Why Hilda Solis Is No Frances Perkins (Hint: It's Not Her Fault)
By Liza Featherstone - May 12, 2009, 11:21AM
I don't like to work for free, but that's, of course, why I feel the issue of wage theft is so important! Thus I cheerfully agreed to read Kim Bobo's important book and participate in this discussion. I'm glad Bobo opens this conversation by asking whether Hilda Solis and her Labor Department will be able to address wage theft, as that was exactly the question on my mind as I finished reading the book. Frankly, I'm worried that Solis won't be able to do much of anything - until the administration feels much more public pressure.
Kim's chapter on Frances Perkins, the visionary Labor Department head under FDR, details many of Perkins' qualities as an individual - her commitment to workers, administrative skills, connection to worker advocacy groups -- and argues that we need someone like this to run the department today. I am sure Hilda Solis has many of those qualities. In fact, she seems pretty terrific. But I'm not convinced it matters who's in that job, because we have neither the political will from the top (the president), nor the organization at the bottom (the working public), to force workers' rights onto the agenda.
Now is quite different from Perkins' time. In the thirties, May Day demonstrations in New York City attracted hundreds of thousands of people. Sit-down strikes were sweeping the land - elites seriously feared that capitalism was threatened and that socialism was just around the corner. The Communist Party was strong, so there was a political party committed to workers' interests. Because of all these forces, a Labor Secretary like Frances Perkins could emerge, and create a system that protected workers. Now, workers lack political power, by any possible measure. This year, the May Day crowd in Union Square was under a thousand. Unions are deeply divided to the point of political paralysis, about to even lose card check, the reform upon which labor has been staking all hopes for the last several years. No political party champions workers' interests. I love the idea of holding Obama to the standards of the 1930s, but most likely, we'll need 1930s-style politics to do it.
tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com |
