If your neighborhood letter carrier seems more hurried than ever, please be understanding: her every step may now be tracked with a GPS device.

A new program called IMD Wireless—already launched in some areas, and scheduled to roll out across the country by the end of 2013—uses Bluetooth-enabled cell phones to report carriers' progress.

The tracking devices are 1990s-style flip phones that have GPS built in. "They were probably in the basement of AT&T, gathering dust," said Frank Couget, a Manhattan letter carrier and steward.

The system works by electronically linking the cell phone with the handheld scanner each letter carrier already totes around.

The scanner is used to record deliveries (or attempts) by scanning bar codes on certain packages, such as those sent express class or with delivery confirmation. Already, the carrier's pace is tracked, though in a more rudimentary way: she scans bar code stickers at certain mailboxes along her route, recording the time she reaches each "managed service point."

In some locations, the number of MSPs per route increased from six to 15 last year.

Until now, however, the scanner data have been uploaded for analysis only after the carrier finished her route. Now the phone will send scanner data every 15 minutes.

It is not clear whether the data upload also reports the carrier's GPS location.

"Cell phones will be carried by employees at all times they are on the street performing delivery or pick-up duties," according to U.S. Postal Service (USPS) instructions shared on RuralInfo.Net, a rank-and-file site for rural carriers.

REAL-TIME TRACKING

The rationale is to offer postal customers real-time tracking of packages—and to compete with UPS and FedEx, which already offer customers detailed tracking of each parcel's progress. But "basically it gives management real-time ability to track us," Couget said.

Package delivery, especially in dense urban areas, is a booming business in the age of online shopping. (Thus the Postmaster General's plan to deliver parcels, but not letters, on Saturdays.)

Business newspapers were recently abuzz over a holiday-season rivalry between Walmart, which offered online customers same-day delivery in select cities via UPS, and Amazon, which offered the same to certain East Coast customers through USPS.

The Postal Service also recently launched a test of same-day local delivery, called "MetroPost," for businesses in San Francisco, starting with a flower company.

It may seem incongruous that the Postal Service is adding services and technologies at the same time it is closing post offices and cutting jobs in the name of its financial crisis.

But think of it this way: USPS is beefing up its money-makers—the services where it competes with for-profit shippers. At the same time, it's squeezing out the unprofitable, inefficient, public-service elements of its traditional work, like delivering personal letters six days a week—or letter carriers taking the time to check in on elderly customers on their routes.

WHO'S WATCHING US?

The new "real-time scanners" were deployed first in the New York City and Washington, D.C., areas. They are scheduled for all 67 postal districts in the U.S. by the end of the year.

In a discussion on Facebook, the biggest complaint from letter carriers who've been issued the phones is the cumbersome delay. The scanner cannot scan while it is uploading, which reportedly takes about a minute, every 15 minutes.

"Stupid thing always has to be uploading when it's time to scan a package," reported Dot Fearnley, "and usually a customer is waiting for it."

Others worried about the phones getting lost, broken, or ruined in the rain. And some were concerned about the heightened surveillance of their workday.

"I just wish I knew exactly what was going on, on the other side of this GPS tracking," commented Robert Pompano, Jr., "i.e., who's looking at this info and what does it look like to them."

Under the Postal Service's current tracking system, MSP scans are not supposed to be used as the sole basis for discipline—but may be used together with other evidence.

Reports by the USPS Inspector General over the past several years concluded that busy supervisors weren't making enough use of MSP data. The technology had cost millions to impose, and managers were urged to use it more aggressively to root out "theft of time" and "carrier misconduct."

Who in the public would object? In reality, management has a bigger agenda.

"Management doesn't spend the kind of money it spends on monitoring just to catch a few slackers," labor educator Charley Richardson explained in an essay on tracking technologies in Labor Notes.

"Managers monitor to gather data and then analyze the work process and intensify it. They use data to cut corners, speed workers up, increase stress, and eliminate jobs."

On Facebook, Maria Roesch of New Jersey worried the new changes could mean interrogations: "why were you at blah blah's house for 2 min 9 seconds...?"

This is already the type of micro-management borne by drivers at UPS (see Big Brown Becomes Big Brother).

Roesch wrote, "We will now have to say ...'sign here...goodbye...can't talk gotta GO.'"

Thomas E. Perez, the likely nominee to be the next secretary of labor, was introduced to organized labor under traumatic circumstances.

