White House To Host Labor Leaders Tommorow, Sign Labor-Friendly Exec Orders

[Coexist]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/executive-orders/white-house-to-host-labor-leaders-tommorow-sign-labor-friendly-exec-orders/


The Obama administration has notified leading labor officials that it will host them at the White House tomorrow at an event where President Obama plans to sign an untold number of executive orders that are friendly to organized labor, several labor sources tell me.

The event, which hasn’t been announced yet, is being seen as a big deal by organized labor officials, because it will affirm Obama’s commitment to the unions at a critical moment, and it’s the first White House event solely dedicated to hosting labor leaders. Among those who will attend tomorrow: AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney and senior SEIU official and Change to Win chair Anna Burger, sources said.

Union officials have been looking for a labor-friendly gesture like this from the White House. Some are privately grumbling that the administration hasn’t signaled a firm enough commitment to the Employee Free Choice Act, labor’s top priority. Others say he hasn’t been aggressively pushing for the confirmation of Labor Secretary designate Hilda Solis, which is still held up in limbo by Republicans for various reasons.

Spokespeople for AFL and SEIU declined comment, and the White House didn’t immediately respond.

“Administration officials have informed us that executive orders involving labor issues will be signed tomorrow at the White House, with labor leaders invited to attend,” a senior official at a major union told me. It’s not known precisely which executive orders are set to be overturned, and top union officials are scrambling right now to try to figure out what precisely the White House has in mind.

Labor officials say they’re not sure whether Obama will be reversing Bush-era exec orders that are bad for unions, signing new ones sought by labor, or both. But they’re cheered nonetheless.

“It’s unclear what the outcome of the meeting will be,” another labor leader says, “but it’s a big deal that he’s opening up the lines of communication with the labor movement.”

I’m trying to nail down more details and will bring you more on this in a bit.

*sigh*

I love this man.

Did I ever mention how much I love this man.

And Biden, too

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jEtOI8ay_-XoZrKX9qFZBXsDQb7wD96148SG0

That tone was expected to continue on Friday, when the administration also planned to re-announce a Middle Class Task Force designed to coordinate an approach to a slice of the country that has seen its ranks shrink as the economy falters. Vice President Joe Biden will lead the group of advisers and four Cabinet members.

"One of the things I was talking to my staff about yesterday is I do believe — and I make no apologies for it — that over the last 100 years the middle class was built on the back of organized labor. Without their weight, heft and their insistence starting in the early 1900s we wouldn't have the middle class we have now, in my view," Biden told CNBC for an interview Thursday. "So I think labor getting a fair share of the pie is part of it."

Labor leaders have been lobbying the Obama administration to repeal scores of executive orders they view as hostile to their cause. Officials gave administration officials their top 10 executive orders they wanted to see dismantled.
After eight years of President George W. Bush's Republican administration, labor leaders approached Obama's Democratic administration with cause for optimism.

Congress is considering the Employee Free Choice Act — also called card check — that would give workers the option of forming a union by simply signing a card or petition instead of holding secret ballot elections. Labor officials see the bill as a way to rebuild dwindling membership; one in eight workers today is a member of a union, down from about one in five 25 years ago.

[Blaze Diem]

1. Right to Work States are problem also. Wish there would be a way to adress this issue,

Guess every state is free to appreciate its labor force and reward it, or just keep it oppressed as all right-to-work states have always done.

Wish there was a level playing field for all labor.

This meeting however, is a better start than anything seen for 8 long years.

[Coexist]

2. .

[bdamomma]

3. this is big, I hope all parties get something done.