Protecting
the rights of the most vulnerable workers is about to get significantly
harder—and that’s bad for all workers.
By
Terri Gerstein, The Nation
April 24, 2017
Alexander
Acosta seems well on his way to confirmation as secretary of labor, with a
Senate vote likely to occur in the coming weeks. Although he’s less
cartoonishly ill-suited for the position than many of Trump’s cabinet picks,
it’s nearly inconceivable that Acosta will emerge as a strong advocate for
working people, given his history and confirmation hearing testimony. He showed
little discomfort with Trump’s pro-business, antiregulatory agenda, dodged a
number of key questions, and stated, “We all work for the president and we all will
ultimately follow his direction.”
Frances
Perkins, he’s not.
With
flaccid and ineffectual enforcement at the federal level, it will fall
increasingly to state and city agencies to be the primary enforcers of the
labor laws. Filling the federal vacuum will be difficult enough, but the Trump
administration has not merely exited the stage. Instead, Trump’s actions in
what may seem to be another arena—specifically, his attacks on immigrants—have
made it infinitely harder for states and localities to protect workers’
rights.[...]
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| Photo: Nicolas Enriquez/New York Daily News |
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