Perez was 12 when his father died of a heart attack, and a friend’s father stepped in as a surrogate. The man was a Teamster who’d lost his job, and the union helped support him.

Pointing to continuing declines in union representation and recent assaults on collective bargaining rights, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka March 7 conceded that the American labor movement is “failing miserably’’ and must adapt its strategies to a new landscape.

“To be blunt, our basic system of workplace representation is failing—failing miserably—to meet the needs of America's workers by every critical measure,’’ Trumka told a group of 100 union officials and labor supporters in Chicago.

In this challenging climate, Trumka said the labor movement must re-examine its historic relationship with American workers and adapt its strategies to a very different legal, economic, and political landscape. More specifically, Trumka said, the labor movement must embrace new models of representation that exist outside of traditional unionism.

“Our institutions, our unions will experiment,’’ Trumka said. “We will adapt to this new age. We will change and with your help, your ideas and your innovation, working men and working women will guide our country back to a better future where we have shared prosperity.’’

Trumka made his remarks at a conference sponsored by the University of Illinois Labor Education Program, which featured several prominent examples of workplace movements seeking to gather unrepresented workers to the house of labor.

Strategies for Change

While data showing the decline of organized labor are well known, Trumka said the numbers do not express the fact that 60 million Americans would nonetheless embrace an opportunity to join a union. He said the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions must let go of their jurisdictional and historic loyalties and deploy strategies that appeal to the next generation of workers. In line with this view, the federation president presented a three-part prescription for change.

First, Trumka said American workers must be able to join the labor movement without enduring a “trial-by-fire workplace organizing drive.’’ He said the traditional legal process under the National Labor Relations Act is clearly stacked against workers seeking to form a union. Regardless of the quality of a particular organizing drive, he said employers have effectively fought against union penetration.

Trumka said the AFL-CIO has taken steps to encourage alternate routes to representation. He pointed to the federation's relationships with organizations such as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Moreover, the AFL-CIO adopted a policy in 2006 extending affiliate status to “worker centers,’’ community organizations and faith-based groups established to educate workers about their rights in the workplace. In many cases worker centers have channeled workers into organizing drives.

“It is time to stop letting the law define who are members should be,’’ he said.

Secondly, Trumka said labor needs to organize more strategically and focus on nontraditional forms of employment. Moreover, unions need to “focus on where the jobs will be in the future.’’

Trumka pointed out that some unions have extended membership opportunities to workers who do not fit within the traditional definition of “employee.’’ Examples include organizing drives focusing on home care and child care workers, directed by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union. Trumka also pointed to the Writers Guild's efforts to organize writers in the entertainment industry and the Taxi Workers Alliance efforts to represent cabbies in New York.

Finally, Trumka said the labor movement needs to modify its internal structures to deploy collective resources more effectively and efficiently. He said better coordination between unions and between regions could have played a role in defeating the right-to-work law recently enacted in Michigan.

“The time for excuses is over,’’ he said. “We must effectively mobilize and act.’’

Several speakers at the event discussed their efforts to support and mobilize workers outside of traditional channels.

Examples of Campaigns

Rev. C.J. Hawking, executive director of Arise Chicago, cited a long list of successes by her organization on behalf of low-wage workers. Arise Chicago builds partnerships between faith-based groups and workers to address workplace injustice through education and advocacy. Key successes have included:

• creation of the Illinois Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights;

• enactment of an ordinance by the Chicago City Council that revokes the business licenses of employers convicted of wage theft;

• completion of an exhaustive examination of abuses in the car wash industry through a partnership with the University of Illinois Labor Education Program;

• educating thousands of low-wage workers about their rights under state and federal minimum wage, collective bargaining and workplace safety statutes;

• assisting workers seeking to form unions through partnerships with local labor organizations; and

• recovering more than $5 million in unpaid wages for low-wage workers cheated by their employers.

Daniel Schladerman, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers' “Making Change at Walmart’’ campaign, pointed to ongoing efforts to ensure economic justice and workplace protections to millions of retail employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

While Wal-Mart has successfully resisted union representation for many years, Schladerman said company employees are working with UFCW and several faith-based and community partners on nontraditional strategies designed to bring better wages and working conditions to the retail behemoth.

