group.
During this recession, it is the right-to-work states that have done far better economically than states with large numbers of unionized workers. If organized labor succeeds in unionizing more and more workers, with the help of Ms. Solis, then one can expect the recession to grow deeper and last longer than would occur if union influence were to decrease.
