17 Sep Reject Secretary of Labor Nominee Eugene Scalia
We need a labor secretary who is truly committed to upholding the Department’s mission—“to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.”
Eugene Scalia has fought against workers’ interests his whole career. As a corporate lawyer, Scalia has a long track record of putting corporate interests above workers’ rights, and undermining worker protections for the benefit of his corporate clients and their profits. Scalia is no friend to workers. He has sided with corporations over workers his entire career. That’s not going to change. From threatening to decimate workers’ retirement savings to opposing health care expansion, Scalia has a long track record of bashing workers.
Take a look for yourself: We put together a résumé of all the years he’s spent making life worse for working families.
Indeed, his long list of corporate clients makes him one of the most conflicted labor secretary nominees in recent memory. In case after case, he has fought against worker and consumer protections, union rights, and financial regulations.
- Representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he opposed an ergonomics rule that would have prevented 600,000 musculoskeletal injuries a year. He dismissed ergonomics as “junk science” and “quackery”—despite the fact that repetitive stress injuries are among the most common occupational injuries.
- Representing UPS, he opposed rules requiring employers to pay for protective equipment that workers needed on the job.
- He defended SeaWorld when it tried to dodge an OSHA citation and fine for failing to protect a trainer who was drowned by a killer whale.
- Representing the Chamber, he got a court to strike down the “fiduciary rule” so that investment advisors can put their own profit interests ahead of the best interests of retirement savers.
- Representing Walmart, he persuaded a court to strike down a 2006 Maryland law that required large companies to pay their fair share of health care costs.
- He fought to allow employers to take and redistribute workers’ tips.
Scalia has sided with corporations over workers his entire career. Join the fight to defeat Eugene Scalia’s nomination for secretary of labor.