After four years of anti-union leadership at the U.S. Department of Labor, President Biden picked Marty Walsh to head the department. Walsh was the mayor of Boston, a former union leader, and a strong labor ally of the building trades.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. “For four years, working families have lived with a Labor Department devoted to serving a handful of elite interests. Now, the power to enforce safety and equity in our workplaces has been handed from a ruthless corporate lawyer to a proud union brother.” 

Walsh is a union man. He was a lifelong union member before his mayorship, joining the Laborers’ Union Local 223 at age 21 — the same union his father joined shortly after emigrating from Ireland, and the one his uncle ran as president.

Walsh served as Local 223 president until he became the mayor of Boston in 2014. In 2010, he was elected head of the Boston Building Trades, representing 35,000 construction workers. He worked with business and community leaders to promote high-quality development, and he created Building Pathways, a program for increasing diversity in the workplace and providing career opportunities for women and people of color.

The building trades and the UA hailed Walsh’s selection as a strong victory for workers. UA General President Mark McManus said, “On day one, Marty Walsh will get to work fighting for American workers like the brothers and sisters of the United Association. Marty Walsh has a strong history in the Building Trades receiving the UA’s National Elected Official of the Year Award in 2018. We could not be more thrilled with this pick.”

At his confirmation hearing, Walsh spoke of pivotal moments in his life — from having cancer as a child, to following in the footsteps of his father’s union job, to recovering from addiction — all of which inform his work at the Department of Labor. 

“Workers’ protection, equal access to good jobs, the right to join a union, continuing education and job training, access to mental health and substance use treatment. These are not just policies to me, I lived them,” Walsh said. “Millions of American families right now need them. I’ve spent my entire career at different levels fighting for them.”

The Senate confirmed Walsh by a vote of 68-29, clearing him to take the helm of the Department of Labor amid the pandemic, historic unemployment, and economic uncertainty. 

“I feel unions are important because they built the middle class, and they can preserve the middle class,” said Walsh. “If you look at the decline of the middle class, and you look at the decline of the labor movement, there’s a correlation…When you see more people joining unions and getting into them, you’ll see more people in the middle class.

“Income inequality certainly has worsened over the years, workers of color being worse off. In the wealthiest country in the world, every worker should be able to get a piece of the American Dream. It starts with giving workers a voice. 

“Everything I want to do here in the Department of Labor will be about addressing inequality.”

Because of the pandemic, workplace issues are more central to the national political discussion than at any other time in recent history. The agency administers pandemic emergency unemployment programs and oversees OSHA and all the Covid workplace health and safety protocols. 

“I think that as we continue to move forward, as we get more people vaccinated, as we continue making sure that we have the safety protocols in place across this country, we’ll be in a lot different place in September than we would be today,” said Walsh. “The virus is unpredictable. We don’t know. But that’s our hope.”

Whether the issue is worker organizing, worksite safety, or being a voice for working families, Marty Walsh will fight for our interests. “I spent my entire career fighting for working people, and I’m eager to continue that fight in Washington,” he said.

The UA’s Mark McManus touted Walsh’s selection as part of a broader pro-worker agenda in the federal government. “The Biden-Harris Administration is shaping up to be the most pro-worker White House we have ever seen. I have every confidence that Secretary Walsh will work tirelessly to expand the rights of workers, grow good-paying union jobs, and ensure our members have a seat at the table. The entire UA is ready to get to work with Marty Walsh.”