Elections have consequences, indeed.

[President Barack] Obama...formally announce[d] a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans, and installed Vice President Joe Biden as its chairman.

In another move favorable to organized labor, the president signed three executive orders that union officials say will undo Bush administration policies that favored employers over workers.

Said Obama:

"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests...I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution. You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

This is great to hear straight from the president's mouth for a couple of reasons. First, there has been some question as to how much pressure he's exerting to get his choice for Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, whom Republicans are blocking (which tells you what a good pick she is), through.

In addition, there has been some concern over Obama's commitment to passing the Employee Free Choice Act this year. While Joe Biden has said he thinks it should be singed into law in 2009, when Robert Gibbs was asked if that is the official administration policy at the press briefing today he danced around it a bit, which to me is a pretty clear "No" or at least "Not yet." Obstructing EFCA is going to be a cause celebre for the right this year, no point in riling them up against him quite yet. But certainly, President Obama's unambiguous pro-labor message today -- and his use of a decidedly progressive frame ("labor unions are part of the solution") -- was a good sign for the movement that labor does indeed have a friend in the White House again.

Via The AP, the three orders Obama signed today would do the following:

• Require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
• Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.
• Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

Update [2009-1-30 21:59:2 by Todd Beeton]:More on the exchange during the press briefing today. Here's the Q&A on EFCA from the transcript:

Q The first one is, over the last two days we've seen two measures that have -- the labor community has welcomed -- the bill signing yesterday and then today's executive orders. What -- are you planning anything else further on the labor agenda? And also, yesterday the Vice President said that he expected the Employee Free Choice Act to be acted upon this year. Is that the White House's position, that you would like to see action on that this year?

MR. GIBBS: Well, I think the executive orders that the President signed today, as he said, restore some balance in the relationship and increase the transparency in the workplace, which he's a big proponent of. I think the best phrasing in terms of the President's thinking on Employee Free Choice was part of the transcript from his visit to The Washington Post Editorial Board, which I won't paraphrase; I'll give to you to show the best thinking of the President on that right now.

And here's Obama's thoughtful, diplomatic and noncommittal statement on EFCA to the WaPo ed board:

Here's my basic principal that wages and incomes have flatlined over the last decade. That part of that has to do with forces that are beyond everybody's control: globalization, technology and so forth. Part of it has to do with workers have very little leverage and that larger and larger shares of our productivity go to the top and not to the middle or the bottom. I think unions serve an important role in that. I think that the way the Bush Administration managed the Department of Labor, the NLRB, and a host of other aspects of labor management relations put the thumb too heavily against unions. I want to lift that thumb. There are going to be steps that we can take other than the Employee Free Choice Act that will make a difference there.

I think the basic principal of making it easier and fairer for workers who want to join a union, join a union is important. And the basic outline of the Employee Fair Choice are ones that I agree with. But I will certainly listen to all parties involved including from labor and the business community which I know considers this to be the devil incarnate. I will listen to parties involved and see if there are ways that we can bring those parties together and restore some balance.

You know, now if the business community's argument against the Employee Free Choice Act is simply that it will make it easier for people to join unions and we think that is damaging to the economy then they probably won't get too far with me. If their arguments are we think there are more elegant ways of doing this or here are some modifications or tweaks to the general concept that we would like to see. Then I think that's a conversation that not only myself but folks in labor would be willing to have. But, so that's the general approach that I am interested in taking. But in terms of time table, if we are losing half a million jobs a month then there are no jobs to unionize. So my focus first is on those key economic priority items that I just mentioned.