“When President Obama inherited this economic crisis seven months ago, our nation was shedding 700,000 jobs a month. Today's decline in unemployment – the lowest number of jobs we’ve lost in the last year – is very good news for working families. It shows that President Obama's economic recovery program is working – saving jobs in classrooms, police stations, and firehouses and creating new jobs for Americans in construction and renewable energy fields. While our nation’s road to recovery will take time and patience, there is no doubt that we are moving in the right direction.

“Even in the midst of this promising news, it’s clear we still have a long way to go. More than 5 million Americans have been looking for work for more than six months, without success. We must do more to help these working families keep food on their tables and hope in their hearts. An extension of unemployment benefits should be at the top of Congress’s agenda when we return in the fall.”

“It makes progress toward our goal of putting more excellent teachers in our nation’s classrooms – one of the most important things we can do for our students – by rewarding effective teachers. It will give more students the opportunity to learn in outstanding charter schools, and it will help more students graduate from high school by turning around the “dropout factories” that allow too many talented students fall through the cracks. And it builds on our efforts to help make college more affordable by increasing the Pell Grant scholarship to $5,350 – more than a $600 increase above last year’s award.

“This legislation will also help us strengthen our workforce and transition to a clean energy economy. It provides a much-needed infusion of funds to reinvigorate the Department of Labor’s ability to protect workers’ wages, benefits, safety and health and enforce the laws on the books – protections that had seriously eroded after years of neglect by the previous administration and Congresses.

“It will help the millions of workers who have lost their jobs in this recession get back on their feet by providing training and support for Americans affected by mass layoffs and plant closures. It will help our veterans transition into and thrive in our workforce when they return home. And, to prepare more workers for green jobs of the future, it will give workers the skills and experience they need for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Overall, this represents an enormous step in the right direction for our workers, our economy, and our role in a 21st century global marketplace.

“Finally, this bill delivers on President Obama’s goal of launching a new era of American service. It will provide new service opportunities for tens of thousands of volunteers of all ages by tapping into the talent of Americans and their desire to give back.

“I’d like to congratulate Chairman Obey and all the members of the Appropriations Committee for their hard work on this bill. This is one of many steps we must take to regain our economic stride, strengthen our middle class and put the American Dream back within reach of all families. To truly bring the transformational change Americans want and deserve, we must also make a landmark education investment that will help every American get an affordable college education, we must continue to restore workers’ rights, and we must fix our broken health care system so that everyone has access to quality, affordable care. In a country as great as America, that put the first man on the moon, these goals are achievable. And this bill points us in the right direction.”

“The provisions in this bill will drive energy costs down for consumers and families in the long run and will create millions of clean energy jobs that cannot be shipped overseas,” Miller added. “And, in a very important step, under our bill American workers will be able to take advantage of opportunities that will help them transition into the new sustainable careers of the future.”
 
As chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, Miller wrote into the bill significant provisions to ensure workers affected by climate change policy have access to health care coverage, income support, and employment services so they can transition into green economy jobs.

Among other provisions to assist workers in transition, eligible workers impacted by the new energy policy would:

•    Receive income support equal to 70 percent of their income for up to 156 weeks;
•    Receive an 80 percent credit toward their monthly health care premiums;
•    Have access to job training opportunities, including on-the-job training programs, as well as other support services; and
•    Receive job search allowances and relocation assistance, up to $1,500 for each.

“President Obama is serious about transforming our economy and strengthening our middle class and his budget shows it. This budget backs up his promises to reverse years of damaging policies that undermined the health and safety of our nation’s workers. It will put the success of our children first, by investing in educational opportunities that will prepare every American to compete globally and expanding access to college. It will help get our fiscal health in order by finally fixing our broken health care system and providing all Americans with affordable, quality health care coverage. It will build a clean energy economy that opens up new job opportunities for Americans and encourages innovation.  I look forward to working with his administration and Congress to put this smart and optimistic roadmap for our future into action.”

For more information on the FY2010 Education budget, click here.

Fore more information on the FY2010 Labor budget, click here.

“This outbreak has proven that a pandemic can have a ripple effect on our communities,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.  “In many cases, our morphing public health needs simply don’t align with our education and business needs. Especially in this economy, it’s critical to ensure that when an outbreak hits, students can keep learning and businesses and workers can continue to help move our economy forward.”

