There has been frustration among some liberals over the lack of "dyed-in-the-wool progressives" in Obama's cabinet, but the selection of Mary Beth Maxwell, founding executive director of American Rights at Work, as labor secretary might ease some tempers:
Maxwell already had the strong backing of former Rep. David Bonior, who despite repeated attempts to get his name removed from consideration continues to be on the short list of potential labor secretaries. Bonior, 63 years old, says it is time for his generation to turn over power to a new generation, and Maxwell, whose labor-backed organization pushes for expanded collective bargaining rights, is his pick.
As others have said before, the "secret ballot" argument is a canard when it comes to card-check, given that employers don't need names to intimidate employees out of forming a union and it only takes 30 percent of the union requesting a secret ballot election to trigger one. Labor activists have been somewhat worried by the centrist nature of Obama's economic cabinet and by Rahm Emanuel's omission of card check among a list of issues that the Obama Administration warned throw "long and deep on" in a meeting with business leaders. But Maxwell's selection would suggest that the Obama folks intend to move forward on the Employee Free Choice Act, in accordance with campaign promises.Some labor leaders from both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, a splinter union group led by the Service Employees International Union, back her as a consensus choice, citing her efforts on behalf of legislation to allow unionization at workplaces with the signing of cards, not secret balloting.
Maxwell is also an interesting figure beyond her work as a labor leader: She is an out lesbian and mother of an adopted black son, so she would add to the already diverse nature of the cabinet in more ways than one. As Jonathan Weisman notes, the Human Rights Campaign is backing her. Except they already backed another candidate, Linda Sanchez, which is kind of awkward.
--A. Serwer
