Senate OKs Laborers Walsh as Labor Secretary

By a 68-29 margin, with all the “no” votes coming from Republicans, the Senate confirmed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a member of Laborers Local 223 and former head of the city’s building trades council, as U.S. Labor Secretary.

He’s the first unionist to hold the job in decades.

Debate on the nod to Walsh was virtually non-existent before the March 21 vote. The only prolonged speech came five days before from Senate Labor Committee Chair Patty
Murray, D-Wash., whose panel OK’d Walsh on a bipartisan 18-4 vote.

“Workers who are the backbone of our economy have been pushed to the brink. They need…Marty Walsh so we have a secretary who will take quick action to address the urgent challenges we face and be a valuable partner in helping our economy come back stronger and fairer for all workers,” Murray told her colleagues.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka cheered Walsh’s success.

“For four years, the Department of Labor has been devoted to serving a handful of elite interests, instead of working people. Not any more,” Trumka said. “We congratulate our proud Union Brother. He understands the power of collective action, and his confirmation strengthens our fight to improve the lives of working people across the country.”

“As a labor leader and community activist, Marty Walsh helped tens of thousands of workers build strong, middle-class lives for themselves and their families,” Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan said when President Joe Biden nominated Walsh. “As mayor, Walsh made his deep roots in the trade union movement a central part of his political career, proudly wearing his union affiliation on his sleeve, and displaying his union card wherever he goes.”

While Walsh had a relatively easy path to appointment, Julie Su, California’s top labor official nominated for the number two job at the DOL, may not be so lucky.

Her nomination hearing featured GOP accusations that she is responsible for fraud in unemployment insurance payments in the Golden State during the coronavirus pandemic.

However, many believe Republican opposition has more to do with Su’s aggressive enforcement of California labor laws, including against bosses who routinely violate them.

Her efforts have included a focus on employers that routinely misclassify workers as “independent contractors.” Misclassification deprives workers of pay and overtime, forces them to shoulder employers’ and workers’ share of Social Security and Medicare payroll tax payments and leaves them out of workers’ comp and jobless benefits.

The California Labor Federation cited Su’s enforcement as a top reason to OK her.

“Fighting for working people is in Julie Su’s DNA,” said Art Pulaski, the state fed’s Executive Secretary-Treasurer. “She tackled some of the most difficult issues facing workers today with vigor, always with justice as her beacon. Her forceful advocacy for low-wage and vulnerable workers on issues ranging from health and safety to wage theft to protecting the right to join a union has left an indelible mark in California.”