WASHINGTON _ President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he would nominate St. Louis lawyer Andrew "Andy" Puzder, the current CEO of the fast-food chain CKE Restaurants, to be the next labor secretary.
Trump told The Associated Press that Puzder "will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous by enforcing fair occupational safety standards and ensuring workers receive the benefits they deserve, and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations."
Puzder said in a statement that he was honored "to help President-elect Trump restore America's global economic leadership."
Puzder's nomination will require Senate confirmation, and he is already drawing opposition from Democrats and labor groups who favor higher minimum wages and who defend the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
In that way, Puzder's nomination hearings could become a proxy battle for many of the early policy debates in the Trump administration.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said repealing and replacing Obamacare _ President Barack Obama's signature domestic legislative accomplishment _ will be among the first priorities of a new Congress in January.
Puzder has been an outspoken critic of Obamacare's impact on businesses. He is also a frequent critic of what he calls excessive federal regulations on business, and he opposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Citing his view on those issues, labor representatives reacted negatively.
Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton said that Puzder "would be a fine choice to head a government agency responsible for looking out for millionaires."
But those who know Puzder say the attacks misstate his position and underestimate his ability to listen, and to bring people of different ideologies together.
Nancy Staudt, dean of the Washington University law school, where Puzder serves on an advisory council, calls him "an interesting and thoughtful man" who frequently mentions his working-class upbringing in Cleveland.
"He talks a lot about this whole idea of hard work and opportunity, and thinks they are linked and that everybody needs a chance to succeed," Staudt told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
She said the attacks on Puzder's positions do not reflect their nuance, and she predicted that Puzder's critics will see a far more complex person than has been portrayed. On the minimum wage, for instance, Staudt said Puzder has "time and again" said he favors gradual raises to benefit workers, but opposes abrupt and dramatic raises proposed by some labor advocates because they would hurt businesses enough to cost jobs.
Puzder is a 1978 Washington University law school graduate and served as a trial lawyer in St. Louis through 1991. He practiced commercial law in the St. Louis law offices of Morris A. Shenker, a lawyer for teamsters' union boss Jimmy Hoffa, through 1984. Puzder then moved to the Stolar Partnership law practice.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Puzder was considered the top anti-abortion lawyers in Missouri. He helped write and get passed a state law declaring life begins at conception and prohibiting state money being used in abortions. He often represented, pro bono, anti-abortion protestors, one activist said.
Bill Hannegan, a St. Louis painter and activist, said he was one of the protesters, although he doesn't think Puzder ever represented him.
"Andy was friendly," Hannegan said. "A regular guy who worked cutting trees to pay his way through school. When he found out that I was painting as a sole proprietor he offered to incorporate me for free. Worried that I would be sued, as most people eventually are. Class."
Puzder was known as a fierce opponent of abortion, but he also helped lead an effort to find common ground with those favoring abortion rights. Starting in the early 1990s, they focused on helping women and children and trying to find ways to avoid unintended pregnancies.
"If you have a poor woman who can't support another baby, and she goes to an abortion clinic, you don't have a woman who's exercising her constitutional right, you have a woman who has a problem," Puzder said at the time.
"He is proud of his work in this context," Staudt, the Washington University dean said, and used it as an example of Puzder's ability to listen to different opinions.
But Puzder was not without controversy while in St. Louis.
In 1989, it was widely reported that Puzder's ex-wife, Lisa, alleged in legal divorce filings that she had been abused by her ex-husband. Puzder, who headed then-Gov. John Ashcroft's abortion task force, denied the allegations.
A spokesman for Puzder late Thursday issued a copy of an email sent by Puzder's ex-wife on Nov. 30 in which she recanted those allegations.
"I impulsively filed for a divorce without your knowledge and was counseled then to file an allegation of abuse," the email says. "I regretted and still regret that decision and I withdrew those allegations over thirty years ago. You were not abusive. I will most definitely confirm to anyone who may ask that in no way was there abuse."
Attempts to reach Puzder's ex-wife Thursday were not successful.
But Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump transition office, issued a statement he said came from Lisa Fierstein, Puzder's ex-wife, that repeated part of the email, and added: "Andy is one of the finest men I have ever known. ... Andy is a wonderful father, a great person, and was a good husband."
In 1991, Puzder met Carl Karcher, founder of Carl's Jr., who was "embroiled in serious financial difficulties," according to the CKE website. Puzder helped resolve Karcher's financial problems, and he now heads CKE.
Puzder was an economic adviser and donor to Trump's presidential campaign.
Puzder has been a prolific donor to Republican politicians and committees, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The Carl's Jr. and Hardee's chains, which are part of CKE, run racy ads of supermodels eating burgers that have drawn criticism in some quarters. Puzder defended them in an interview with Entrepreneur magazine last year, saying they were, in part, an extension of his personality. He said the ads were aimed at "hungry guys" ages 18 to 34.
"I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American," he told Entrepreneur. "I used to hear brands take on the personality of the CEO. And I rarely thought that was true, but I think this one, in this case, it kind of did take on my personality."
Liberal groups and organized labor have been critical of Puzder's push to replace some workers in his chain with automated kiosks, and to Puzder's opposition to Obama doubling, to more than $47,000, the annual salary of workers who would be eligible for overtime.
"The labor secretary is supposed to be the advocate-in-chief for America's working men and women," Brad Woodhouse, president of the liberal activist group Americans United for Change, said. "Instead, this is a guy who can't wait to make workers obsolete in his own restaurants by replacing them with robots."
