FRANCES PERKINS BUILDING, WASHINGTON — Yesterday, immediately after president-elect Donald Trump named fast food king Andy Puzder as his choice for Secretary of Labor, all 17,450 employees of the agency which Puzder is slated to head resigned. The mass resignation was witnessed by your solitary reporter, who worked in that agency as an attorney for nearly 12 years.
Puzder Is a wealthy attorney and the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which includes fast food chains Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, and Green Burritos. His ads for Carl’s Jr. feature sexy bombshells Paris Hilton and Kate Upton, among others. In the past, Puzder has railed against proposals to increase the minimum wage. Puzder has said that foreign nationals are the right people to work in fast food restaurants because they are willing to work at low wages and are grateful for the jobs. He served as an adviser to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign for president in 2012. His first wife, whom he divorced in 1989, has accused him of assaulting her.
The Department of Labor is responsible for enforcing the federal wage and hour law, and occupational safety and health laws, including the Mine Safety and Health Act. It fosters and oversees apprentice programs, administers the Job Training and Partnership Act, and has administrative and enforcement responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Through its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), it enforces a long-standing presidential executive order which requires federal contractors to take affirmative action to assure equal employment opportunity for racial minorities and women.
The Department’s headquarters is here in the Frances Perkins Building, named after the longest-serving (1933-1945) Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins.
Trump’s pick of Puzder has drawn wide condemnation from labor leaders.
As they left the building en masse, the solitary reporter asked dozens of Labor Department employees why they were quitting. To a person, they said, “The Department of Labor stands for working people, but this Puzder is just another super-rich guy who is just like Donald Trump."
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