Progressive coalition speaks out as big business moves to crush Julie Su

As corporate interests continue to attack Julie Su, dozens of progressive organizations on Wednesday pressured a U.S. Senate panel to swiftly advance the labor secretary nominee, who “has devoted her life to fighting for workers’ rights, holding exploitative employers accountable, leveling the playing field for high-road employers, and doing pioneering work to protect the most vulnerable of workers.”

Labor and advocacy groups have celebrated since President Joe Biden nominated Su in February, but industries opposed to her are spending big in states like Arizona, Montana, and West Virginia, hoping some current and former Democrats in the Senate will block her confirmation.

“Why are corporations spending millions to defeat Julie Su’s nomination as labor secretary? They know she’s a champion of the working class and will take on the forces of corporate greed, illegal union-busters, and improve working conditions. The Senate must confirm her nomination,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Friday.

Sanders and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.)—as chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), respectively—received the new letter from 94 organizations ahead of the panel’s Thursday hearing.

Led by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and National Employment Law Project (NELP), the groups wrote:

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) basic mission is “to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.” Few people are as uniquely well-suited to lead the Department of Labor in executing this mission as Julie Su…

Over the past two years, Deputy Secretary Su has proven herself to be an indispensable partner to Secretary Marty Walsh. Her recent experience and proven track record as a leader at the Department of Labor will enable a smooth leadership transition for the agency and a continuation of the agenda they both charted, one that will better protect workers from exploitation, but one that also has due regard for the regulated community and employers who are playing by the rules. Indeed, that is why Deputy Secretary Su is so well respected by so many in the business community in her home state of California, because she is someone who respects all stakeholders, including high-road employers who understand that their success is built by and with their workforces.

“This is a critical time for the Department of Labor to continue supporting workers through the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic,” the letter stresses, pointing to the DOL’s work to finalize independent contractors rules, modernize unemployment insurance, carry out new interagency initiatives, improve access to well-paying employment, and implement the Good Jobs Initiative and items from the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment.

The letter highlights Su’s “deep experience addressing the particular needs of low-wage workers” as well as her “pioneering work for the labor and human rights of immigrant workers,” and argues that her former job in California “left her well-positioned to manage the relationship between the U.S. DOL and their numerous state-level counterparts.”

Other groups that signed on to the letter include the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Casa Latina, Child Labor Coalition, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Communications Workers of America, National Black Worker Center, Our Revolution, Oxfam America, Sierra Club, Service Employees International Union, United Steelworkers, and Women’s Law Project.