While proper planning by schools and businesses and a well-coordinated response by the Obama administration have been effective in helping reduce the threat of this outbreak, additional tools are needed to better protect school and workplace environments from future, imminent pandemics. Experts are predicting that a stronger strain of the H1N1 virus or a similar strain could hit again this fall.

“While events have progressed with great speed, this will be a marathon, not a sprint,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the Interim Deputy Director for Science and Program at the Centers for Disease Control. “Even if this outbreak yet proves to be less serious than we might have initially feared, we can anticipate that we may have a subsequent or follow-on outbreak several months down the road.”

Witnesses urged the importance of ensuring that workers on the frontlines of a pandemic, such as health care workers and first responders, must be able to stay healthy and on the job when an outbreak hits.



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“Our frontline healthcare workers are the foundation upon which our health care system is built,” said Jordan Barab, the Acting Assistant Secretary, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “If they are not able to work due to illness, or unwilling to work due to fears for their health, individual patients and the country’s entire health care structure will suffer.”

A recent survey of almost 200,000 U.S. health care workers found that 57 percent of these workers had not been provided training on pandemic flu.  More than half of these workers felt that their facility was not “ready for most things” that could arise in a flu pandemic.  And only 33 percent thought that most health care workers would report to work during an actual flu pandemic.

“Currently there is no comprehensive federal standard to require employers to protect health care workers from an airborne virus like H1N1 or tuberculosis,” said Miguel Antonio Garcia, a registered nurse in Los Angeles who has been treating patients for the current outbreak. “Protecting these workers will preserve our surge capacity to treat the infected.”

Garcia also emphasized the need for better protective equipment for health care workers, like respirators specifically designed to protect against transmissible airborne viruses.

While OSHA has issued guidance and even has some specific standards relevant to pandemic flu, the agency does not have a mandatory standard that comprehensively addresses the workplace hazards posed by airborne transmissible diseases.

Current federal sick leave policies also present significant challenges for workers, both when dealing with their own health and safety and when finding care for their children if schools close.

The Family Medical Leave Act does not require employers to provide paid sick leave benefits, and not all workers quality for FMLA leave. Fifty-seven million Americans have no paid sick leave, including as many as 86 percent of food service workers. Almost 100 million Americans have no paid sick leave to care for a child.  

Even a worker who does have coverage has no right to leave to take care of a non-infected child whose school was closed due to an outbreak.

Many closed schools have yet to re-open. As of Tuesday, approximately 726 schools had closed, affecting 468,000 students, said Bill Modzeleski, the Associate Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education. By Wednesday 140 schools had re-opened. The Department also anticipates that 278 schools will have reopened by today, returning 150,000 children to school.

While communication has been strong between school districts and federal, state and local public health and education agencies throughout this outbreak, the current lack of a central reporting system has made it harder for some officials to track school closures.

“We discovered that we did not have a system in place to track and report the individual schools that had been ordered to dismiss students due to H1N1. My office is working with the County Offices of Education to developing an easy-to-use reporting process so that the state could be kept up to date about any school impacted by an order to dismiss,” said Jack O'Connell, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for California Department of Education, where many of the nation’s first school closures occurred. He also cited a shortage of school nurses as an obstacle to fighting the outbreak on campuses.

For more information about protecting health care workers from pandemic flu, click here.

“Federal government agencies in Washington are monitoring the situation around the country very closely. This morning, President Obama advised that schools with confirmed or even suspected cases of the virus consider closing for a temporary period of time and I want to thank State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph A. Ovick for their prompt response to the suspected cases at Highlands Elementary School in Pittsburg.  The community is putting its faith and trust in state and local officials like Mr. O’Connell and Mr. Ovick and their colleagues to effectively deal with this situation to help keep it from becoming an even bigger threat to our country.

“Next week, as Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, I will hold a hearing to look into how we can ensure that schools and workplaces are prepared against this flu virus.”

Information for workers, families, schools and employers about how to protect our communities by reducing the spread of the H1N1 flu virus »

“From top to bottom, this budget does right by our schoolchildren, students, families and workers. It will get our economy back on track and help rebuild our middle class by turning our current crises in energy, health care and education into opportunities for future prosperity.

“It will allow us to finally address the injustices posed by our broken health care system and provide quality and affordable health care choices for all Americans.

