Obama Appoints Latina as Secretary of Labor
January 3rd, 2009In this dismal economic climate, working in workforce development has been frustrating, especially in a state with high unemployment. Obama’s new secretary of labor will hopefully get the Department of Labor back on track and invest in policies that create jobs, train the underserved for those jobs, and protect workers.
Hilda Solis has an impressive track record of supporting the working class, immigrant populations, and labor unions:
“From the streets of Los Angeles where she marched with the janitors who were fighting for jobs with dignity that can support a family through SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaigns, to the halls of Congress where she has been an outspoken supporter of health care rights for all, a livable minimum wage, and workers’ right to come together for a voice on the job, Hilda Solis has never backed down from the good fight to make the American Dream available to all,” SEIU president Andy Stern said in a statement.
Solis won a Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library in 2000 for her work on environmental justice and minority, worker and women’s rights. She earned her undergraduate degree from Cal Poly Pomona and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.
To read the entire article from Workforce Management, click here.
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