As Labor secretary, Solis has been staunchly on the side of workers. But her advocacy of workers' rights and safety has made some employers wary.
In her first year on the job, Solis hired 250 new inspectors to make sure workers were being paid wages they deserved. She also increased funding to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the Labor Department meant to protect workers from being injured on the job.
In October 2009, OSHA fined oil company BP a record $87 million for failing to fix safety hazards after a 2005 explosion killed 15 workers in the company's Texas refinery. The fine was more than quadruple any previous OSHA fine and sent a message to other employers.
"An $87 million fine won't restore those lives, but we can't let this happen again," Solis said.
Trade
In 2005, Solis opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). She told the The New York Times that the North American Free Trade Agreement had resulted in "750,000 jobs lost in the United States and little progress in improving workers' rights in Mexico."
But Solis' opposition to trade agreements will be balanced by Obama's pick for U.S. Trade Representative: Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor, who generally supports free trade. "With his choices of a labor secretary and a trade representative, Mr. Obama appears to have sought to appeal to each side in the battle over free trade," the New York Times wrote.
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
One of Solis' main priorities is to lead the charge on EFCA, which would make it easier for workers to unionize. Though it is fiercely opposed by business interests, it is organized labor's top legislative priority. Nonetheless, action was stalled during the early part of the Obama administration as the economy continued to suffer and congressional support was lukewarm.
EFCA contains a controversial measure opponents call "card check" th workers to forego a secret-ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board in order for workers to unionize. Instead, it would have forced employers to recognize a union once more than 50 percent of their employees sign up authorization forms or "cards."
Solis, whose parents were union members, favored the "card check" provision, and Obama pledged to support the legislation.
But business interests lined up against the measure, saying such a system would "deny employees a secret-ballot election and make them more vulnerable to union scare tactics," Bloomberg News reported. It wasn't just Republicans raling against card-check, the proposal drew fire from moderate Democrats, and even the Rev. Al Sharpton.
In July 2009, Democrats said they were willing to withdraw the "card-check" provision from the bill. They said the remaining bill would still make it easier for workers to unionize by shortening the union elections.
Green-Collar Employment
From her time as a California state senator, Solis has focused on environmental issues. She authored a 1999 California bill defining the term "environmental justice" in order to stop toxic waste dumping in poor neighborhoods. It was the first of its kind in the nation to become law.
In the U.S. House, Solis fought in 2003 for a federal study on conserving a watershed area in her district. She also spearheaded the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which offered training in "green-collar" employment for workers. Environmental blogs began calling her the "most important environmental heroine you've never heard of."
Immigration
Solis has been a strong supporter of issues important to the Latino community, including immigration and naturalization. She helped pass a law making it easier for non-U.S. citizens serving in the U.S. military to get U.S. citizenship.
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