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Statement

MomsRising on President-Elect Trump’s Selection of Fast-Food CEO Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary

December 8, 2016
Workplace Justice

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families
“The selection of fast-food CEO Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary is a clear indication of the aggressive anti-working family agenda that President-elect Trump seems eager to champion in his new administration.  
 
“Plain and simple, Puzder has a history of being anti-working people and anti-labor. He is an outspoken opponent of raising the minimum wage, frequently falsely claiming that raising the minimum wage would lead to job loss - something that has been disproven time and again by both research and example. This is not the type of Secretary of Labor that our nation needs. With two-thirds of minimum wage workers women, many of whom are moms - we need a leader at the Department of Labor who is fighting to boost up America’s workers and economy, not hold them down. 
 
“Puzder also opposes the Department of Labor’s new proposed overtime pay rule which would allow an estimated 12.5 million American workers -- including 6.5 million women -- to finally get paid for ALL the hours that they work.
 
“Throughout his career as CEO of CKE Restaurants, Puzder has also consistently disrespected the basic rights of working people - arguing that even 10 minute meal breaks for employees working an 8 hour shift constitute an ‘undue burden’ on employers. It’s no surprise to find then that nearly half of the Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s restaurants run by Puzder have been cited with at least one wage and hour violation. 
 
“Puzder’s consistent eagerness to prioritize corporate profits over the local economy and welfare of workers  - the very people he would be tasked with protecting as Labor Secretary and the population President-elect Trump promised to help the most - will have very real and serious negative consequences for America’s workers, families, and our economy.  
 
“MomsRising members across the country oppose Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary - and urge our elected officials to reject his nomination. We need real solutions to our country’s challenges - solutions that respect workers, boost our economy, and lift everyone in our nation.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.