By Don Loos, Big Government

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is defiant and combative

On Friday, 20 November 2009, The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation (Foundation) decided enough was enough and filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court demanding that they compel the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to comply with the Foundation’s April 6th Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request.
The Foundation’s FOIA requested:

Records from communications and recorded events where specified Obama appointees and Big Labor official were present
Lists of lawsuits involving the Department of Labor and Deborah Greenfield within the past eight years.

List of any gifts received by Solis in the past 5 years from Big Labor or its officials

Specifically provide in detail (a) notes, (b) agreements, (c) communications, and (d) agendas related to the regulations related to the labor union and officer disclosure rules

Copies of phone logs

Copies of any notes or documents related to any enforcement of any labor laws and any outside groups such as labor unions, American Rights at Work, or ACORN

Obama’s Labor Department Ignores His Transparency Guidance
Remember January 21, 2009, when President Barack Obama proclaimed the new era of more open and transparent government began? This U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy memorandum is a good reminder:

On his first full day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of all departments and agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The President directed that FOIA “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Moreover, the President instructed agencies that information should not be withheld merely because “public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

Agencies were directed to respond to requests “promptly and in a spirit of cooperation.”

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The Foundry

Congresswoman Hilda Solis has tax and serious ethics issues

Barack Obama can’t seem to win for losing when it comes to his nominees. Earlier this week, I wrote about the possible ethics violations committed by Congresswoman Hilda Solis, who has been nominated by President Obama to head the Labor Department. Not only was she the treasurer and on the board of directors of American Rights at Work, an organization lobbying Congress on bills she cosponsored, but she failed to reveal that information as required on financial disclosure forms until January 29.

The nomination of Solis was supposed to be voted out of committee on Thursday, but was postponed indefinitely just after USA Today reported that her husband paid off $6,400 in tax liens against his business on Wednesday, some of which had been outstanding for as long as 16 years.

Now the DC Examiner is reporting what could turn out to be an even more serious problem, one with potential criminal consequences. According to the report, American Rights at Work collected “at least $1 million in contributions from labor unions.” It also filed electioneering communications reports with the Federal Election Commission prior to the November election showing that ARW spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television ads in states targeting Republican senators.

Warner Todd Huston, Red States

The National Labor Relations Board (nlrb.gov) is a federal agency created to monitor and administer federal laws that govern the relationship between labor unions and business owners and corporations and to this board, Barack Obama has appointed as its chair a woman that does not seem to believe much in individual freedom but seems more interested in collectivism. To you and me that might be considered a communist ideal, but even if she doesn’t take it that far it is certainly an adversarial idea to individual freedom and the rights of business.

Last week, Obama named to the NLRB Wilma Liebman, a Philadelphian that has served on the legal staff of two labor unions: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1980-1989) and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen (1990-1993).

By Doug Bandow, The American Spectator

Card Check will Limit Workers Freedom and Privacy

So far Barack Obama has surprised supporters and opponents alike by choosing centrists for his economic and foreign policy teams. The leading exception is Labor Secretary-designate Rep. Hilda Solis, a long-time supporter of coercive unionism. The principal congressional battle is likely to be over so-called card check, which would allow Big Labor to intimidate its way to increased power.

People obviously should be free to join unions. But the vast majority of Americans choose not to do so, which is why organized labor represents only 7.5 percent of private sector workers.

Of course, Big Labor blames everyone else for its troubles. Evil employers. Economic woes. Unfair laws. So union officials want to fix the game.

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By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily

Rep Hilda Solis is a Leftist Radical

President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Labor Department has close ties to U.S. communist and socialist organizations and has sent representatives to functions organized by national parties for both ideologies.

The pick of Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., a Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader considered to be one of the most reliably pro-union voices in the House, was hailed as a victory by communist and socialist leaders.
An article this past weekend in the Communist Party USA’s People’s Weekly World Newspaper welcomed Solis and quoted known socialist leaders calling her a “great choice” and an “outstanding” selection with “a life-long commitment to working people.”

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