President Biden said Tuesday he will nominate Julie Su, formerly California’s top labor official, to be the next U.S. labor secretary.
If confirmed by the Senate to replace outgoing secretary Marty Walsh, Su would become the first Asian American secretary in Biden’s cabinet. It’s the only White House in 20 years to not have an Asian American in a secretary-level position.
Su is currently serving as the department’s deputy labor secretary, a post she accepted after serving as California’s labor commissioner from 2011 to 2018.
In a statement, Biden cited Su’s past “fighting to make sure that everyone has a fair shot, that no community is overlooked, and that no worker is left behind.”
The president continued: “Over several decades, 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.”
Biden’s announcement was celebrated by labor and Asian American Pacific Islander organizations who had vigorously lobbied Biden to pick Su after Walsh’s exit to lead the National Hockey League Players’ Association was announced last month.
“She’s one of the most principled people I know,” said Aileen Louie, chief of staff at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-SoCal. “She is not accommodating when people do things that she does not believe are right.”
Louie befriended Su more than 30 years ago when both were working at AAAJ-SoCal, then known as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. Su, a civil rights attorney recently graduated from Harvard Law School, had joined the organization hoping to support low-income immigrant workers.
Then in 1995, the El…
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