Those strategies include the emergence of: Making Change at Walmart, a UFCW and Wal-Mart employee coalition working to improve working conditions; Organization United for Respect at Walmart, a worker-led group focusing on in-store working conditions; Walmart 1 Percent, an information campaign highlighting the extreme wealth of members of the Walton family; and Warehouse Workers for Justice, an Illinois organization seeking fair wages and workplace protections for warehouse and logistics workers, including workers toiling on behalf of Wal-Mart.

“We created a new model for workers that allowed them to stop waiting for the government to examine their employer and award them their rights to organize,’’ Schladerman said. “That is the foundation that has made the rest of this happen.’’

The month-long strike by New York City school bus drivers will apparently come to an end Friday night.

Sources familiar with the negotiation told WCBS 880's Rich Lamb and CBS 2's Marcia Kramer that the union has decided to end the strike.

There was a lot of rancorous rivalry between the city and the union regarding a list of employees that the union wanted used to outline who would have jobs if new bus companies were to take over routes currently operated by union members.

Right now, there is no word on whether that has been resolved, but the buses should start rolling again, possibly by Wednesday after students return from winter break, CBS 2's Kramer reported.

The walkout began Jan. 16 , triggered by the city's plan to put bus contracts out to bid to lower costs.

The union said it wanted a job security clause in those contracts, which the city said it can't legally do.

Union officials from Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union said bus drivers will stay on strike until the city agrees to put the employee protection provision back into their contract.

ATU International President Larry Hanley issued the following statement Friday:

"Late last night, I received a letter signed by all of the  serious candidates for Mayor of New York City – City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill DiBlasio, Comptroller John Liu, former New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson, and former City Councilman Sal Albanese – all pledging support for the principles for which our members are currently fighting.

"It is significant to us that the next mayor of New York has already recognized the principles of fairness that are required to govern a city, and that those we employ to serve our children deserve a fair days pay for a fair days work. Equally important is that they understand the value of experienced drivers and matrons to the safety of our kids.

"They also have concluded that increased school transportation costs have absolutely nothing to do with the wages of our workforce. I’m encouraged at their wiliness to tackle the real cost issues of busing our children to and from school.

"We view this request to suspend the current strike as an earnest effort on behalf of the city, its children and its workers. I will be discussing options this afternoon and evening with the leaders and members of Local 1181."

The strike has idled more than half the city's school buses, forcing an estimated 113,200 students to find other ways to get to school.

The city spends nearly $7,000 a year for each student on a bus, far more than any other city.

ATU Local 1181 President Michael Cordiello also issued the following statement Friday:

"It gives us great confidence that the next mayor of this City will be far more sympathetic to the working conditions of the drivers, matrons and mechanics that make up Local 1181. I want to thank all the candidates who signed on to the letter of support that was delivered to ATU International President Larry Hanley last night.

"As Local 1181 further contemplates the direction this strike will take, a few things are decidedly clear: that Mayor Bloomberg has shown an alarming lack of leadership throughout this entire process, instead opting to divide our city. He has put the children, especially those who need the safety and experience that our membership provides the most, at risk."

Union leaders set up a conference call with members for Friday night.

At a rally in Bayside, Queens on Friday, it was clear it was clear that school bus drivers an matrons are growing weary.

"We are falling behind, everybody. We have people crying here. People keep on complaining because you can't survive at $150 a week," matron Bibi Mangal told WCBS 880 reporter Marla Diamond. "My gas bill alone is $600 and we can't do it."

The drivers and matrons want job security as the city goes out to bid on new bus contracts, said driver Josephine Garino.

"We want to get back to the job and we want safety for the children," she said.

Members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1145 have ratified a new four-year labor agreement with Honeywell International Inc. in Minneapolis that increases wages 7.5 percent over term and covers 1,050 employees, the union and the company told BNA Feb. 13.

“This was a tough round of negotiations,” IBT Local 1145 Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Witzmann said in a Feb. 5 statement. “The company proposed cutting 135 jobs, which we were able to save in negotiations. The new agreement represents improvements in wages [and] pensions.”

The vote took place Feb. 2. The new contract, which covers all 1,050 production and maintenance employees at Honeywell's four Minneapolis plants, took effect Feb. 1 and will expire Jan. 31, 2017, the union said.

“We're pleased that we reached an agreement that has been ratified by members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1145,” Bruce Eric Anderson, a Honeywell spokesman, told BNA Feb. 13. “Both sides worked collaboratively through the negotiations and the resulting agreement is fair to employees and the company.”

