FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/22/2021
Contact: Nick Voutsinos, Jobs With Justice, nick@jwj.org, 717-413-7613
Jobs With Justice celebrates the confirmation of Marty Walsh as the new U.S. Secretary of Labor, urges Senate to confirm Julie Su as Deputy Secretary
Washington, DC — Today, a bipartisan majority of US Senators voted to confirm President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Biden’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of Labor and the current California Secretary of Labor Julie Su is also moving through the confirmation process. Jobs With Justice Executive Director Erica Smiley gave the following statement in support of both Walsh and Su:
“The Department of Labor is supposed to represent working people, but for the past four years, it has acted more like a law firm for corporate America. With the confirmation of Marty Walsh, we will finally have a Department of Labor that puts working people first and holds corporations accountable, instead of treating those corporations like clients. As Mayor of Boston, Secretary Walsh fought against wage theft and assembled a task force to push for a statewide increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He is also a card-carrying union member – an invaluable qualification to lead the Department of Labor today, especially at a time when working people around the country are deciding whether to join together in union, including the Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama.
We are excited and ready to work with Secretary Walsh on centering frontline workers – the people who got this country through COVID-19 – in the post-pandemic recovery, and on getting them the protections and pay they deserve.
Following the confirmation of Secretary Walsh, the Senate must swiftly confirm Julie Su as Deputy Secretary of Labor. As a person of color and a daughter of immigrants, Secretary Su understands the diversity of the American workforce and the needs of workers of color. She demonstrated this as the California Secretary of Labor, where she fought to prevent the misclassification of gig workers, who are predominately immigrants and people of color. As Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor, she will continue to hold so-called ‘gig economy’ companies and Big Tech accountable, so that we can finally put a check on tech’s ever-growing influence over our economy and our lives. We urge the Senate to confirm Secretary Su as soon as possible, because working people cannot wait for the Department of Labor to get to work.”
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Jobs With Justice is the country’s leading nonprofit in the fight for workplace and economic democracy. Comprising of a national network of local affiliates in nearly every state, Jobs With Justice brings together coalitions of unions, worker organizations, community groups, students, and faith institutions to win concrete improvements in people’s lives.
