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**FEBRUARY 8, 2023**

Kuttner on TAP

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**** Soul on Ice

Why did Labor Secretary Marty Walsh give his president the bum's rush?

At every State of the Union address, one member of the Cabinet in the
line of presidential succession stays off-site in case a catastrophe
strikes. This year, the designated survivor was Labor Secretary Marty
Walsh. The choice was all too fitting, since Walsh already had one foot
out the door.

Walsh abruptly informed President Biden that he is leaving soon to take
a lucrative job as executive director of the National Hockey League
Players' Association. The post pays $3 million a year, not bad for a
working-class kid from Dorchester.

Before becoming Boston mayor, Walsh headed the Boston area building
trades, one of the relatively strong and well-compensated remnants of
the labor movement. But professional sports and players' unions are
working-class royalty. Other than professional sports unions, no union
executive director makes a seven-figure salary.

Walsh got the offer partly because of his close ties to Boston Bruins
owner and NHL Board of Governors Chair Jeremy Jacobs, who has donated
thousands of dollars
<[link removed]>
to Walsh's campaign committees over the years.

Walsh's career move blindsided the White House, senior Labor
Department officials, and his close allies in the labor movement.
According to the hockey magazine Daily Faceoff,

****Walsh introduced himself to the NHLPA's executive board only last
Friday
<[link removed]>,
ahead of the league's all-star weekend in Florida, with final contract
negotiations still to come. Reportedly, there is some pushback from
players.

To put it mildly, something about this story doesn't smell right. For
starters, to do this to Biden, on the eve of his State of the Union
address, as one source puts it, is "unconscionable." Walsh is both one
of Biden's closest personal friends in the Cabinet, as well as the
symbol of Biden's cultivation of the working class. When you are
interviewed for a Cabinet job, you are explicitly asked to commit to
stay for the entire term.

Walsh's abrupt move also raises the serious question: What kind of
representative of a union gets the job partly because the match was
brokered by management? That has all the appearances of a sweetheart
deal-a union rep who will be easy to deal with. It may be just a
coincidence that Walsh has close ties with the board chair of the
owners' association, but it sure looks like hell.

This also could explain the abruptness. It looks as if Walsh had to ice
his deal, so to speak, before it had time to come apart.

We Can't Do This Without You
<[link removed]>

Walsh has been an important working-class symbol, but a so-so labor
secretary. He is good at mediating disputes, but doesn't have much
taste for the details of policy, and has often been outplayed. As a
negotiator, Walsh has also been criticized for letting the railroads off
too easily
<[link removed]> as
the price of averting a national rail strike, doing far too little to
alter draconian work rules.

Walsh has been a great spokesman for labor on the road, but far from a
hands-on secretary. His critics inside the department and out say he has
let key regulations-on overtime, independent contractors, occupational
safety and health, as well as child labor-languish for far too long,
for lack of his personal involvement.

Walsh never moved from Boston to D.C., but commuted to Washington only
as necessary, and was heard to complain that he didn't "get"
Washington. As Boston mayor, he was clearly in charge. As labor
secretary, he was in a cauldron of rival power centers. The NHLPA gig
allows him to stay in Boston.

A key question now is who will succeed Walsh. The obvious candidate is
Deputy Secretary Julie Su. She has been tough, progressive, and
hands-on.

As California secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency,
Su pushed through the state law giving gig workers the rights of other
employees. She won court cases that compelled employers to pay workers
the back wages they were owed.

Because of Walsh's abrupt departure, there will not be enough time to
choose, vet, and confirm a successor before Walsh moves on. As deputy,
Julie Su thus becomes acting secretary and that gives her the tactical
advantages of incumbency. With the labor movement mostly united behind
Su, it would be an affront to Biden's labor allies not to appoint her,
and even more of an affront to remove her from her role as acting
secretary.

But this will be a fight. Some of Biden's strategists on the re-elect
team may want the symbolism of a white guy to succeed Su. And unlike
Walsh, Su has no personal relationship with the president. The White
House, which is picking its shots, may not want this particular
confrontation with business, which for the most part got along with
Walsh-another reason why I rate his tenure as only so-so.

A coalition led by Uber and Lyft is already lobbying against Su.
"Secretary Walsh recognized gig workers as an important part of the
workforce with a unique need for flexible work," Chamber of Progress CEO
Adam Kovacevich told Politico
<[link removed]>.
"It's critical that the next Labor Secretary recognize the value of
gig work. Unfortunately, Deputy Secretary Su's history in California
raises questions about whether she would respect the will of gig workers
who wish to remain independent."

When Su was confirmed as deputy in 2021, she received only a bare 50
votes. It's not clear that Su could get the votes of Joe Manchin and
Kyrsten Sinema to be secretary. They killed the nomination of David Weil
to head the department's Wage and Hour Division.

The other leading candidate for the job is Andy Levin, a former member
of Congress from Michigan and a former AFL-CIO deputy director of
organizing. The labor movement would prefer Su and will support her
elevation, but would likely be fine with Levin if Biden goes with him.

However, Levin might be just as hard to confirm as Su. So Biden's best
move may be to just keep Su as acting secretary, which the law permits
him to do for the rest of his term.

Joe Biden deserved better. So did America's labor movement.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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Biden Forges a New Democratic Paradigm
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The president repudiates the neoliberal ideologies of the past and puts
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Mr. Sanders Goes Away From Washington
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The new chair of the Senate HELP Committee plans to hold numerous field
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Will the Education Culture War Backfire on Republicans?
<[link removed]>
Conservative screaming about wokeness is a substitute for the old
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show that parents don't agree. BY JAROD FACUNDO

 

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