A Big Labor Partisan Named Julie Su

Biden’s Labor nominee puts union interests above workers

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"As labor secretary in California, she drove implementation of the state’s AB5 law, which reclassified independent contractors as employees.

The law was aimed at Uber drivers and other gig workers, but it ended up smacking workers seeking flexible hours in multiple industries—comedy performers, personal fitness trainers, midwives, transcriptionists, hairdressers, music-lesson providers. After the law passed, Ms. Su promised statewide investigations and audits to enforce compliance.

The ensuing labor and economic harm caused the state to exempt numerous professions from the law, while voters in 2020 overwhelming passed an initiative exempting many gig workers from the statute."

"She’s supported California’s Fast Act, which empowers an unelected board to impose work rules and a minimum wage as high as $22 an hour. California’s Department of Finance opposed the law, warning it would raise costs."

"She also wants to eliminate the so-called tip credit, which lets workers earn a lower minimum wage as long as their overall tips provide compensation at least equal to the statutory minimum. Most workers find they earn much more in tips, and last year voters in progressive Portland, Maine, defeated an initiative to replace the tip credit with a minimum wage."

"Ms. Su’s department issued some $30 billion in fraudulent jobless-benefit payments during the Covid pandemic. The U.S. Labor Department repeatedly warned California it needed to improve its fraud protection, but Ms. Su’s department sent out checks faster."