No Wage Increase in First Year

The contract, which was ratified by 61 percent of the bargaining unit, does not provide for a wage increase in the first year, Witzmann told BNA Feb. 13. Workers will receive a 2.5 percent raise in February 2014, a 2.5 percent increase in 2015, and a 2.5 percent raise in 2016.

The average hourly rate for bargaining unit employees is $25, Witzmann said.

Employees will contribute 20 percent toward the cost of their health insurance premiums, while the company will pay the remaining 80 percent, the union said, the same proportion as under the last contract.

However, employee contributions toward health care insurance premiums will increase in 2013. Employees with single coverage will pay $152 per month, up from $103 per month. Workers with family coverage will pay $310 per month, up from $210 per month.

Employees' deductibles also will increase under the new contract. Beginning in 2013, employees with single coverage will pay an annual $250 deductible, up from $200. Meanwhile workers with family coverage in 2013 will pay an annual $625 deductible, up from $500. The annual out-of-pocket maximum for deductible rates will be $3,000 for individual coverage and $6,000 for family coverage in 2013, also increases from the last contract.

However, in 2014, the health care plan will change to a “consumer driven high deductible plan,” Witzmann said. The structure of the plan will change from single and family coverage to single coverage, employee-plus-spouse coverage, employee-plus-children coverage, and family coverage.

Witzmann said the deductible rates, out-of-pocket expenses, and premiums are subject to change throughout the life of the contract. In 2014, employees with single coverage will pay a $1,500 deductible while those with family coverage will pay a $3,000 deductible. The annual out-of-pocket maximum will be $4,000 for individual coverage and $8,000 for family coverage in 2014.

Witzmann could not provide figures for the premiums in 2014 through 2016 or the deductible rates in 2015 and 2016.

Pension Benefits Improve

Pension benefits will be improved, Witzmann said, with a $5.50 increase, over the contract term, in the monthly pension benefit for each year of service. The benefit will increase from the current $63 to $65.50 effective Feb. 1, 2013; $66.50 in 2014; $67.50 in 2015; and $68.50 in 2016.

As of Feb. 1, 2013, employees and future hires will be offered a 401(k) plan as opposed to the defined benefit pension that current employees have. Honeywell will offer employees a 1 percent match provided that employees contribute at least 2 percent of their salaries.

The company also is no longer offering retirement health care benefits. Honeywell offered retiree benefits under the last contract and paid a premium that matched the premiums active members paid.

Witzmann said the company wanted to make all health care benefits in the new contract covering the Minneapolis plants consistent with other Honeywell locations.

“It was either a vote to strike or a vote for this,” Witzmann said. “And [members] voted to not go on a potential work stoppage.”

Witzmann said the union proposed that the company join the Taft-Hartley multiemployer health care plan, which could have saved Honeywell millions of dollars each year, but the company declined it.

“The company wants total control of employees” even if it means losing potential cost savings, Witzmann said.

A once-in-a-generation triumvirate of Washington power players is coalescing behind the idea of increasing federal fuel taxes to pay for badly needed infrastructure improvements.
 
What this will likely mean for shippers is higher freight rates for shipments. But it might also mean faster and more reliable transit times as trucks travel over smoother, more modern highways and bridges.
 
In short, infrastructure is no longer a dirty word in Washington.
 
President Barack Obama and two always-at-each-other’s-throats power brokers representing business and labor—U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka—are all backing a “Fix-it-First” infrastructure improvement program.
 
President Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget proposal calls for $128 billion on transportation spending. That’s a whopping a 68 percent increase over the projected spending for the current fiscal year. The $128 billion would be the first installment in a six-year, $556 billion plan that would also include $30 billion in spending on a new National Infrastructure Bank and $53 billion on high-speed and intercity rail.
 
“Our aging infrastructure is badly in need of repair,” the president said during his Feb. 12 State of the Union address to Congress. His “Fix-it-First program would help improve highways and repair some of the 70,000 bridges described as “structurally deficient.” Obama drew a straight line between infrastructure reliability and economic growth.
 
“Let’s prove there’s no better place to do business than the United States of America, and let’s get this done,” Obama urged Congress.
 
The very next day, Donohue largely agreed with the president during testimony before the powerful House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., the newly installed chairman of the T&I Committee, recently said “all options are on the table” to pay for infrastructure, including raising the federal tax on fuel (currently 18.4 cents on gasoline, 23.4 cents on diesel, unchanged since 1993).
 
