Buzzfeed • Cora Lewis

Fast food CEO Andy Puzder has faced a rough few weeks since Donald Trump nominated him to become Secretary of Labor, with activist groups engaging in a blitz of criticism over his history of opposition to raising the federal minimum wage.

In response, Puzder is following a time-honored technique: One by one, he’s blocking his enemies on Twitter.

The Hardees and Carl’s Jr. CEO has blocked the Twitter accounts of at least five labor advocacy groups. This week, he even blocked one of the country’s most prominent union leaders, Mary Kay Henry of the 2-million member Service Employees International Union.

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East Bay Times • Kate O’Hara & Josie Camacho

Over the last four years, the East Bay has been at the epicenter of lifting up low-wage working people. We’ve voted by overwhelming margins to raise wages. We just assume that everyone should have paid sick days. And we support fair scheduling so people can budget and plan for child care, education, second jobs and even rest.

Led by East Bay workers, we’ve set the pace for the nation and many other cities and states have followed suit. What’s more is that we have helped to shift the country’s public debate around low-wage jobs. The Bay Area belief that all work is valuable and all people deserve to have their basic needs met has become the national trend to help drive policies that benefit those who struggle to get by.

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette • Barney Oursler

Our region was built on the blood, sweat and tears of workers in the steel mills and coal mines. The rights of working-class people across the nation were fought for and won by those workers. Pittsburgh is central to the labor movement, to standing up for the working class and to fighting for families.

Tens of thousands of people who voted for Donald Trump in this region did so because they heard his promises of better jobs and and a better life. However, after President-elect Trump’s nomination of fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder to be the nation’s secretary of labor, we see just how false those promises were. Mr. Puzder is vehemently opposed to the rights of workers trying to support their families. He is the antithesis of a labor secretary.

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Rockford Register Star • Michael Oswalt

Sometime in the next few weeks, the Senate will take up Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor, Andrew Puzder. While Trump has gotten a lot of attention for tough talk about protecting American workers through renegotiated trade deals and punishing companies that outsource jobs, picking Puzder proves Trump’s takes are nothing more than smoke and tweets.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s purpose is “to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” Yet as CEO of the company that controls fast food restaurants Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, Puzder has shown disdain for working people, and his record suggests that confirming him would be like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

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