Labor Secretary Marty Walsh Plans To Leave Biden Administration For NHL Union Job

Topline

Marty Walsh will leave his post as labor secretary for a job running the National Hockey League Players’ Association, sources told multiple news outlets Tuesday, marking the first cabinet official to depart the Biden Administration.

Key Facts

Hockey-focused site the Daily Faceoff first reported on Walsh’s decision, after Politico reported last week the labor secretary was under consideration to helm the NHLPA, which is a labor union and collective bargaining unit for NHL players.

Walsh, who will still require a formal NHLPA executive board vote in the coming days, is expected to earn approximately $3 million a year and work remotely from Boston rather than the NHLPA’s headquarters in Toronto, Canada, according to the Daily Faceoff.

The formal announcement of Walsh’s departure is expected to come after Tuesday’s State of the Union address, according to CNN.

Walsh was reportedly under consideration to replace Ron Klain as Chief of Staff after Klain announced his plan to leave the White House, but ultimately the job went to former Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients, who was selected for the role last month.

Key Background

Walsh’s apparent departure from the Biden Administration is not the first in recent weeks. In mid-January, Klain announced his departure from the White House, as did National Economic Council Director Brian Deese. Those announcements came after 21 of 66 “A-Team” officials—White House staff members who are “decision makers”—left the White House in Biden’s second year in office, according to numbers collected by the Brookings Institute. While his first year in office saw relatively low turnover, Biden’s second year in office saw the second highest turnover rate of “A-Team” officials since Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Tangent

Before joining the Biden Administration, Walsh was the mayor of Boston for more than seven years. Before that, Walsh spent years of his career in organized labor, joining Laborer’s Local 223, a construction union in Boston, that he eventually ran. He was said to be the first person with a union background to lead the Department of Labor since 1975.

Surprising Fact

Walsh is not the first Massachusetts politician to leave politics for sports. At the end of last year the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced Charlie Baker, former Governor of Massachusetts, would serve as the organization’s president beginning in March.

Further Reading

Biden’s Chief Of Staff Klain Reportedly Plans To Step Down (Forbes)

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh Offers Help To End MLB Lockout (Forbes)

Here’s How Much Labor Secretary Marty Walsh Is Worth (Forbes)