Just to prove it was no fluke, Donohue and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka—a pair that likely would argue that the current year is 2013—testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to say that, yes, they do agree the nation needs to spend more on infrastructure and raising the fuel tax is the best way to pay for that
 
“The fact that Tom Donohue and I appear before you today does not mean that hell has frozen over or that unicorns are roaming the land,” Trumka said.
 
Not to be outdone in the quip wars, Donohue observed he and Trumka were “the oddest couple since Felix and Oscar.” Then, turning serious, Donohue said the status quo is not acceptable.
 
“There needs to be a vigorous dialogue on funding and financing, but first we have to agree on the direction in which we’re going,” Donohue said. “Everyone needs to keep an open mind.”
 
For at least two years, Donohue has quietly been pushing for an increase in the fuel tax—an unusual stance for the usually tax-adverse Chamber, which represents 3 million U.S. businesses. Lately, when asked about the fuel tax, Donohue has subtly shifted to calling it a user fee—which is actually is.
 
Donohue was extra cautious about attaching too many labels on the money needed to pay for infrastructure, noting: “We’ve got to avoid cutting off our nose to spite our face.”

Still, Donohue and Trumka faced a Senate panel that largely agreed the nation needs to upgrade its roads, bridges, electrical and water grids. The timing is fortuitous—right after an election, hopefully long enough before the 2014 mid-terms so that voters might forget.
 
“Election season comes soon enough, and now we have an obligation to set all that aside and work together for our people, for jobs and for our future,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Senate committee chairwoman said.
 
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, the ranking minority member on the committee, somewhat surprisingly agreed on the need for infrastructure spending. He just wanted to how to pay for the $556 billion plan. Donohue and others are calling for a phased-in increase in the fuel tax.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Let’s Rebuild America initiative produced its first annual Transportation Infrastructure Summit. Participants discussed vital issued related to transportation—including the appropriate role of the federal government, public-private partnerships, U.S. infrastructure and supply chain competitiveness, and how technology is transforming the way infrastructure works.
   
Before his testimony on the Hill, Donohue told the group that the nation’s infrastructure in “a rapid state of decline” that threatens safety, productivity, and our global competitiveness.
 
“Our infrastructure system is a tremendous national asset we’ve built up over generations,” Donohue told the committee. “It has fueled economic growth, enhanced our competitiveness, and created a lot of good jobs. If well-maintained, it can continue to deliver outstanding benefits to all Americans.”
 
Besides, Donohue told the congressmen, it’s a great opportunity to show the nation that Washington still works.
 
“Transportation is a great opportunity to prove that Democrats and Republicans can work together, that states and the federal government can each play an appropriate role, that business is stepping up to help meet a major national challenge, and that all parties can come together to actually get something done for the good of the nation,” he said.
 
Toward that ends, the Chamber is backing what Donohue termed “reasonable increases” in fuel taxes that are phased in and indexed to inflation. He told Congress that just made good business sense.
   
“From a business standpoint, if you need something that’s going to provide a good return, you have to go out and in invest in it and buy it,” Donohue said. “That’s why we’re willing to pay more in gas and diesel taxes for something we know is going to make us more productive and efficient and lower our costs.”
 
As a former president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, Donohue is acutely aware of how important roads and bridges are to the $700 billion-a-year trucking industry. While truckers would face higher fuel bills, those costs almost certainly would be passed onto shippers through either higher base freight rates or increased fuel surcharges.
 
A who’s who of experts is backing Donohue in his call for improving infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated the United States needs to spend $2.75 trillion to maintain and improve its infrastructure by 2020. That’s about two-thirds more than the $1.66 trillion in expected federal, state and local government funding over that period.
 
Failing to make those investments would cost $3.1 trillion in lost economic output by 2020 and about 3.5 million lost jobs, the ASCE has estimated.
 
While no current governors were at the Chamber infrastructure meeting, one former one threw his weight behind the call for higher gas taxes. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, said it was “inescapable” that the federal fuel tax had to be raised fund highway projects.

The NLRB Office of General Counsel has found that a strike by union bus operators against a group of New York school bus companies does not violate the National Labor Relations Act because the union has a primary labor dispute with the employers.

In a charge filed with the NLRB Brooklyn office on January 16, the group of 20 bus companies alleged that a strike called by Local 1181-1061 of the Amalgamated Transit Union was unlawful because the union's primary dispute was with the New York Department of Education, which contracts with the bus companies for service to area schools. The NLRA prohibits unions from striking secondary employers in order to pressure the employer with whom they have a dispute.