“It will build on investments we’ve already made to mitigate the economy’s impact on our schools, so that the quality of our children’s education doesn’t suffer. With families increasing relying on school nutrition programs in this economy, it also will improve access to healthy, affordable meals at school.

“It will allow us to create the good, green jobs of the future and transform our economy for the 21st century by investing in clean energy.

“And it will provide much needed relief to families that have sacrificed to send their kids to college – by working hard and saving – only to have their plans changed by the economic downturn. Our budget keep this crisis from pricing Americans out of a college degree by allowing us to increase grant aid for students and make the federal student loan programs they rely on more stable, cost-effective and efficient. And we’ll do it without costing taxpayers a dime.

“This budget adopts President Obama’s principles of fiscal honesty, accountability, and transparency. It will help us get the most out of taxpayer dollars by eliminating waste and abuse and focusing on strategies that will yield substantial returns.

“This budget, made possible by President Obama’s leadership, is a roadmap for a new direction that rebuilds our middle class, regains our competitiveness, and grows our economy for years to come.”

BACKGROUND

Specifically, the budget includes reconciliation instructions that enable the House Education and Labor Committee to enact reforms that will make college more affordable and, along with other committees of jurisdiction, expand access to affordable, quality health insurance.

In the case of education, the budget includes instructions for the committee to enact reforms that will produce $1 billion in savings over five years. Miller has announced he intends to use these instructions to increase grant aid for college students at no additional cost to taxpayers by reforming the federal student loan programs.

One student loan reform option that could be explored is President Obama’s proposal to increase Pell Grant scholarships by almost $100 billion over the next ten years, which would be entirely paid for by using federal funds to originate all new federal college loans starting in 2010.

To view the CBO estimate of this proposal, click here.

For more information on President Obama’s proposal, click here.          

For more information on the FY 2010 Budget Resolution, click here.

“I congratulate Jordan for being named as the acting head of OSHA. Jordan will bring a tremendous amount of valuable health and safety experience to an agency that has been neglected for far too long. Throughout his career, Jordan has demonstrated the specialized knowledge of health and safety issues needed to revamp the agency and strengthen its efforts to protect Americans while on the job. I look forward to working with Jordan and Secretary Solis to ensure that the agency works to protect the health and safety of our nation’s workers.”

Prior to joining the committee, Barab worked for four years at the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. He served as special assistant to the assistant director of Labor for OSHA from 1998 to 2001, and directed the safety and health program for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees from 1982 to 1998. A native of Palos Verdes Estates, California, Barab is a 1975 graduate of Claremont McKenna College in California and received a Master's degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University in 1978.

He replaces Brian Kennedy, who recently was nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. Calemine will be one of two General Counsels for the committee; Stephanie Moore serves as the General Counsel for education.

“Jody has been a tireless, passionate and effective champion for America’s workers and families,” Miller said. “He has played a key role in making our labor laws fairer for workers, helping enact laws that boosted the minimum wage for the first time in a decade and help workers fight back against pay discrimination. I am delighted to promote Jody to General Counsel and am confident that he will continue to be a leading force for leveling the playing field for workers and creating an economy that works for everyone again.”

Miller also announced that Therese Leung and Celine McNicholas have joined his committee staff.

“Therese and Celine bring an impressive depth of knowledge and experience to the table,” Miller continued. “Their expertise will be tremendously valuable to our committee as we continue working to rebuild and strengthen our nation’s middle class.”

Calemine first joined the committee’s staff in 2003, as the Democratic counsel for U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), on the Subcommittee for Employer-Employee Relations. He later became the labor counsel for the full committee and was named deputy director of labor policy in January 2007. He was the lead staffer on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which raised the minimum wage for the first time in a decade, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restores workers’ rights to challenge discriminatory paychecks.

Calemine, a labor and employment lawyer, previously served as a Headquarters Counsel for the Communications Workers of America and as an Associate Counsel at Zwerdling, Paul, Leibig, Kahn & Wolly. He received both his law degree and his Bachelor of the Arts from the University of Virginia.  

Leung joins the committee as a Labor Policy Advisor. She holds a Bachelor of the Arts from Wellesley College, a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a doctorate degree from Harvard where she studied labor market and wage inequality.  She has previously worked as a management consultant for L.E.K. Consulting and a fiscal policy analyst for the Office of Management and Budget.   While at the committee, her responsibilities include retirement security and health care policy.

