From The Los Angeles Times“:

Public schedule of Vice President Joe Biden for Thursday, Feb. 24:

At 10:45 AM, the Vice President and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will meet with President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka and with presidents of AFL-CIO labor organizations.

Here’s a good conversation starter, discussing this statement: “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

That’s George Meany, former head of the AFL-CIO.

Meany’s comments were backed up by the advice in 1959 from AFL-CIO’s Executive Council: “In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress—a right available to every citizen.”

Odd timing for a meeting. It almost looks like counter-programming from the White House, as the President later today convenes the first meeting of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Oh, wait, Trumka’s on the council.

Here are a few questions reporters might pose to him in conjunction with this afternoon’s public meeting: “The AFL-CIO’s affiliate in Madison, Wisc., has endorsed calling a general strike if the Gov. Scott Walker’s budget and collective bargaining bill passes. Do you support a general strike? Did you think a general strike would improve America’s global competitiveness and standing in the eyes of employers as a good place to do business?”

More from James Sherk at the Heritage Foundation, who supplied the Meany quotes.