The new Obama administration brought with it sweeping changes for working families, including signing bills to help the middle class, ushering in worker-friendly appointees and reversing Bush's regressive rule changes.

We congratulate our new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, a longtime fighter for immigrant workers, but her appointment by President Obama is just one sign of the changing times. He also appointed a new chair of the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees elections for union representation and investigates unfair labor practices. Wilma Liebman, the incoming NLRB chair, has a strong history of safeguarding workers' rights, and we look forward to her leadership.

In addition, the President unveiled a new initiative chaired by Vice President Biden - the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families - dedicated to raising standards for the middle class and lifting up the poor.

Union leaders were welcomed into the White House to witness the signing of executive orders and rule changes that reversed the previous administration's anti-worker policies:

• Requiring federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
• Reversing a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.
• Preventing federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses used to deter workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.
• Repealing a ban on project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal and federally funded construction.

Project labor agreements establish higher standards for wages and health and safety rules on large construction projects.

APALA salutes Congress and President Obama in passing and signing the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP.)

The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, enacted on January 29, will help ensure fairness and equality at the workplace. It reverses the flawed Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company which ruled that women who had suffered unequal pay would have to file suit within 180 days of the violation, even though many workers only discover workplace discrimination years later. This welcome reversal comes as women, people of color, older Americans and people with disabilities continue to face pay discrimination in the workplace -- even in 2007, the US Census found that the average woman makes 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes.

On February 4, 2009, Obama signed into law an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program which allows children from low-income families who would otherwise not have health insurance to be covered by the state. Congress also agreed to remove a five year waiting period for legal immigrant children and pregnant women to be eligible for SCHIP, to be implemented by the states. This removes a barrier to health care access for legal immigrant children, who tend to be uninsured at higher rates than US-born kids. According to NAKASEC, 1 in 4 Korean Americans under the age of 18 lacks health coverage.

Congress had passed SCHIP expansion twice under President Bush, who had vetoed it both times, despite broad public support for providing children's health care. This time, it was passed with broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate.

The passage of these bills at such an early stage holds great promise for further victories for working families down the line!