McNicholas joins the committee as an Associate Labor Counsel. She previously served as a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Rep. Nikki Tsongas (D-MA) and as Acting Legislative Director and Legislative Assistant for U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA). She also worked as an Associate concentrating on labor and employment law at O’Mara Ezold, P.C., as a Judicial Clerk for the Chester County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania, and as a Legal Advocate for the Domestic Abuse Project. She holds a Bachelor of the Arts from Mount Holyoke College, and a law degree from Villanova University School of Law.

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The GAO found that the Wage and Hour Division’s complaint intake, complaint resolution, and investigation processes were ineffective and discouraged workers from lodging wage theft complaints. In several of the division’s regional offices, staff were directed to only record successful complaint resolutions in its database, making the Wage and Hour Division statistics appear better than they were. In addition, the GAO found that because of the lack of resources and staff, investigations on wage theft and child labor violations were frequently delayed by months or years.  

“This investigation clearly shows that the Department of Labor has left thousands of actual victims of wage theft who sought federal government assistance with nowhere to turn,” said Gregory Kutz, GAO’s managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, “Far too often many of America’s most vulnerable workers find themselves dealing with an agency concerned about resource limitations, with ineffective processes, and without certain tools necessary to perform timely and effective investigations of wage theft complaints. Unfortunately, far too often the result is unscrupulous employers taking advantage of our country’s low wage workers.”

Over a period of several months, GAO investigators filed ten fictitious complaints with agency district offices across the country, posing as both the employee and the employer. Of the ten complaints that were made, only one was successfully resolved. The GAO also reported that after reviewing the agency’s complaint database, only five of ten fictitious complaints were logged into the system weeks later.

In one case, an undercover investigator called the agency to complain about children working with saws and meat grinders, illegal under child labor laws, during the school day. Although the agency states that investigating child labor violations is a top priority, the call was never investigated or logged into the complaint database.

To listen to this call, click here.

In another undercover call, a Wage and Hour employee told the GAO investigator that they could not follow up on the complaint because the IRS said that his employer was not big enough to be covered under the law. As the GAO testified, though the company was a fictitious and had never filed a tax return, Wage and Hour employees do not have access to IRS data. The Wage and Hour employee was referred to the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General for administrative action.

To listen to this call, click here.

In addition, the GAO audited Wage and Hour Division’s database and sampled several dozen cases to determine whether they were properly handled. Just as the undercover calls highlighted, many times, when employers declined to pay back wages – even if employers admit wages were owed – the division was likely to drop the investigation and inform the complainant the right to sue in court.  

Also, the GAO found that Wage and Hour employees often took the word of employers that they paid workers back wages owed, even if the employee never got paid.

“While some investigators wait for proof of payment before closing the conciliation, others told us that they close conciliations as soon as the employer agrees to pay,” said Kutz. “Even if the employee later tells the investigator that he has not been paid, investigators told us they do not change the outcome of a closed case in the WHD database.”

Today’s hearing follows a July 2008 Education and Labor hearing on wage theft where the GAO presented 15 case studies where the Wage and Hour Division ineffectively enforced the law. The GAO reported then that actions initiated by the Department on wage and hour violations dropped from approximately 47,000 in 1997 to fewer than 30,000 in 2007. And, the use of fines that punish repeat or egregious offenders declined by nearly 50 percent from 2001 to 2007.

To read more about the July 2008 hearing, click here.

To read the GAO’s testimony, click here.

“Secretary Solis takes the helm at a very trying time for all Americans. The failing economy has put millions of Americans out of work and millions more are wondering if their job will be next. The Department of Labor will have an important role in our nation’s economic recovery and I am very confident that Hilda Solis is the right leader for the job.”

According to a survey released late last year by the AARP, a growing number of baby boomers have stopped contributing to their retirement plans just to make ends meet as a result of the financial and housing crises. Many companies have also recently announced that they are suspending matching contributions to their workers’ 401(k)s.

“Our nation’s system of retirement security is imperiled, headed for a serious train wreck,” said John C. Bogle, founder and former chief executive of the Vanguard Group. “That wreck is not merely waiting to happen; we are running on a dangerous track that is leading directly to a serious crash that will disable major parts of our retirement system.”

