Hilda Solis Confirmation Vote Tuesday

One more step remains for Hilda Solis to become the nation's 25th Secretary of Labor, the seventh woman to hold that position. And that's supposed to happen on Tuesday.

Or rather, as rules expert David Waldman aka Kagro X would say, two steps. A vote to cut off debate, which takes 60 Senators, and another to confirm her in the post. Given that only two Republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted against her, it seems President Obama is right to be confident that Solis will, in fact, be confirmed. But nothing is a sure thing until the roll call is over. And there is little doubt that she will be a thorn in the paw of those with a cramped view of workers' rights. Which aligns pretty much with Republicans.

Solis's appointment matters. As pointed out by several commentators, she is reminiscent of Frances Perkins, who served as Secretary of Labor throughout FDR's four terms, the first woman in any Cabinet post, and a liberal before that term meant what it does today. Historians generally agree that she persuaded Roosevelt to push some of the most important New Deal legislation.

Solis would arguably be the most liberal appointee in Obama's Cabinet. Daughter of immigrant father who became a Teamster organizer at a battery recycling factory and an immigrant mother who worked a factory line, she's never been one to give mere lip service to labor issues. She was a key player in a hard-won voter-initiative fight over the California minimum wage, an increase of which then-Gov. Pete Wilson had vetoed. She's been solidly behind environmental protections, particularly in the arena of environmental justice. Having been raised near a landfill east of Los Angeles, she authored 1999 state legislation that called for "the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws," the first such law in the nation.

For that effort, in 2000, she was the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Reading the citation at the time, Caroline Kennedy said:

Hilda Solis has authored landmark legislation in the areas of work conditions and environmental protections. She has been a strong advocate for women's rights, a leading author of measures pertaining to women's health, and she co-chaired a successful initiative to raise the minimum wage in California. Senator Solis also took on entrenched economic interests as she sought relief for minority communities that suffered the ill effects of haphazard enforcement of environmental laws.

The oldest daughter of immigrant parents, Hilda Solis gives deep meaning to President Kennedy's words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Organized labor, whose numbers are finally growing though in part because of adverse circumstances, sees considerable hope for progress in an Obama administration, especially if Solis is confirmed. She will certainly be a stronger, more pro-active advocate for workers than anyone who has held that post for the past 12 years and, arguably, a lot longer. Labor's wish list for that progress is topped by the Employee Free Choice Act. Both Obama and Solis have previously voiced support for this law, which would go a long way toward undermining the union-busting tactics - both crude and sophisticated - that we've seen so much of in the past three decades.

That ought to be just the beginning of pro-labor legislation if Solis has Obama's ear.