After a nearly two-month delay, Hilda Solis, a former U.S. Representative from California, has been confirmed as Secretary of Labor. The Feb. 24 Senate vote was 80-17. Solis says that her top priorities will include promoting "green-collar" jobs, helping get Americans back to work, ensuring that workers are "paid what they deserve...and have safe and healthy workplaces," and providing employment assistance to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
She also will oversee the development of a rule implementing President Obama’s executive order reversing a Bush administration directive that requires employers to notify workers of their right not to join a union.