Saturday,
December 20, 2008
Italian Victims of Triangle Fire - Frances
Perkins - and New Obama Labor Appointee Connection
The
ANNOTICO Report
In
1911, Frances Perkins, then a young social worker, watched in horror as 146 mostly young Italian immigrant women (as
young as 14) who worked as seamstresses under abominable conditions for
Triangle Shirtwaist Co. leaped to their deaths rather than burn in the fire
consuming their factory. The Exit doors chained shut to “discourage
breaks"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
A
quarter of a century later, as FDR
To
Hilda L. Solis, the Obama appointee as Labor Secretary, the lives of the
working poor have been a central concern In
1996, as a first-term member of the
The
primary challenge Solis would face as Labor secretary won
Labor
Cabinet
nominee Solis has made a number of gutsy political moves.
By
Harold Meyerson
December 19, 2008
When Barack Obama set out to choose his secretary of
Labor, his top priority was probably not recruiting an emblematic Angeleno. But in tapping Hilda L. Solis, a Democrat who
represents a portion of the
The
In some ways, her appointment harks back to Franklin Roosevelt
In 1911, Perkins, then a young social worker, watched in horror as the young
Jewish and Italian immigrant women who worked as seamstresses for Triangle
Shirtwaist Co. leaped to their deaths rather than burn in the fire consuming
their factory.
A quarter of a century later, as FDR
The lives of the working poor have been a central concern for Solis as well. In
1996, as a first-term member of the
At the time, Republicans had controlled the state
In the state senate, Solis brought her distinctly working-class perspective to
environmental issues. She focused on getting the carcinogens out of the air in
neighborhoods where refineries made breathing risky; she worked to spruce up
the
And in 2000, she did something else that career politicians just don
Against the wishes of the party
Solis
It was no coincidence that shortly after Solis dispatched
In Congress, Solis has continued to combine labor and environmental
perspectives. Last year, she coauthored the Green Jobs Act, providing federal
funds for job training in retrofitting, solar panel installation and other
environmentally friendly occupations. She also worked to recruit Democratic
congressional candidates in the Southwest and in heavily Latino districts
throughout the country, in the process forging a good relationship with Rahm Emanuel, who will serve as Obama
The primary challenge Solis would face as Labor secretary won
And as Perkins once delivered for
Harold Meyerson, editor at large of the American
Prospect, is an Op-Ed columnist for the Washington Post and was executive
editor of LA Weekly from 1989 through 2001.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-meyerson19-2008dec19,0,5862785.story
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