President-Elect Obama today introduced Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) as his nominee for Secretary of Labor.  Ms. Solis, a Director of the pro-union lobbying group, American Rights at Work, is perhaps not the biggest or most obvious name we have seen floated about in recent speculation.  She is, however, a longtime, unapologetic friend of labor.  Her father was a Teamsters shop steward, and conservative website Discover The Networks.org reports over 60 percent of her PAC campaign contributions came from organized labor.  She enjoys a 97 percent approval rating from the AFL-CIO.

And organized labor has been largely supportive of the choice.  The AFL-CIO's John Sweeney told the New York Times that he was "thrilled" with her selection.    Not surprisingly, her colleagues from American Rights at Work were similarly effusive, even as ARW Executive Director David Bonior was long suspected to be on the President-Elect's short list.  SEIU's Andy Stern celebrated her career in today's Washington Post.

The language showing up in report after report after report is that Rep. Solis is an ardent proponent of the Employee Free Choice Act.  And there is little doubt that she is.

But that makes this passage from her official House of Representatives webpage that much more puzzling:

Defending Workers’ Rights to Organize
I am a strong supporter of workers' rights and cosponsored the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800). This vital legislation strengthens the right to organize and opposes any effort to dismantle the 40-hour work week and the overtime requirements provided under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The new Democratic majority in the House successfully passed this critical piece of legislation and it is pending consideration in the U.S. Senate.

This characterization of EFCA is laregely inconsistent with the actual text of the bill, which says nothing about employee work-weeks, overtime or the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Curious.