Labor & Employment Law

Senate Confirms Smith as the Nation?s ?Workers? Lawyer?

By Mike Hall

By a 60-37 vote, the U.S. Senate this afternoon confirmed M. Patricia Smith as the solicitor of labor. The solicitor of labor oversees enforcement of the nation’s most important labor laws and sets enforcement priorities that have a major impact on workers and their lives.

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) described the solicitor general’s job as “the workers’ lawyer.” During her confirmation hearing last year, Smith said she would bring to the job a “philosophy of proactive enforcement.” Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

At a time when working families are bearing the brunt of the economic recession and violations of workplace rights are rampant, Ms. Smith’s commitment to strong, fair and effective enforcement of our workplace laws is crucial.

The vote follows some nine months of Republican obstruction in an attempt to block Smith from the U.S. Department of Labor post as the nation’s top labor lawyer.

Adhering to their strict policy of “No to everything,” all Republicans voted against Smith, the current commissioner of labor in New York state. Earlier this week, the Republican filibuster against Smith was broken. Says Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio):

We’ve had one year of Republicans saying “no,” of blocking and obstructing. This isn’t an inconsequential position. It’s a position that protects workers’ ability to be part of the middle class.

Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), says:

For the last decade, lax labor law enforcement has made workers far more susceptible to abuses like unpaid overtime and wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and workplace discrimination, which is why Patricia Smith’s confirmation as Solicitor of Labor marks such an important change.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 04, 2010 (boomark / email).