Herman Takes Oath, Becomes Labor Chief

After a bruising confirmation process, Alexis M. Herman was sworn in Friday as Labor secretary, promising to support the right to form unions while recognizing the challenges facing employers.

“There’s an old saying that managers do things right and that leaders do the right thing,” Vice President Al Gore said at the Labor Department ceremony. “It is a distinct honor and wonderful privilege to be able to administer the oath of office to a woman who for her entire life has done both.”

The nation’s new Labor secretary has won praise from business leaders for her efforts on behalf of free trade and earned support from union chiefs, who initially had backed another candidate for the nomination.

She is a former civil rights activist who served in the Carter administration and a skilled political operative who was deputy to the late Ronald H. Brown at the Democratic National Committee. As a former business owner, she knows what it takes to meet a payroll.

In private, the slight, soft-spoken woman in the Labor secretary’s office overlooking the Capitol does not seem to match the Alexis Herman who earned the moniker “queen of schmooze” for her ability to work a room. But in public, that skill is obviously well-played.

“I understand the importance of the labor movement for working Americans,” Herman said at her swearing-in ceremony Friday, after acknowledging several union presidents in attendance. “I respect and will protect the right of working Americans to organize and to bargain with their employers.

“I also built my own business, so I understand what it means to compete and to meet a payroll,” she added.

Herman said she will support training programs and help welfare recipients find work. Shoring up retirement security and ensuring workplace safety and equality also top her stated priorities.

But she declines to discuss the haggling over her nomination, which took four months to clear the Senate.

First, the GOP investigated whether Herman, as director of the White House Office of Public Liaison under President Clinton, used the post for political gain. Then, Republicans stalled the nomination until Clinton dropped plans to issue an executive order telling federal agencies to consider awarding construction contracts to unionized companies.