The economic downturn has drained trillions of dollars from Americans’ 401(k) accounts and hit other forms of retirement assets, including home values. In fact, median household net worth for those near retirement fell by more than 45 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to an analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

“The events of the last two years shown how exposed workers’ retirement income is to market risk,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The collapse of the housing bubble has called attention to the fact that the value of not only their pensions, but also their homes, fluctuate with the market, while their homes are an even more important asset for most workers.”

According to recent data, more than two-thirds of workers with retirement plans rely solely on 401(k) type plans as their primary retirement vehicle. Where investment decisions were once made by professionals managing a traditional pension portfolio on behalf of workers, the responsibility of picking the right investments and implementing retirement savings strategies are left up to an individual account holder.

“Today most workers with pension coverage have a 401(k) as their primary or only plan. They were not designed for that role,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston University. “Evidence indicates that people make mistakes at every step along the way. They don’t join the plan; they don’t contribute enough; they don’t diversify their holdings; they over invest in company stock; they take out money when they switch jobs; and they don’t annuitize at retirement.”

As a result, witnesses urged Congress to work on solutions that would strengthen 401(k) plans and consider additional strategies to ensure that all Americans have the ability to save for retirement, regardless if their employer offers a plan at work.

“As we work to preserve and strengthen 401(k)s and the other legs of the retirement savings stool, we must also tackle these difficult questions about the state of our nation’s retirement system as a whole and look to see whether we need to create a retirement system that works for all Americans, not just the fortunate few,” said Miller.

Photos from the hearing:


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“Sadly, Colombia has been the most dangerous place in the world to belong to a labor union for decades,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the committee. “In some recent years, there have been more labor killings in Colombia than the rest of the world combined.”  

The committee heard testimony from human rights advocates who said that contrary to statements from the Colombian government, violence against labor union leaders is increasing and very little has done to fully investigate and prosecute the backlog of anti-labor murder cases.

“Over the last couple of decades, Colombia’s unions have suffered extreme violence, mostly at the hands of right-wing paramilitary groups that have deliberately targeted unions,” said Maria McFarland, a Latin America specialist with Human Rights Watch.  McFarland said that although there was an official demobilization of paramilitaries several years ago, new groups have emerged that similarly target labor unions. “The bulk of the threats received by unionists last year have been signed by groups purporting to be paramilitaries, such as the Black Eagles.”  

According to Colombia’s National Labor School, a leading labor think-tank, the country has not aggressively investigated and prosecuted the approximately 2,700 killings of labor union leaders that have occurred over the past two decades. At Colombia’s current pace, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases, the National Labor School estimates.

“Despite the great emphasis the current administration is placing on security, after a few years of declining murder rates, violence against labor unions showed a steep increase in 2008”, said Jose Luciano Sanin, director of the Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Labor School). “More than 60 percent of the all murdered unionists in the world are Colombians. The murder rate of unionists in Colombia is five times that of the rest of the countries of the world, including those countries with dictatorships that have banned union activity.”

Human rights advocates in Colombia contend that many of these killings were planned the leadership of the country’s right-wing paramilitary organization, the A.U.C, as well as the Colombian military, and national police. Although some prosecutions are being conducted, witnesses testified, prosecutions often stop short from holding those who conspired, ordered or paid for anti-labor murders accountable.

“It is a systematic pattern that in all of these criminal acts, the public prosecutor is content to determine the responsibility of the material authors, leaving out the intellectual authors, who are the most important, given that they are the ones who sponsor, order the executions, put up the money, and always remain in impunity,” said Jose Nirio Sanchez, a former Colombian special court judge for labor-homicide cases. “Thus, these crimes will not stop, since the true perpetrators are not prosecuted.”

Witnesses highlighted an example of prosecutor negligence in the killing of Jorge Dario Hoyos Franco, a well-known Colombian labor leader. Although two individuals those who pulled trigger were quickly arrested and convicted of killing, the investigation failed to hold those individuals who actually ordered the killing of Hoyos accountable. The Attorney General’s Office, which investigated the killing, even advanced the unsupported theory that Hoyos was killed as a result of an affair with a suspect’s wife.  

“Despite the two sentences in which the Colombian judges have ruled that my father was murdered for being a labor unionist, the prosecutor’s office, in order to continue hiding the truth, maintained the hypothesis of a crime of passion up until August of 2008,” said Yessika Hoyos, daughter of Jorge Dario Hoyos Franco. “It took international pressure for the prosecutor’s office to acknowledge the truth with respect to the motive for the crime. We will continue to demand that the intellectual authors be investigated, as the murder of unionists in Colombia is the result of a systematic government policy.”

