Perez DOL Nomination Hailed

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

President Obama’s choice of Tom Perez (right) to lead the Department of Labor is being hailed by local and national labor leaders alike. “At a time when our politics tilts so heavily toward corporations and the very wealthy, our country needs leaders like Tom Perez to champion the cause of ordinary working people,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “Tom has been a strong ally for workers here in the metro area as well as across the country,” added Metro Council President Jos Williams. Perez, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, previously served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) and from 2002 until 2006, was a member of the Montgomery County Council, representing residents in Silver Spring, Kensington, Takoma Park and Wheaton. Perez was the first Latino ever elected to the Council, and served as Council President in 2005. The son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Perez helped pay for college by working as a garbage collector and in a warehouse, said Obama, who described Perez's career as exemplifying the American success story. His career has included working to eliminate discrimination in housing, provide access to education and health care, end hate crimes, crack down on employers who cheat workers out of wages and expand  democracy by protecting the fundamental right of every American to vote. In the 1990’s, he worked on the front lines of the effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform.