Marianne Pizzitola for U.S. Secretary of Labor!

New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola — should be your next U.S. Secretary of Labor. Photo by Joe Maniscalco

By Joe Maniscalco

The prospect of Bill de Blasio succeeding Marty Walsh as U.S. Labor Secretary immediately sparked incredulous feelings of horror and hilarity amongst working class New Yorkers who know the former mayor’s record best.

Some of our hometown heroes, God love ‘em, used the blunt language we New Yorkers are known for the world over to express their fears and displeasure with the current crop of likely candidates to replace Walsh. “Absolute loser” and “political hack” were a couple of terms used to characterize the situation.

It’s unclear exactly who might emerge from the pack and claim the prize of U.S. Labor Secretary in President Joe Biden’s cabinet. But it is vital to note that one thing is absolutely certain — in terms of the class struggle unionism needed to turn this country around — it undoubtably will be an “absolute loser” and/or “political hack.”

Let’s just take a brief look at the cast of characters who most recently occupied the post — we’ve got Eugene Scalia, Alexander Acosta, Thomas E. Perez, Elaine Chao…etcetera, etcetera…the list goes on. Clearly, the interests and material conditions of working class people throughout the United States were greatly improved and strengthened under each and every one of these outstanding public servants.

How far back do we have to go to find a Labor Secretary who was actually worth a damn and wasn’t, in some way, shape or form, any of the things de Blasio and the current field of prospective candidates are accused of being?

I dunno, Francis Perkins?

Francis Perkins, you’ll remember, was the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of Labor, having entered the job with the memory of being eyewitness to some 50 young immigrant women and girls plummeting almost 10 stories to their deaths during the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911. They had no choice but to jump out the window when the fire broke out on Washington Place in Greenwich Village on March 25, of that year; the bosses had locked them in to “prevent theft”.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire burned for half-an-hour and killed 146 people that day. Francis Perkins remembered them all throughout her 12-year tenure as U.S. Labor Secretary

Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees and Fire Department EMS Retirees Association, was one of the first and most vocal critics to lambast de Blasio’s bid to become the next U.S. Labor Secretary.

Pizzitola doesn’t forget either, and was quick to point out de Blasio’s central role in attempting to strip traditional Medicare health insurance from New York City municipal workers and pushing them into a scandalous for-profit Medicare Advantage program.

The @FDNYchic’s tireless and steadfast advocacy on behalf of her fellow municipal retirees — and every one of those “retirees-in-training” following right behind them — is earning her spirited praise and virtual high-fives.

“Perhaps Biden should look to you to be the Secretary of Labor — I mean this from the bottom of my heart!” one person responding to a video Pizzitola posted to YouTube said. “Marianne Pizzitola for Labor Secretary” said another.

What makes those declarations crazy is they are one-hundred-percent correct. Marianne Pizzitola should be the next U.S. Secretary of Labor. But she won’t be, and it’s absurd to even entertain the idea — “the very idea”, as the current occupant of the Oval Office might deliver the line. That’s because who’s best for the job doesn’t enter into this equation.

Courage, dedication, intelligence and earnestness on behalf of working class Americans does not matter. Getting somebody in there who can successfully play the part and portray these qualities and qualifications without actually exemplifying any of them — is all that matters and what the political elites prize.

Is there any other way to explain Pete Buttigieg as U.S Transportation Secretary — or, for that matter, any other powerful person in government today?

Marianne Pizzitola is too real — she’s too perfect for the job of U.S. Labor Secretary. She would actually advocate for the working class. She would change things before they ultimately forced her out. It would be inspiring before that happened, and the inspiration would continue long after she exited.

It doesn’t even have to be Marianne — just somebody like her. There are plenty of ‘em out there. Association of Flight Attendants International President Sarah Nelson is actually already a player on the national scene. But there’s no way in hell they’d make her U.S. Labor Secretary either.

Instead, we’ll all be expected to go along with more of the same old tired kabuki theater surrounding who’ll be appointed the next Secretary of Labor — as if it’ll make one iota of difference to anyone who has to work for a living in this country.

Unionizing will still be statutorily difficult, getting a first contract even more statutorily difficult  than that — striking, organizing, picketing will all be further curtailed and restricted under the next U.S. Labor Secretary President Joe Biden appoints.

Maybe they’ll decide to switch Pete into the post.

Bill de Blasio becoming Labor Secretary isn’t crazy — what’s crazy is we live in a world where Marianne Pizzitola and others of her caliber can never even be considered.