AFSCME members are behind Julie Su 100%. We want the U.S. Senate to confirm Su – who has ably served as acting labor secretary since March 2023 – to the position for good.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted for Su late Tuesday and moved her nomination to the full Senate for confirmation.
In a letter to the committee, AFSCME wrote that Su has “provided expert leadership for the needs of America’s workers and employers” ever since President Joe Biden picked her to serve as deputy secretary in 2021.
After Labor Secretary Marty Walsh left the administration in February of last year, Biden nominated Su to take his place. Su has been serving as the acting secretary since then.
AFSCME noted in the letter that under Su’s leadership, the U.S. economy has steadily added jobs — 353,000 in January 2024 alone — and maintained an unemployment rate of under 4% for the past two years.
Su has built on Walsh’s work to “increase access to registered apprenticeships, grow our health care workforce, and expand youth employment. Acting Secretary Su has brought our economy through uncertain times and helped break the stalemates in negotiations of critical West Coast port workers, health care workers, auto workers and more,” AFSCME wrote.
The letter goes on to praise Su for diligently enforcing federal labor laws and for updating regulations on important issues such as employee misclassification, child labor law violations, wage theft, and an array of health and safety hazards.
“She is the secretary of labor our country needs as we continue to grow our workforce and our economy,” AFSCME wrote. “Acting Secretary Su has always fought to protect the most vulnerable workers throughout her career and has continued the fight as the acting secretary of labor. She is an incredibly well-qualified, thoughtful, and talented public servant.”