Friday, March 04, 2011

Labor sec'y Hilda Solis participates in union conf call about Wisconsin; CWA prez predicts Walker bill will pass

"To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights." Labor Department Mission Statement.

Hmm...nothing about unions and picking sides in that statement.

The Communications Workers of America is taking a leading role in the Wisconsin public-sector union dispute. On Wednesday night the union held an activist conference call, it used the occasion to announce its Nationwide Day of Action on April 4. The union's president, Larry Cohen, reminded the participants in the call--which he says numbered 10,000, that Martin Luther King was assassinated on that day in 1968.

Cohen introduced Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (her part begins at 4.47 in the recording), whom he called "the best Secretary of Labor ever."

Solis lauded the CWA activists for "standing up for basic workers' rights." Odd, but federal employees don't have the "basic right" of bargaining for wages and benefits. "Facts are stubborn things," as John Adams once said.

"But the governors in Wisconsin and Ohio aren't just asking us to tighten our belts," Solis stated, "they're demanding that we give up our uniquely American rights as workers."

Review the paragraph two above this one.

"We are willing to meet those folks at the table," Solis opined, "We are willing to make those sacrifices, and we already have in many ways."

We?

Eight-eight percent of the workforce is non-union, which is something Solis needs to remember. Who does Solis speak for?

What hill happen in Wisconsin? "Eventually they will pass that bill in Wisconsin" is what Cohen predicts. (22:59 in the recording.)

But Cohen plans resistance and to "build this movement across the country."

In an editorial today, the Washington Examiner says, "It's time for Labor Secretary Solis to go."

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