National

Trump Picks Anti-labor Andrew Puzder as Secretary of Labor


NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–December 8, 2016

By Hunter

MIAMI, FL - NOVEMBER 10:  Cecelia O'Brien (R) joins other workers to protest outside a McDonald's restaurant on November 10, 2015 in Miami, Florida. The protesters are demanding action from state legislators and presidential candidates to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.  (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Pick any working class fight from the last decade: Trump’s appointing millionaires are on the other side of those exact struggles.

For today’s entry into Trump appointments so ridiculous that they would have been considered satirical a scant few months ago, we bring you Donald J. Trump’s new Secretary of Labor: Andrew F. Puzder, CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr and, as can be expected from that resume, a longtime opponent of any labor protections you might name.

Mr. Puzder has spent his career in the private sector and has opposed efforts to expand eligibility for overtime pay, arguing that large minimum wage increases hurt small businesses and lead to job loss among low-skilled workers.He strongly supports the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which he maintains has helped create a “restaurant recession” because rising premiums have left middle- and working-class people with less money to spend dining out.

Mr. Puzder will arguably have less experience in government than any labor secretary since the early 1980s […]

Puzder took to the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages two years ago to blast the Obama administration’s idea of giving overtime pay to his low-wage fast food “managers,” claiming that his $24,000 a year “managers” would far rather have the important-sounding title than, you know, a living wage. He doesn’t want Americans to have health insurance because he believes it cuts down on their burger spendin’ money. He shares Donald Trump’s taste for corporate-backed misogyny, preferring corporate commercials in which scantily clad women eat burgers as if the very notion of burgers sexually arouses them beyond their control.

As you would expect, he is a fierce opponent of the Fight for $15 movement.

Like Trump’s newly proposed EPA head, Puzder is experienced in the ways of his new department in a very specific way. He’s got a lot of experience being the guy that department is investigating.

No one can say Puzder is unfamiliar with the Labor Department’s work. Like other fast-food chains, Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants are often investigated for possible minimum wage and overtime infractions. A recent analysis from Bloomberg found that officials discovered violations in roughly 60 percent of their investigations of those chain’s locations.

The parent company has skated in those investigations due to our nation’s franchise laws. The billionaire class is similarly excited that a new “gig” economy can strip down corporate obligations to the people doing the actual work even further.

So yes, Trump’s new Secretary of Labor will be devoted to stripping worker protections, because that’s precisely what Trump promised he’d do all along.

Source: http://dailykos.com


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