Obama labor pick vows to help combat recession

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's pick for top U.S. labor official vowed on Friday to fight the recession by helping people find jobs and said the right to join a union "is the basic premise of our democracy."

But at a Senate confirmation hearing to be labor secretary, Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis declined to directly address a major labor controversy: the "card-check" legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize in the workplace.

Both Solis and Obama have backed the legislation in the past, and she said they are both supporters of unions.

Solis, 51, of California, was first elected to Congress in 2000. The daughter of a union shop steward from Mexico and an assembly line worker from Nicaragua, she has been a leader in Congress on both labor and environmental issues.

"The president-elect feels strongly that American workers should have a choice to join or not to join a union," Solis told the Senate Education and Labor Committee.

"And to me, that is the basic premise of our democracy, whether you want to be associated with a group or not. And I think that's a principle that we all hold very dearly here," Solis said.

But she deflected questions about the card-check measure, saying she had not yet discussed it with Obama.

Business groups oppose the measure that would enable employees to form a bargaining unit if a majority of them sign a petition rather than putting the matter to a secret ballot.

Critics charge that unions could bully workers into signing a petition and that the secret ballot is a better way of ensuring a fair vote. But backers contend companies have undermined elections with threats against workers, anti-union campaigns and lengthy delays.

The bill passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate last year, which could kill it again this year if Republicans erect procedural roadblocks to thwart the Democratic majority.

Republicans said they would like to hear Solis' opinion about the measure before they vote whether to confirm her. Yet she seemed likely to be approved with bipartisan backing.

"I intend to support you," Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah told Solis. But Hatch warned, "My caution to you is not to be in anyone's pocket."

Organized labor, a traditional ally of Democrats, expects favorable treatment after helping the party win the White House and expand control of Congress in the November elections.

Solis said her priorities would be to boost job training and search assistance, fight job discrimination, protect pensions and ensure employees "get the pay they have earned working in safe, healthy and fair workplaces."

Shortly after Solis' hearing, the House passed a pair of so-called paycheck protection measures. One would reverse a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made it tougher to sue for pay discrimination. The other is aimed at reducing pay disparity between men and women.