Sunday, May 17, 2009

Miami Herald Drops Ball on Secretary of Labor visit

The AFL-CIO Executive Council had a big meeting in Miami back in early March. I'm not in the solar business directly (just a big advocate), so I didn't hear a peep. Hilda Solis, then recently confirmed as Secretary of Labor, visited the group as one of her first acts on the job.

Why is her visit a solar energy story? Well, after addressing the Executive Council, she went to visit a training center for the IBEW where they're preparing future electricians to be the skilled "green jobs" workforce we need to successfully install solar photovoltaic and other "new" technologies.

Did you read about it in the Herald? I didn't. I found a link by accident to an online video of the visit on the IBEW's website: Sec Solis Visits LU 349 I have no idea how I got there, but glad I found the video none the less.

Curious how I'd missed such a big deal since I'm pretty good at scouring the local rag for energy stories, I ran a search of the Herald online and could only dig up a story in the Business Section (beacuse there's no such thing as a labor section) that came close: Labor secretary inspires union crowd in Miami, March 3, 2009

That story is just a bunch of piffle - no substance - about a rally of union members just happy to have someone at the DOL that might actually advocate for labor (organized or otherwise).

Nice to see the local electrical workers union wasn't waiting for stimulus funds or for the local markets to catch onto solar before they started their training programs. Very encouraging, even in the absence of the local press.

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