Newsweek • David Madland

President Trump’s nomination of fast food CEO Andrew Puzder to head the U.S. Department of Labor is a betrayal to American workers—including the very workers Trump promised to champion.

The reasons are plenty: Puzder’s firms have a long record of violating basic workplace standards. Puzder opposes raising the minimum wage. He expresses disdain for allowing workers to earn overtime, take breaks, or bargain collectively with corporate headquarters.

He even once said he would be interested in trading his workers with machines, because machines “never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.”

But perhaps the ultimate betrayal comes from the fact that Puzder, whose confirmation hearing is set for February 2, believes that trickle-down economics is somehow good for the economy.

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Bangor Daily News • Laura O’Meara

As small-business owners in Portland, my husband and I are appalled that President Donald Trump has nominated Andrew Puzder, a millionaire fast food CEO, to lead the U.S. Department of Labor. Puzder’s record shows a disregard not just for workers, but also all small-business owners and responsible employers who believe in safe, fair workplaces.

We have owned a small, independent bookstore with two locations in Maine since 1987. Our staff includes amazing full-time employees who have worked for us from seven to 29 years. We have always operated our business with the knowledge that our success was dependent on the dedication and motivation of our employees. Unlike Puzder, we treat our employees fairly with dignity and respect.

Small business and communities benefit from the key workplace protections that Puzder has attacked. Puzder opposes meaningful raises to the minimum wage, arguing it would be harmful to employers. As a small business, our experience matches what the data nationally and in Maine say — paying fair wages boosts business by increasing employee well-being and reducing employee turnover. So we heartily supported raising the minimum wage, first in Portland and then across Maine.

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San Francisco Chronicle • Joan M. Graff

It’s clear that Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder disdains the mission of the nearly 104-year-old agency he is nominated to run. As the steward of workers’ rights, the Department of Labor is charged with ensuring that workers are paid fairly and that their rights to a safe and healthy workplace free of harassment are secure.

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Huffington Post • Dave Jamieson

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The Hill • Deborah Berokwitz

Twenty-year old Regina Elsea was employed as a temporary worker in an auto parts plant in Alabama. When she wasn’t working, she was planning her wedding for the summer of 2016. But just two weeks before the big day, her plans came to a horrific end while she was at work. The plant assembly line stopped, and she and three coworkers entered a robotic station to clear a sensor fault. While she was inside the machine, the robot restarted abruptly, crushing her to death.

An investigation by the government’s workplace safety agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), found that her tragic death could have been prevented had Regina’s employers followed basic safety precautions. Her employers had never implemented the basic safety procedures, around for decades, to prevent machines from starting up when workers are inside. This is one of the oldest and most basic of all safety rules. In December, OSHA levied more than $2.5 million in fines against the company.

As the Senate gets ready to consider the President Trump’s nomination of Andrew Puzder for U.S. secretary of Labor, it’s important that worker safety issues get the full attention they deserve during his confirmation hearings. Puzder is an outspoken critic of regulations who fails to acknowledge the crucial role that regulations play in saving lives, protecting workers’ health, and even saving businesses money through lower insurance costs, for example. In more than 50 percent of the OSHA investigations in CKE restaurants and franchises since 2000, OSHA has found violations.

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The Nation • Spencer Woodman

On February 2, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold confirmation hearings for Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Labor. Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food restaurants and employs thousands of workers across the country. Throughout his career, he has been an outspoken critic of labor regulations and government programs that provide services to the poor. But lately, Puzder has also backed lobbying tactics that extended beyond politics as usual: until recently, the multi-millionaire CEO belonged to the Job Creators Network, or JCN, a group that helps corporations push anti-regulation messages on employees at work in order to influence their voting preferences, a practice the organization calls “Employer to Employee” (E2E) policy education.

Job Creators Network boasts that the group’s political messaging has the ability to reach more than 60 million employees across the country. In training materials, JCN encourages employers to send their workers a steady stream of emails and letters about policies that affect businesses, as well as to place posters and fliers around the workplace and to stuff paycheck envelopes with political material. The group also advises employers to expose workers to political messaging during break hours and to hold town-hall-style meetings or screen policy videos.

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