R. Alexander Acosta, President Trump's nominee for secretary of labor, is racking up an impressive list of endorsements from liberal groups and appears to be drawing no serious opposition from the union movement, suggesting that the nominee will likely have an easy confirmation when the Senate gets around to him.

At least three major unions have endorsed Acosta's bid and most other groups that would lead the effort against a Republican appointee are holding their fire. That's a sharp change from their reaction to Trump's previous nominee for the position, fast-food businessman Andrew Puzder. He drew fierce opposition from Democrats and liberal groups, especially organized labor.

"He's been a public servant, he has a record of enforcing the laws that he's been put in charge of, whether it's the [National Labor Relations Board] or elsewhere. We think he deserves absolute serious consideration, yes," Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, said of Acosta in an interview Tuesday on Fox Business. An AFL-CIO spokesman clarified that Trumka was not endorsing Acosta.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told the Washington Examiner, "It doesn't appear as if Acosta has the same level of conflicts of interests and other problems that Puzder did." She did not endorse Acosta but raised no possible problems with him.

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Acosta, who is currently dean of Florida International University law school, appears to be benefiting from interactions he has had with liberal groups from his past career in public service. He served as a member of the NLRB, the main federal labor law enforcement agency, from 2002 to 2003. He was also an assistant attorney general for civil rights during President George W. Bush's administration and was a U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida.

Wilma Liebman, who was appointed chairwoman of the NLRB by President Obama and whose time on the board overlapped with Acosta's, told Politico, "Even though we often came out differently on policy conclusions or the outcome of a case, he was a good colleague and he was always willing to talk and bounce around ideas. I would say he's very smart and he's an independent thinker."

Lafe Solomon, who served as acting general counsel for NLRB under President Barack Obama, told Bloomberg Businessweek Monday: "I found Alex to be very open-minded and fair ... He deserves to be secretary of labor."

Acosta has been endorsed by the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers' International Union of North America and the International Association of Fire Fighters. All praised his record of public service in the two previous presidential administrations and said they expected he would fairly apply the law as labor secretary.

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03/01/17 12:26 AM

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Trump's new Labor secretary drawing liberal support - Washington Examiner