The "dread possibility of a Labor Department that actually works"

Thomas Frank writes in today's Wall Street Journal of the held-up confirmation of M. Patricia Smith to the position of solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor. Because of a hold placed on Smith's nomination by Sen. Enzi of Wyoming, she will now need 60 votes to be confirmed.

So why the controversy? What horrible skeletons does Smith have dangling in her closet? It appears Smith's sin is...being effective. Our lawmakers fear, in Frank's words, "the dread possibility of a Labor Department that actually works." Frank points out that:

Ms. Smith has "created some of the best outreach and enforcement programs in the nation," says Kim Bobo, head of the advocacy group Interfaith Worker Justice and a critic of the Bush-era Labor Department.

Outreach is just what understaffed labor agencies need. Governments ought to enlist private citizens and community groups to help people "come forward if they have complaints and problems. That's exactly the kind of thing we need to extend capacity," Ms. Bobo told me.

UFCW members in New York know how effective the Smith and the Wage Watchers program have been. Just earlier this year, then-State Labor Commissioner Smith announced the findings of an investigation into wage practices at several grocery stores in New York City and surrounding communities. Because of the investigation, 550 workers will receive nearly 1.5 million, primarily in unpaid overtime wages. As Smith said at the time:

It's unfathomable to think that in this day and age - in these frightening economic times - an employer would actually believe it could get away with cheating workers out such an exorbitant amount of their hard earned money. This case is a prime example of collaboration, good detective work and, as always, strong labor law enforcement.

Lawmakers like Enzi don't seem to like this "strong labor law" approach, and obviously see nothing wrong with the way we've been doing things the last eight years. Or, rather, not doing them. Frank on the Labor Department's fundamental broken-ness under the Bush administration:

The late Bush administration practiced regulatory euthanasia all across Washington, and the consequences have been felt in every corner of the economy.

The Labor Department was hit worst of all, a bureaucracy that was run in reverse until the motor seized up and the wheels came off. This past March the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the department's Wage and Hour Division that reads like one of the pranks Spy magazine pulled off in its heyday. It seems that over the preceding nine months, a group of GAO investigators filed 10 made-up complaints with the Wage and Hour Division to see how it would respond. One of them alleged that kids were working "on heavy machinery" in a meatpacking plant during school hours. Wage and Hour simply blew that one off. As the report concludes in its inimitable government style, the Labor Department "successfully investigated 1 of our 10 fictitious cases."

You can read the full GAO report here, entitled "Wage and Hour Division’s Complaint Intake and Investigative Processes Leave Low Wage Workers Vulnerable to Wage Theft."

So a functioning Labor Department is Big Business's nightmare. But Big Business and its closest allies in Congress surely must be dreaming if they think the Obama administration and Sec. Hilda Solis will allow the status quo to stand at the DOL. Smith's nomination must go through--not just because she's a qualified, capable candidate--but because it sends a strong message to Enzi and others like him: this Labor Department is going to start working for workers.

A Secretary of Labor Who'll Work for Workers

Working people finally have a fighter in their corner, with Hilda Solis almost certain to be confirmed as the next Secretary of Labor. The California Congresswoman has been a loyal champion for working families, fighting for the rights, interest, and safety of all workers—both immigrant and native-born. Solis has, as Marie Cocco puts it, “a record of unstinting loyalty to those who work and want to work, and who wish to receive in exchange a decent wage and a measure of dignity.”

As the child of immigrants and the first to attend college in her family, she knows how important it is that everyone who works hard in America has the opportunity to achieve the American Dream. She understands that all workers make hard choices and tremendous sacrifices in order to support their families and build a better future, and that it’s the interests and lives of these working people that should be at the heart of any reform of our immigration laws.

That’s why we’re confident that Solis will continue to support meaningful immigration reform, and will oppose unproductive and devastating workplace raids like those the Bush administration used to camouflage the cracks in our broken immigration system. A Los Angeles Times Article pointed out:

Immigrant activists revitalized the American labor movement in the final decades
of the 20th century. Solis, 51, has strong ties to that movement.

Certainly, her record of work for UFCW members alone is proof positive that she doesn’t just talk the talk. She’s a veteran when it comes to walking the walk for workers. Solis applauded President Hansen and the UFCW for exposing the detrimental impacts of workplace immigration raids. Her own background as the daughter of a union shop steward from Mexico and an assembly line worker from Nicaragua has led her to speak out on the immigration issue and stand up for all working families, even against powerful interest groups and big business.

Congresswoman Solis has proven, time and time again, that she puts the interests of all working people, both immigrant and native-born first—and there is no doubt she will continue to do so as Secretary of Labor. As President-elect Obama said, “Under her leadership, I am confident that the Department of Labor will once again stand up for working families.”

We at the UFCW agree, and urge that she be confirmed to the position that she is so eminently qualified for. It’s about time we had a Secretary of Labor who works for all workers.