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President Joe Biden has offered Cerritos resident and Whitney High Graduate Julie Su, and she has accepted, the role of deputy Labor secretary.
Su, who heads California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency, is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and a longtime advocate for low-wage workers. Her name was initially floated for Labor secretary, but Biden nominated Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a longtime friend who had the backing of the AFL-CIO. Walsh’s Senate confirmation hearing is on was yesterday.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Su served as the state’s labor commissioner for about eight years before becoming its labor secretary. Prior to that, she spearheaded litigation at Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a legal aid organization in Los Angeles.
The announcement is expected sometime next week, one of the people said. If confirmed, Su would step into the job at a critical point for American labor, with millions of people out of work and a narrowly divided Congress poised to stand in the way of Biden’s major legislative initiatives. Still, the Labor Department has the power to enact regulatory changes that can make the workplace safer and empower employees.
Her selection, is likely to somewhat appease Asian American Pacific Island advocates, who lobbied heavily for Su’s selection as Labor secretary and were disappointed when the role went to a white male.
The role of deputy Labor secretary takes on outsize importance as Biden looks to resuscitate a limping job market that has seen the pandemic stoke permanent losses and compromise worker safety.
Su would help Walsh oversee unemployment insurance, worker safety, job training, and other aspects of the economic recovery — not to mention implement the sweeping pro-labor agenda Biden campaigned on, which would increase workplace requirements and make it easier for workers to organize, among other things.
Former Cerritos Mayor Mark Pulido told HMG-CN, ”
Congratulations to President Biden in appointing my longtime friend and sister, Julie A. Su, to be the next Deputy Secretary of Labor. You will find she is the best person for the job. She has and always will be a fighter for justice for working people, immigrants, their families and communities. She is what America needs in its Deputy Secretary of Labor now more than ever. Thank you.”
Cerritos Councilmember Frank Yokoyama said, “Congratulations to my dear friend Julie. I’m so very proud of her.”
