Chao, admittedly acting on orders from the White House, has done little to
combat the widespread employer violations of the laws that are supposed to
guarantee workers union rights, safe workplaces and decent wages, hours and
working conditions.

She's opposed regulations that were designed to protect workers from the
repetitive motion injuries that seriously harm millions of them and has
withdrawn more than 20 other proposed safety rules. She's slashed the budget
for enforcement of the remaining regulations and virtually all other
department functions aimed at helping workers. At the same time, she's
increased spending on enforcement of onerous union oversight regulations
that were sought by anti-union employer groups.

The Government Accountability Office says the Bush/Chao Labor Department has
ignored many workers who've complained of being paid less than the federal
minimum wage, of being cheated out of overtime pay, or even being denied
paychecks due them.

It's clear, as Obama says, that the department "has not lived up to its role
either as an advocate for hardworking families or as an arbiter of fairness
in relations between labor and management."

Chairman George Miller of the House Labor and Education Committee has an
even harsher judgment. He says the department has "actively worked to
undermine workers' rights."

Democrat Miller acknowledges that changing the department will be
"particularly daunting." But like many others who've spoken out since Obama
nominated Hilda Solis to succeed Chao, he says he's confident Solis, a
member of his committee, can pull it off.

If she does, she'll rank as one of the greatest labor secretaries since the
legendary Frances Perkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary throughout his
12 years as president. It was Perkins who first proposed and enforced many
of the labor laws that grant workers the basic rights and protections that
Elaine Chao has flaunted.

Like Perkins, who took office during the Great Depression, Solis will serve
as secretary during a time of extreme economic problems and under a
president who will rely on her to play an important role in attacking the
problems. Obama says that will include "making our unions strong" and
otherwise aiding workers, one of his top priorities.

Leaders of the country's labor federations and hundreds of their affiliated
unions agree with Obama that Solis will be an exceptionally strong advocate
for working people. So do Democratic Party leaders, many of Solis' fellow
Democrats who've served with her in Congress over the past eight years, and
officials of liberal interest groups such as the Sierra Club.

Probably as much in Solis' favor is the vehement opposition to her
appointment by notoriously anti-labor organizations like the National Right
to Work Committee, whose Mark Mix warns ominously that she's "a 100 percent
proponent of unions." Solis must be doing something right to draw such
opponents.

Actually, she's only a 97 percent proponent. That, at least, is how the
AFL-CIO scores Solis' congressional votes on labor issues.

She's variously described by her many supporters as a tremendous champion of
workers' rights and of working families, a "warrior" who's relentless,
unwavering and tireless in their behalf. They see her, too, as a progressive
who will work closely with grassroots labor, environmental and immigrant
worker groups. One enthusiastic backer calls her "smart, gutsy and
passionately committed."

Solis' record in Congress and in California's State Legislature for a
half-dozen years before that does indeed show her to be one of the best
political friends workers could hope for.

Solis led the way to increasing California's minimum wage and tightening
enforcement of the state's pro-worker labor laws, for instance, and helped
create environmentally friendly, energy-saving "green jobs and job
training programs at the state and federal level. She's helped expand
unemployment and disability insurance programs, fought to protect minority
and low-income communities from pollution and pesticide exposure. She's
joined workers' marches, picket lines and other demonstrations.

There's no doubt Solis will carry out her promise to actually enforce and
try vigilantly to expand and strengthen the laws and programs designed to
aid workers, their unions and their communities..

And just as Frances Perkins once worked so hard for passage of the National
Labor Relations Act that gave workers the basic right to unionize, Solis
will be working hard for passage of the long-pending Employee Free Choice
Act that would lift the legal barriers that have so seriously undermined the
Labor Relations Act that only 12 percent of American workers now belong to
unions.

Imagine that. A pro-labor secretary of labor.

Dick Meister, is a San Francisco-based journalist who has
covered labor and political issues for a half-century. Contact him through
his website, www.dickmeister.com