In an Advice Memorandum issued today, however, the Office of General Counsel found that the bus companies, which maintained collective bargaining agreements with the union for many years before they expired in December, are primary employers in the labor dispute, along with the Department of Education. "It is well established that more than one employer may be a primary employer" under the NLRA, the memo explained.

Accordingly, the Regional Office will dismiss the charge alleging an illegal secondary strike.

January 11, 2013: In the early 1900s workers in the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts faced terrible working conditions toiling away 60 hours a week for very little pay. They were lodged in substandard and unaffordable housing and faced extreme poverty. These workers were largely immigrants, most of them women, even some children.

For years the conditions continuously worsened. The workers decided they had enough and started to organize their neighborhoods block-by-block, and with the Industrial Workers of the World.

Then on January 11, 1912, a law was passed in Massachusetts that shortened the work week, reducing weekly pay as a result. This meant that dinner wasn't going to be on the table some nights.

For a community already suffering from malnutrition, this was the final straw that sparked the historic "Bread & Roses Strike" 101 years ago today. 25,000 workers went on strike. The strike lasted 9 weeks, cost 2 lives, and over $1 million dollars.

By organizing together the workers were able to win wage increases, overtime pay, and no discrimination for strike activity. The bravery and militancy demonstrated by these women, children and men contributed to the strength of the early labor movement in the U.S., setting the stage for unions today.

We honor their memory by working together to build a stronger and more democratic labor movement, which benefits all working people.

You can support Teamsters who stand up every day by helping TDU. Click here to donate online today. Click here to learn more about TDU.

Click here to read more about the Bread & Roses Strike.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the first Hispanic woman to serve in a Cabinet, joined the exodus from President Barack Obama's administration as he prepares for a second term.

"I have decided to begin a new future, and return to the people and places I love and that have inspired and shaped my life," Solis, 55, said yesterday in a letter to the more than 17,000 employees in the agency.

Solis, one of eight women among 23 Cabinet-level officials, follows Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson in announcing their departures. The president plans to name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew tomorrow to be Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, a person familiar with the process said.

Other posts to be filled include Commerce secretary, the U.S. trade representative and director of the Office of Management and Budget. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki all plan to remain for at least part of the next term, according to a White House official, who asked for anonymity because the decisions haven't been announced.

Solis, a U.S. representative from California from 2001 to 2009, as Labor chief focused on expanding job-search services and skills training to combat mounting U.S. job loses. Since 2009, more than 1.7 million people completed federally funded job-training programs, she wrote in her letter. Of those, more than one million have received industry-recognized credentials.

'Critical Member'

The agency’s mission is to promote programs to help workers and retirees, oversee compliance with wage and workplace safety rules and compile employment statistics.

Obama credited Solis, daughter of a Mexican father who was a Teamsters shop steward and Nicaraguan mother and assembly-line worker, with helping to put millions of Americans back to work.

"Secretary Solis has been a critical member of my economic team as we have worked to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," Obama said in a statement. "Her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers' health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work."

The White House statement didn't identify a successor. According to published reports, possible candidates include former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who recently ended the talk show she was hosting on Current TV, and former Representative Betty Sutton of Ohio, who lost her re-election bid in November. Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Granholm, declined to comment on the speculation.

'Create Jobs'

"While Secretary Solis and I often disagreed on the best way to create jobs and jump start the economy, I wish her the best as she departs the Obama administration," Representative Phil Roe, a Tennessee Republican, said in an e-mail. "My hope moving forward is that President Obama will find someone for the position who supports all workers' rights, promotes economic growth and is willing to work in a bipartisan way to create jobs."

Solis was confirmed by the Senate Feb. 24, 2009, as the 25th labor secretary. Her nomination won bipartisan support after Republicans ended efforts to delay a vote over questions about her ties to union groups and tax liens on her husband's business. The vote was 80-17.

Assembly Line

Solis's father, a Mexican immigrant, was a shop steward with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Her mother, from Nicaragua, was an assembly-line worker and a member of the United Rubber Workers. She has been an opponent of free-trade agreements, in step with union positions. She voted against trade accords with Central America nations.

"Secretary Solis has been an exemplary public servant and a fierce champion for workers' rights," Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement. "She served as a strong voice at the Department of Labor during a particularly challenging time for our nation's economy and for our middle class."

