Patricia Smith cracked down on companies that stole workers’ wages as
commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor. Her reward for protecting workers from predatory employers? Extremist anti-worker senators held up her nomination as solicitor for the U.S. Labor Department for months, just to appease their big corporate backers.
But last night, the Senate voted to send Smith’s nomination to the floor for a full vote. She’s likely to be confirmed this week. If that happens, Smith would be the third-ranking official in the Labor Department, where she would be responsible for overseeing nearly 200 federal labor laws.
The Teamsters are confident that Smith will ensure that the nation’s labor laws are fairly applied. Smith has shown she has workers’ interests at heart already, as New York State’s Labor Department commissioner.
Smith has done an outstanding job in New York State. She has the backing of every single member of the New York State congressional delegation – Democrat and Republican alike. She is known there for bringing business leaders, labor leaders and workers together. In other words, she’s extraordinarily qualified to be Labor Solicitor.
In 2008, Smith leveled enforcement actions on minimum wage and overtime law violations that amounted to $12 million in unpaid wages. She helped some of the most vulnerable members of the workforce: delivery workers, wait staff, kitchen staff, retail
clerks, street vendors and bathroom attendants.
Smith was doing nothing more than protecting workers from being cheated out of their fair wages. She upheld New York state’s labor laws. It’s a simple as that. She called out violators of those laws and made them pay fines.
Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming is responsible for holding up Smith’s nomination. He and other extremist senators would rather not have a Labor Solicitor watching out for workers. . Not only does this penalize workers, it hurts companies who play by the rules.
Workers need someone who looks after their best interests, not the special interests of businesses willing to skirt labor laws to save a few bucks. Patricia Smith will do that.