People in the news

Hilda L. Solis

Secretary of Labor (since February 2009)

Why She Matters

A former four-term California congresswoman, Solis is President Obama's Labor secretary. An opponent of free trade, she is a pro-union voice in the cabinet and also one of the Obama administration's top Hispanic officials.

Solis' legislative record is pro-worker, pro-woman and pro-environment. As the first Latina California state senator, she spearheaded first-of-its-kind environmental justice legislation and more than a dozen laws combating domestic violence. In the U.S. House, she pushed a law to train workers for "green-collar" jobs in an environmentally-friendly economy.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: U.S. Representative (2000 to 2009); California Senate (1994 to 2000); California Assembly (1992 to 1994)
Birthday: Oct. 20, 1957
Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.
Alma Mater: California State Polytechnic University, B.A. (political science), 1979; University of Southern California, M.P.A., 1981

Spouse: Sam H. Sayyad
Religion: Roman Catholic
DC Office: U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20210, 1-866-487-2365
Web site

Path to Power

Solis was born into a union family in Los Angeles in 1957. Her father was a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and her mother joined the United Rubber Workers. Solis' father, himself a naturalized U.S. citizen, organized immigrants for the Teamsters Union at a battery recycling plant.

In 1979, Solis graduated from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif. She earned a master's of public administration from the University of Southern California in 1981.

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Solis has previous experience working in a Democratic White House. She worked in the Office of Hispanic Affairs during Jimmy Carter's administration. She was later appointed as a management analyst with the Office of Management and Budget in the civil-rights division.

Solis' first foray into elected office came in 1985 when she became a member of the Rio Hondo Community College board of trustees.

California State Assembly

In 1992, Solis was elected to the California State Assembly. After one term, she ran in 1994 for the California Senate and became the first Latina elected to that body. She chaired the powerful Senate Industrial Relations Committee and led the 1996 battle to increase the state's minimum wage. She wrote 1999 environmental justice legislation that was the first of its kind in the country and authored 17 state laws aimed at ending domestic violence.

U.S. Congress

First elected to Congress in 2000, after defeating nine-term incumbent Democrat Matthew G. Martinez in the Democratic primary, Solis represents California's 32nd district, which includes portions of east Los Angeles with a heavy Hispanic population. Solis' priorities in Congress included "expanding access to affordable health care, protecting the environment, and improving the lives of working families," according to her official biography.

In Congress, Solis was the first Latina to serve on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, and was vice chair of that panel's Environment and Hazardous Materials and Health and Telecommunications subcommittees. Solis also served on the House Natural Resources Committee and the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. She also served on the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Solis chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus task force on health and the environment. She was also co-chair of the Congressional Women's Caucus and played a key role in the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2006, according to her official biography.

Obama Administration

Obama nominated Solis to the Labor post in December 2008. But Obama's cabinet picks were plagued by tax troubles, which felled fellow nominees Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer. Controversy over a tax lien place on one of Solis' husband's business ventures mired her confirmation process in Senate haggling, but she was eventually confirmed in February 2009.

"We're thrilled," then Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern told Bloomberg after her appointment was announced. "She's been as strong a voice for justice for SEIU workers like our janitors and homecare workers as we've ever had."

The Issues

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.

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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.

The Network

Solis has extensive union ties. Former SEIU President Andy Stern campaigned door-to-door with Solis in her campaign for California Senate.

In Congress, Solis was a close ally of fellow California Democrat and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

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Additional Resources