AFSCME Applauds President Obama’s Labor Secretary Appointment: Thomas E. Perez

by Clyde Weiss  |  March 18, 2013

Thomas E. Perez, nominated today by Pres. Barack Obama to be the nation’s next Secretary of Labor, will stand strong for America’s workers whose rights in the workplace are continually threatened by corporate leaders and lawmakers who do their bidding, said AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders.

“Workers are under attack and deserve a true advocate,” said President Saunders. “Corporate-backed politicians are attacking fundamental American rights on the job, from collective bargaining to workplace safety to retirement security.”

Perez’s “experience, and his deep respect for working men and women, makes him an excellent choice for Secretary of Labor,” President Saunders added. In addition to his background as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Perez also was a Justice Department attorney for 12 years, prosecuting civil rights cases. The Harvard-educated lawyer also was a deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration and a former secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

As a first-generation Dominican American, Perez also would become the only Latino in President Obama’s Cabinet at this time. That is no small matter in a nation where the Latino community is increasingly important to the nation’s economic growth.

With so much at stake, President Saunders said, “we urge his swift confirmation.”