Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to visit Las Vegas, tour work sites

WASHINGTON -- Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is scheduled to make her first trip to Las Vegas as a Cabinet member today where she will address a labor gathering and visit two or three work sites, officials said.

The potential work sites were being scouted Wednesday by an advance team, and the Labor Department could not say late Wednesday which ones Solis might visit. Spokeswoman Sonia Melendez said she did not know whether one may be the CityCenter project on the Strip, one of the highest profile job sites in the country.

Solis is scheduled to speak at a Power for America Conference sponsored by the Utility Workers Union of America, Melendez said. The three-day event opened Wednesday at Bally's.

Planners also were putting together a tour of Nevada Partners, the nonprofit job training site in North Las Vegas that will soon expand its offerings to prepare participants for employment in renewable-energy industries.

A statement from the Labor Department said Solis would also visit the Culinary Training Academy, a joint labor and management training trust fund between the Culinary Union Local 226, Bartenders Local 165 and major Strip casinos.

She also is expected to meet with local officials, including Hispanic leaders.

Solis took office in February. While the visit marks her first trip to Las Vegas as a Cabinet member, she had been to the city numerous times previously as a member of Congress from California.

Solis was not expected to use Las Vegas as a backdrop to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the card check bill, that would make it easier for workers to organize into unions.

Still, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Dean Heller, both Nevada Republicans, issued a statement Wednesday noting her support for the bill that they contended "would be disastrous to an already struggling economy."