Ms. Hoyos continue to pursue those who order her father’s killing.

“We know there is evidence of other perpetrators, including members of the national army. The investigation remains open, but with no follow-up of the evidence as requested, and no identification of other possible perpetrators,” said Hoyos.

To view all of the testimonies from today’s hearing, click here.

“As President Obama has urged us, now is the time to put tired politics aside and put the future of our country first. Today’s report that another 600,000 Americans lost their jobs in January is further evidence that we must work to approve the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The package will create and save 3 to 4 million jobs over the next two years by helping to rebuild America, making us more globally competitive and energy independent, and transforming our economy for long-term growth.

“Congress should act swiftly in order to tackle our nation’s many challenges. Delays will only put our economy into further jeopardy.”

“Congresswoman Hilda Solis is a strong champion of working families and will be an outstanding Secretary of Labor. Given our enormous economic challenges facing our nation, I urge the Senate to take swift action and confirm her nomination.

“Congresswoman Solis will take the helm of the Department of Labor during an extremely trying time for our nation’s economy and our workers. Just today we learned that 524,000 workers lost their jobs in December for a total of 3.6 million since the recession began. And, economists tell us that we may have not hit bottom.

“This is why our nation’s workers demand a Labor Secretary who understands the everyday struggles Americans are facing. Hilda Solis is the right person for the job. Her record in the California legislature as a leader on labor issues and her excellent work in Congress on behalf our of nation’s working men and women will restore the Department of Labor as an advocate for hard working Americans. 

“I look forward to working with Secretary-designate Solis and the Obama administration to move the country forward on our nation’s workers top priorities: expanding health care, ensuring fair and equal pay, improving worker safety, strengthening retirement security and rebuilding our middle class.”

“Congresswoman Solis will take the helm of the Department of Labor during a very trying time for our nation and our workers. Our nation’s growing economic uncertainty demands a Labor Secretary who understands the everyday struggles Americans are facing.

“The task of rebuilding the Department of Labor after years of neglect will be particularly daunting. As a colleague and former member of the Education and Labor Committee, I am confident that Hilda Solis is the right person to lead this effort to ensure that the Labor Department fights for working people.”

 “I look forward to working with her and the Obama administration to move the country forward on expanding health care, ensuring fair and equal pay, improving worker safety, strengthening retirement security and rebuilding our middle class.”

“During his campaign, President-Elect Obama promised to fix our broken global trading system by insisting on strong, enforceable labor and environmental standards in future trade agreements. He pledged to re-negotiate the deeply flawed North American Free Trade Agreement, hold off consideration of the proposed trade agreement with Colombia until its government shows real progress in addressing and prosecuting the horrific assassinations of labor leaders and union members in its country, and strengthen assistance for U.S. workers who lose their jobs due to trade. These promises are an enormous step in the right direction, and I hope that the President-Elect and Mr. Kirk will deliver on them.

“Our committee looks forward to working with Mr. Kirk and the Obama administration to modernize NAFTA and CAFTA, and to negotiate future trade agreements that will help rebuild and strengthen our economy, restore our competitive edge, and uphold our belief that all workers on this planet deserve basic human rights and labor protections.”

Miller has been a leading voice in calling for the Colombian government to do more to effectively address the horrific assassinations of its country’s labor leaders and union members before the U.S. moves forward with its proposed trade agreement with Colombia. Currently, the country’s impunity rate for such murders remains well above 90 percent, and even many convicted killers remain at large.  For more information on his efforts, click here.

“Today’s devastating news that our nation lost more than a half million jobs in November is further evidence that we need to move quickly and decisively to put Americans back to work. Our economy will not get back on track until Americans are working again and families feel secure about their economic future.

“Our first priority must be to approve an economic recovery plan that will make investments in energy independence, rebuild our neglected infrastructure, and continue to provide relief to families struggling to make ends meet. Economists of every stripe tell us that targeted investments in infrastructure improvements and the green economy will create millions of jobs in the short-term and encourage long-term economic growth.

“But, as our nation builds a more resilient economy, we must also ensure that all workers are able to share in a rebounding economy. Workers must be able to earn a fair wage, decent benefits and have the ability to enjoy a secure retirement. I look forward to working with the new Congress and the Obama administration to improve the economic security of American workers and strengthen middle-class families.”