The Wait Is Over. Biden picks Gig-Economy Opponent Julie Su as next Secretary of Labor
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The Wait Is Over. Biden picks Gig-Economy Opponent Julie Su as next Secretary of Labor
Following Labor Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh’s departure to take a (reportedly) $3 million per year job as the head of the National Hockey League’s union, President Biden has nominated Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su to take Walsh’s place.
“We need people at the U.S. Department of Labor who will respect and protect America’s tens of millions of independent contractors. Unfortunately, Julie Su’s actions in California tell us she will do precisely the opposite.” — Kim Kavin
“It is my honor to nominate Julie Su to be our country’s next Secretary of Labor,” the President Biden stated in a White House release. “Julie has spent her life fighting to make sure that everyone has a fair shot, that no community is overlooked, and that no worker is left behind.”
“Over several decades,” the President’s statement continues, “Julie has led the largest state labor department in the nation, cracked down on wage theft, fought to protect trafficked workers, increased the minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, and established and enforced workplace safety standards.”
Although Su’s nomination is being lauded by many on the left, including the AFL-CIO, it is not without controversy.
“We need people at the U.S. Department of Labor who will respect and protect America’s tens of millions of independent contractors,” stated Kim Kavin, a freelance writer and one of the leaders of FightForFreelancersUSA. “Unfortunately, Julie Su’s actions in California tell us she will do precisely the opposite.”
Su’s Anti-Gig Economy Record
Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist tweeted out to his followers an article entitled: Biden Labor Nominee Julie Su is a Threat to Independent Contractors and Freelancers Nationwide.
In the article, its writer, Tom Hebert, states that “Su has an extensive record of anti-freelancer, anti-independent contractor views and is more than willing to use government power to impose her radical agenda on American workers.”
“Su was an architect of California’s Assembly Bill 5 law, which forced Golden State independent contractors to reclassify as W-2 employees,” Hebert explains. “More than 90 percent of California independent contractors opposed reclassifying as W-2 employees before Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB5 into law.”
Su’s Poor Track Record In California
“Her troubled legacy in California includes a series of certifiable fiascos at the state’s dysfunctional Employment Development Department, which paid an astonishing $40 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to criminals, inmates, and cartels during the pandemic.” reported the Washington Examiner earlier this week.
On Su’s watch, “5 million Californians had benefits delayed and one million had benefits improperly denied,” columnist John Phillips writes in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
This meant that due to government negligence, Californians who were prohibited by emergency order from going to work, couldn’t pay their rent, health insurance premiums, or grocery bills at the same time the globe was melting down.
Simultaneously, Su transferred somewhere between $30 and $40 billion in state money to undeserving criminals.
While Su’s Senate confirmation process will undoubtedly shed some light on her anti-gig workers views, as well as her failures in California, it is unlikely there will be any Democrats to join any Republican opposition to her confirmation.
It's Finally Official: DOL Secretary Marty Walsh Has Resigned For More Lucrative Hockey Career
Labor Relations Radio, Ep. 56: The State of the Union, Marty Walsh's Exit & Who Is Julie Su?