During her tenure, U.S. unemployment climbed from 8.3 percent when Solis took office in February 2009 to 10 percent in October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rate was 7.8 percent in December, according to the Labor Department.

AFL-CIO Reaction

"Secretary Solis never lost sight of her own working-class roots, and she always put the values of working families at the center of everything she did," said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, in an e-mailed statement. "We hope that her successor will continue to be a powerful voice both within the Obama administration and across the country for all of America's workers."

In her letter to Labor Department staff, Solis cited department efforts to improve worker safety. In 2001, there were the fewest-ever U.S. mine fatalities, she wrote. Fatalities in industry and construction are at "historic lows," she added.

Solis also highlighted efforts to ensure that people are paid what they are owed.

"Last year we conducted the largest number of investigations in recent memory, collecting the most back wages in our history," she wrote. "In these recoveries, what may seem to some as small change makes a huge difference for those who live paycheck-to-paycheck."

In a development union officials say could change the nature of trucking at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, about 65 drivers have reached contract terms with their employer, likely making them the first truckers at the port complex to win a collective bargaining agreement since Congress deregulated the industry three decades ago.

The drivers, who first voted to align with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in April 2012, haul goods, mainly from the ports to retail warehouses in the Inland Empire, for Australian logistics company Toll Group. The drivers will receive considerable raises, subsidized health care and access to a pension plan, according to union officials.

"These are truck drivers who have long been denied the middle-class standards they deserve," said TJ Michels, a spokeswoman for the Teamster-backed port campaign. "It shows what can happen when workers at the ports stand up and fight for what they want. I think we're going to see real change at the ports."

Unions at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are perhaps stronger than anywhere else in the country, with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union showing in its recent eight-day strike that it is powerful enough to shut down most of the activity on the docks. But truck drivers have largely been left out, with many working longer hours for considerably less money than their counterparts in the longshore union.

The reason: Unlike Toll Group, which made a somewhat unusual business decision to hire its drivers, many trucking firms treat drivers as independent contractors, who are not permitted to form a labor union under the National Labor Relations Act. Only employees can seek to form a union.

"I think that ultimately the port is one of the next bastions of success for the labor union in Los Angeles," said Peter Dreier, director of the urban and environmental policy program at Occidental College.

"The dockworkers are already unionized. There is a culture around the port and there has been a culture around the port since 1930s. It's kind of in the DNA in the place, and I think that it's a matter of time before the truckers at the port join in."

In recent years, the Teamsters have made port truck drivers a priority, committing time and resources to the campaign.

As part of the program, Teamsters officials have urged federal and state regulators to examine the relationship many trucking companies have with their drivers, noting that willfully misclassifying workers is illegal. (Workers generally can be called independent contractors only if they have a large degree of control over when and where they work.)

Union officials also have asked large manufacturers to re-examine their relationships with trucking companies. In the Toll campaign, union officials repeatedly appealed to many of the company's clients - retailers and manufacturers including Guess?, Polo and Under Armour - in hopes those companies would place pressure on the trucking firm to sign a contract.

Ultimately, the Teamsters need more trucking companies to change their employment relationship with their drivers, said John Logan, associate professor of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

"The independent contractor model is a huge obstacle to improving working conditions and representing workers effectively," Logan said. "But I don't think it's an insurmountable obstacle. If pressure can be placed on the trucking companies through their brands or through other means, they will be forced to respond."

Alex Cherin, executive director of the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor Trucking Association, said companies must retain the right to choose whatever business model works for them. And he said many drivers prefer being independent contractors because they can control their own schedules.

Cherin also noted that an effort by the Port of Los Angeles to require trucking companies to designate drivers as employees failed in court. In 2011, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the port could not impose such a requirement, which had been part of a program to reduce pollution at the port.

"The Toll Group has been in discussions for a while now," Cherin said. "They obviously thought that was a good fit for their business model. We wish them success. That's not the business model that all other trucking companies use. As an association, we would fight for the right for any trucking company to use any method they think is best."

As part of the contract, most drivers at Toll will receive an hourly increase from $12.72 to $19. The drivers, few of whom contributed to their 401(k) in the past, will receive a pension plan and the company will pay 95 percent of each driver's health care costs.

Toll Group driver Alberto Quiteno said he hopes this contract will have wide repercussions across both ports.

"Hopefully, we'll get this ball rolling so everyone will have a contract of their own," he said. "This probably will be the beginning of the end for struggling drivers. We're so happy because we think this will be the turning point."