Marty Walsh was the U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden. He was sworn in🐭 by Vice President Kamala Harris 🐬on March 23, 2021. He served as the Mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021.
Key Takeaways
• Marty Walsh was the U.S. 🧔Secretary of Labor under President Joe Bide꧋n.
• Walsh served as leader of the Building and🧸 Construction Trades Council.
• He was the Mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021.
Early Life and Education
Marty Walsh was born on April 10, 1967 in Boston, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor's degree from Boston College in 2009.
Walsh joined Laborers Local 223 in 1988, a construction workers union that represents over 20,000 men and women in the northeast. He started his career as a union laborer building scaffolding and bracing masonry walls along Boston's waterfront.
Walsh served as leader of the Building and Construction Trades Council from 2011 to 2013. Working with business and community leaders, he created a program called Building Pathways. It was a model for increasing diversity in the workplace and providing career opportunities for women and people of color.
Important
A labor union is an organized association of workers in a trade or profession that's formed to protect and further the rights and interests of the group.
Serving Massachusetts
Marty Walsh was an elected member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1997 until 2014 where he served as chair of the Committee on Ethics and co-chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party Labor Caucus. He focused on creating good jobs during his tenure as well as protecting workers' rights, expanding mental health treatment, and investing in public transit.
Walsh was elected and served two terms as the mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021. He is credited with adding 140,000 jobs to the city and he helped secure a statewide $15/hour minimum wage, paid sick leave, and paid parental leave. He established universal, pre-kindergarten for all children and free community college for low-income students.
Secretary of Labor
As the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh led the Department of Labor's (DOL) efforts to promote the welfare of wage earners, job seekers, and retirees across the U.S. This included administering and enforcing a wide range of labor laws.
Walsh was viewed by many Democrats as a strong choice for Labor Secretary because of his extensive experience and relationships with labor unions. He was the firs🅷t Labor Secretary in 50 years who was also an active union member.
Walsh took steps to expand the Registered Apprenticeship program during his first year at the Department of Labor. The goal was to create a skilled workforce for businesses of all sizes and reduce 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:unemployment rates across the country.
The Department of Labor announced the “Good Jobs Initiative” in 2022 to focus on worker empowerment, employer engagement, and federal agency support for equity in historically underserved communities.
Notable Accomplishments
Marty Walsh was diagnosed at age seven and is a survivor of Burkitt lymphoma, a rare, aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that affects children. He endured four years of treatment.
Walsh is a member of the recovery community. He's worked throughout his career to expand addiction treatment. Walsh committed to a program to address his battle with alcoholism and its impact on his mental health in 1995.
How Did Walsh's Labor Union Experience Affect His Role at the Department of Labor?
Marty Walsh actively visited union halls around the country as Labor Secretary. He visited Washington state to meet with West Coast unions, the first visit from a Labor Secretary since 1934.
What Did Marty Walsh Accomplish as Mayor of Boston?
Marty Walsh oversaw the largest growth in real estate development in Boston's history while he was mayor. His experience in the building trades gave him a solid understanding of the economics and politics of development.
How Did the Department of Labor Address Mental Health in the Workplace?
Walsh committed the Department of Labor to provide employers with the steps they could take to increase access to care and promote mental health-friendly work environments.
The Bottom Line
Marty Walsh served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Biden Administration. His experience as a union labore🐭r and leader and elected official in Massachusetts helped shape his efforts to administer and enforce labor laws an🏅d support wage earners in the United States.