SPLC Action: Walsh Must Reverse Trump’s Attacks on Workers’ Rights and Expand Protections for Immigrant Workers

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden today announced that he will nominate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Secretary of the Department of Labor. The following statement is from Meredith Stewart, senior supervising attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project:

“Mayor Marty Walsh will be charged with returning the Department to one that protects workers – not corporations’ bottom lines. Over the past four years, the Trump administration has rolled back a slew of policies that ensure workers’ rights to a safe and dignified workplace. Now, Walsh must aggressively rebuild the Department and work to provide immediate relief to workers who have been hurt by these changes.

“The pandemic has laid bare the dangerous gaps left by these rollbacks. Essential workers – who are disproportionately people of color and immigrants – are employed on the frontlines to keep our country running without sufficient protections from COVID-19, while also providing for themselves, their families, and their communities. 

“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has failed to issue regulations to add safeguards for people working low-wage jobs – such as custodians, farmworkers, delivery workers, and people working in poultry processing plants – who have continued to work during the pandemic.

“Black, brown, Indigenous, and immigrant workers in essential industries like poultry and agriculture are in crisis. It’s imperative that the incoming Secretary of Labor immediately issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers from COVID-19, reduce and regulate line speeds in poultry plants as a workplace safety measure, and ensure protections for immigrant workers who are involved in labor disputes.

“Once confirmed, Walsh will have no time to waste in building a Labor Department that champions protections for low-wage and immigrant workers, racial and gender equity in the workplace, and dignity for all workers.”