The Long Fight for Labor

The Long Fight for Labor
Why is Barack Obama having such a difficult time undoing Bush-era damage to the Department of Labor?
Jake Blumgart | March 10, 2010 | web only


On Feb. 4, a full year into Barack Obama's presidency, conservative influence over the Department of Labor finally loosened. After a grueling nine-and-a-half-month confirmation process, Patricia Smith overcame the Senate hold on her nomination as Labor Department solicitor, the third ranking position within the department. Her victory had been anything but certain: Fierce Republican opposition had already compelled another Obama Labor Department nominee, Lorelei Boylan, to withdraw her nomination as head of the vital Wage and Hour Division.

The slow, grinding process of reforming the department, particularly the Wage and Hour Division, has proved exceptionally difficult, and it isn't over yet. George W. Bush staffed his Department of Labor with rigidly pro-business ideologues who allowed the department's investigative functions to wither. Obama promised to end conservative influence over the department, freeing the career staff to fulfill the agency's core missions.

The president followed through, nominating thoroughly progressive appointees to all the department's central positions -- most notably, Rep. Hilda Solis of California, a notable champion of workers' rights, as secretary. In turn, Solis rejuvenated the department's atrophied enforcement arm, hiring hundreds of new investigators and placing renewed emphasis on the Wage and Hour Division. Responsible for oversight of minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace fairness laws, Wage and Hour had practically ceased operations during the Bush years. But despite these advances, conservatives managed to maintain a stranglehold on the department.

Senate Republicans have placed holds on several pivotal nominees, leaving their roles unfilled, including the head of Wage and Hour and solicitor -- the department's in-house law office, which represents the department in it's often contentious investigative efforts. "These are probably two of the most important positions in terms of enforcing our nation's wage and hour laws," says Catherine Ruckelshaus, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, a worker-advocacy group. "We keep trying to expedite the process, but we keep hearing the same thing: just a few more months. There is sort of a stasis right now because the key decision makers aren't in place."

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http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_long_fight_for_labor

I was walking a picket line in support of a local labor situation. One of the told me that she was thinking of voting for Democrats for the first time in the 2008 election. I was so stunned I was speechless.

unfortunately.