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Walsh, 55, who had been expected to step down
from his labor secretary role, was recommended for the job after
a nine-month search by a player-led committee, the union said.
A former Democratic mayor of Boston and president of a labor
union, Walsh would be the first of President Joe Biden's Cabinet
secretaries to resign since Biden took office in January 2021.
It comes amid a wider shakeup within the Biden administration as
it begins the tail end of its four-year term in office and
prepares for a possible re-election campaign.
"I met with President Biden and he accepted that my time as
Labor Secretary will conclude mid-March," Walsh said in a note
to his colleagues at the Labor Department.
"As someone who battled cancer as a child and addiction as an
adult, my life has been defined by second chances, and our work
delivered second chances to millions of people in this country
who needed them," he said in the note.
Walsh has played a critical role in addressing some of the most
complex business and union disputes and crises over Biden's
first two years. These included brokering an eleventh-hour
compromise in a dispute between freight rail carriers and unions
that threatened to bring the economy to a grinding halt.
Once Walsh exits, Deputy Secretary Julie Su, seen as a leading
contender to succeed Walsh, will take charge of DOL on an acting
basis.
There is a concerted push to get Biden to appoint Su to the role
both for her familiarity with the agency and labor policy. There
is currently no Asian American or Pacific Islander in the
Cabinet at the secretary level.
Su recently scored endorsements from the Congressional Black
Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
In his letter to DOL colleagues, Walsh called Su an "incredible
leader" who "has been central to our success as a team and as a
Department."
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Nandita Bose in
WashingtonAdditional reporting by David Shepardson in
WashingtonEditing by Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis)
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