Eugene Scalia’s Nomination Is a Threat to Working People

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Eugene Scalia’s announced nomination for secretary of labor:

Eugene Scalia has spent his entire career making life more difficult and dangerous for working people. We opposed him in 2002 for solicitor of labor based on his anti-worker record, and his disdain for working people has worsened, not improved.

Scalia has fought ergonomics standards, threatened to destroy workers’ retirement savings, challenged the expansion of health care and dismissed repetitive injuries as “junk science.” His extreme views are in direct conflict with what America deserves from a secretary of labor.

The secretary of labor needs to be a true advocate for working people. Even when we disagree, we expect a fair arbiter who listens to workers and respects the deliberative process. The Labor Department’s work is essential to protecting America’s working people and should be subject to less influence from corporate lobbyists, not more. Scalia’s views are dangerously outside the mainstream and leave us no choice but to oppose his nomination.