nhboy
Ubi bene ibi patria
" The mission of the federal Department of Labor is both sprawling and clear: “to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.” Though not often in the headlines, the department enforces hundreds of laws and thousands of regulations affecting some ten million businesses and a hundred and twenty-five million American workers, and it has a distinguished history. It celebrated its centennial in 2013. Its headquarters is in the Frances Perkins Building, which is named after its longest-serving secretary.
Frances Perkins was the first female Cabinet member in American history. As the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, she is widely credited with advancing the abolition of child labor, the establishment of the forty-hour work week, a minimum wage, Social Security, worker’s compensation, and unemployment insurance. She was a powerful advocate for public-works programs. Collier’s, in a 1944 profile, referred to her tenure as “not so much the Roosevelt New Deal, as . . . the Perkins New Deal.” More women (seven) have served as the Secretary of Labor than in any other Cabinet position. Some of the men have also done good work, however. George P. Shultz, who was a Secretary of Labor during Nixon’s first term (and later held other Cabinet positions), helped increase racial diversity in unions.
Donald Trump has chosen a fast-food executive, Andy Puzder, to be his Labor Secretary. Puzder, the C.E.O. of the parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains, was a heavy donor to the Trump campaign. He is a prominent opponent of raising the minimum wage, of paid sick leave, of efforts to raise the salary threshold for overtime pay, and of Obamacare. Puzder is even critical of the federal relief programs, such as food stamps, that subsidize the poverty wages that he pays his employees. The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour. The Fight for $15, the most notable labor campaign of recent years, got its start in the fast-food industry, and Puzder, who is passionately anti-union, is among its most determined adversaries. Selecting such a figure to promote the welfare of wage earners is, as Kendall Fells, a Fight for $15 organizer, told The American Prospect, “like putting Bernie Madoff in charge of the treasury.” "
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-against-the-american-worker?mbid=social_twitter&mbid=social_twitter
Frances Perkins was the first female Cabinet member in American history. As the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, she is widely credited with advancing the abolition of child labor, the establishment of the forty-hour work week, a minimum wage, Social Security, worker’s compensation, and unemployment insurance. She was a powerful advocate for public-works programs. Collier’s, in a 1944 profile, referred to her tenure as “not so much the Roosevelt New Deal, as . . . the Perkins New Deal.” More women (seven) have served as the Secretary of Labor than in any other Cabinet position. Some of the men have also done good work, however. George P. Shultz, who was a Secretary of Labor during Nixon’s first term (and later held other Cabinet positions), helped increase racial diversity in unions.
Donald Trump has chosen a fast-food executive, Andy Puzder, to be his Labor Secretary. Puzder, the C.E.O. of the parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains, was a heavy donor to the Trump campaign. He is a prominent opponent of raising the minimum wage, of paid sick leave, of efforts to raise the salary threshold for overtime pay, and of Obamacare. Puzder is even critical of the federal relief programs, such as food stamps, that subsidize the poverty wages that he pays his employees. The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour. The Fight for $15, the most notable labor campaign of recent years, got its start in the fast-food industry, and Puzder, who is passionately anti-union, is among its most determined adversaries. Selecting such a figure to promote the welfare of wage earners is, as Kendall Fells, a Fight for $15 organizer, told The American Prospect, “like putting Bernie Madoff in charge of the treasury.” "
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-against-the-american-worker?mbid=social_twitter&mbid=social_twitter
