Joe Biden picks Boston mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary

President-elect Joe Biden introduced Thursday that he has chosen Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to be his labor secretary, choosing a former union employee who shares Biden’s Irish-American background and working-class roots.Walsh, 53, has served because the Democratic mayor of Boston since 2014. When he took the oath of workplace in 2018 for his second time period as Boston’s chief govt, Biden presided over the inauguration. Biden made the announcement hours after Walsh’s choice was confirmed by two individuals conversant in the president-elect’s choice. The individuals spoke on situation of anonymity earlier than Biden’s formal announcement.Biden deliberate to introduce the most recent additions to his financial group to the general public at an occasion Friday in Wilmington, Delaware.“This team will help us emerge from the most inequitable economic and jobs crisis in modern history by building an economy where every American is in on the deal,” he mentioned in a press release. “They share my belief that the middle class built this country and that unions built the middle class.”Biden additionally introduced that he has tapped Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to be commerce secretary and Isabel Guzman, a California small-business advocate, to steer the Small Business Administration.Walsh was a state consultant for greater than a decade earlier than turning into mayor.Walsh, a former union employee, has a protracted historical past with labor. He served as president of Laborers Local 223 and, earlier than turning into mayor, headed up the Boston Building Trades — a union umbrella group.At Walsh’s second mayoral inauguration, Biden praised him for his character and efforts to create a thriving center class, calling him a “man of extraordinary character in a moment when we need more character and incredible courage.”“We’re at a moment when mayors and governors matter more than they ever did,” Biden mentioned on the occasion. “We need leaders who will stand up against the ugly divisiveness spewing out of Washington every day.”During his tenure as mayor, Walsh has overseen the town’s ongoing rejuvenation, which has led to challenges that embody gentrification and rising housing prices.He’s additionally grappled with the town’s historical past of racial tensions to attempt to make the town extra welcoming for individuals of all backgrounds.Most just lately, Walsh has helped lead the town by the continuing coronavirus pandemic with its myriad challenges, from serving to preserve native companies to making sure widespread testing for the coronavirus to determining find out how to preserve entry to public colleges.Walsh and Biden share an Irish American background.Last 12 months, Biden videotaped a message for the town’s annual St. Patrick’s Day breakfast. The occasion pulls collectively the state’s high elected officers, Democrats and Republicans, to get pleasure from Irish music and meals — and cringe-worthy jokes.“We Irish, as you know, we’re dreamers, yet we’re realists. We’re spiritual, yet we are doubters. We are compassionate, yet we’re demanding. Everything in us runs deep: sadness and joy, heartache and hope, fortitude and faith,” Biden mentioned in his message final 12 months. “We are the only people on earth who are always nostalgic for the future.”The son of Irish immigrants, Walsh grew up in a triple-decker in Boston’s working-class Dorchester neighborhood. As a toddler, he survived a four-year bout with Burkitt lymphoma beginning when he was 7.Walsh mentioned one of many hardest issues about his most cancers therapy was shedding his hair, which he mentioned was crimson on the time and laborious to match for a wig. He later recalled how somebody dwelling on the highest flooring of the three-family residence clipped a little bit of his hair and got here again later with an similar crimson wig.Walsh has additionally been forthcoming about his early struggles with alcohol and has used his historical past with dependancy to encourage others to hunt assist. He started his speech on the 2016 Democratic National Convention by saying: “Good evening. My name is Marty Walsh, and I’m an alcoholic.”“On April 23, 1995, I hit rock bottom. I woke up with little memory of the night before and even less hope for the days to come,” he mentioned on the time. “Everybody was losing faith in me, everybody except my family and the labor movement.”His nomination was praised by union leaders Thursday.Mary Kay Henry, worldwide president of the Service Employees International Union, mentioned Walsh brings a “pro-worker vision” to the Labor Department that’s badly wanted and known as him a “champion for working people.”AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka mentioned Walsh shall be an “exceptional” labor secretary who understands that collective bargaining will fight inequality, beat COVID-19 and develop alternatives for immigrants, ladies and other people of energy.“From the Boston Building and Construction Trades Council to the Massachusetts State House to the mayor’s office to his own personal journey with overcoming addiction, Marty Walsh has always been a fighter who understands the power of working people standing together for a better life,” Trumka mentioned.Walsh’s union historical past has led to some awkward moments as mayor, together with when two former Walsh aides had been charged with bullying music competition organizers into hiring union employees.Kenneth Brissette, the town’s former director of tourism, and Timothy Sullivan, who was chief of intergovernmental affairs, had been convicted in federal courtroom in 2019 of conspiring to extort the organizers of the Boston Calling music competition by withholding metropolis permits.A federal decide later tossed the convictions, saying the federal government did not show the existence of a quid professional quo.