People for the American Way Condemn Choice of Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:40 pm

There are a lot of reasons fast food exec (Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s) Andrew Puzder is the wrong choice for Labor Secretary, including, as the Los Angeles Times puts it, the fact that he “is a good spokesman for fast-food restaurant owners. For their employees, not so much.”

As a New York Times editorial explains,

“Here is the record at those restaurants. When the Obama Labor Department looked at thousands of complaints involving fast-food workers, it found labor law violations in 60 percent of the investigations at Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, usually for failure to pay the minimum wage or time and a half for overtime.”

So there is that. And that is bad enough. Another problem is Puzder’s history of domestic abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s.

PFAW Press Secretary Laura Epstein had this to say in response:

“It’s horrifying that Trump is filling his administration with men like him who demean and assault women. While there’s no stopping Trump, who bragged of sexually assaulting women, from taking the oath of office in January, Senators can and should keep Andrew Puzder from becoming a Cabinet Secretary.

“That one of the Labor Secretary’s responsibilities includes overseeing the Women’s Bureau makes it all the more concerning that Puzder could hold the post. He objectifies women in his ads, the Labor Department found that his restaurants mistreated employees, and he’s faced troubling allegations of domestic abuse. He also stands against policies critical for women employees in particular, like raising the minimum wage and expanding overtime pay. How can we trust Puzder to protect women workers when we know he has no respect for them?”

Trump has surrounded himself with the most disreputable of company, both during his campaign and now that he has been elected, his cabinet. There is little good that can be said of any of them and all are distinguished by their complete unsuitability for the jobs for which they have been chosen.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich had to explain to CNN’s Kayleigh McEnany why Puzder is anti-worker and unsuitable for his new post:

“I’m saying he’s anti-worker because he’s anti-worker. The Department of Labor came into his restaurants and found that half his restaurants had wage and labor violations that violated the law of the United States. You think that’s pro-worker?”

Neither are his “stands against policies critical for women employees.” None of this should have to be explained but in the fact-free world of the Republican Party and sadly, some CNN commentators, it is necessary, if ultimately futile.

We have an anti-EPA guy in charge of the EPA, and now we have a man proven to have no respect for women or laborers in charge of the Department of Labor. The government is supposed to protect the people. Instead, our prospects are beginning to look much like livestock lining up for the slaughter.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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