Phony ‘Moderates’ Okayed Radical Biden Pick

‘Without Their Help, Julie Su Wouldn’t Be in the Cabinet Today’

Just over two years ago, as union-label President Joe Biden’s nomination of radically pro-Big Labor lawyer Julie Su as deputy secretary of the Labor Department made it to the Senate floor, the National Right to Work Committee joined with other foes of monopolistic unionism in voicing its strong opposition.

Nearly half of the Senate agreed with Right to Work proponents’ assessment and voted to block the nomination.

But, along with many unabashed advocates of forced-unionism like Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), a number of self-styled “moderates” in the Senate Democrat caucus, including Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Jon Tester (Mont.), and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), thumbed their noses at Right to Work and voted “Yes.”

Consequently, Ms. Su was confirmed by a narrow 50-47 margin.

At the end of this February, after Joe Biden’s first labor secretary, Martin Walsh, opted to leave the administration and return to his former career as a union boss, the President nominated Ms. Su to be the most aggressively anti-Right to Work bureaucrat ever to head the Labor Department. 

Vulnerable Senators Seek To Send Their 2021 Votes ‘Down the Memory Hole’

But getting Ms. Su confirmed by the Senate has turned out to be much more difficult in 2023 than it was in 2021.

“Two years ago, Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Kyrsten Sinema, and at least one other so-called ‘moderate’ Senate Democrat caucus member, Angus King [Maine], were smack-dab in the middle of six-year terms,” explained Right to Work Vice President Greg Mourad.

“They knew they didn’t have to face the voters of their home states again for more than three years.

“That’s why they felt free to ignore the pro-Right to Work citizens who constitute overwhelming majorities in the states they claim to ‘represent’ and install a Big Labor ideologue at the Labor Department, in accordance with Joe Biden’s wishes.

“But today, Sens. Manchin, Tester, Sinema and King are all trying to send their 2021 votes to hand Julie Su enormous power over American employees and business owners down the memory hole.

“Thanks to the vague ‘concerns’ these senators suddenly have about Ms. Su’s radicalism, the President has been unable to get her confirmed over the past seven months.

“However, because she was already confirmed as deputy labor secretary in 2021 thanks to the support of these same supposed ‘moderates,’ it now appears Ms. Su may be able to continue running her agency until early 2025 as acting labor secretary.

“Without their help, Julie Su wouldn’t be in the Cabinet today.”

Julie Su Is Waging a War On the Self-Employed From Coast to Coast

Mr. Mourad added that, if Mr. Manchin, Mr. Tester, Ms. Sinema, and Mr. King are re-elected in 2024, along with Joe Biden, the four “moderates” can be expected, based on the track records they have established, to resume rubberstamping almost every radical labor policy nomination that comes up.

“Thanks largely to Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Kyrsten Sinema, and Angus King,” said Mr. Mourad, “Julie Su is now able to exercise her authority to ‘reinterpret’ federal labor law so it can serve union bosses’ interests more comprehensively than it ever has before.

“And a pending Labor Department rule that could effectively bar millions of Americans from working as independent contractors is the prime illustration of just how dangerous she is.”

Ms. Su’s ongoing crusade to shove as many as possible of the roughly 60 million people across the country who perform freelance work into payroll jobs so they can be forced into paying union dues was completely predictable.

“Just before she moved inside the Beltway,” recalled Mr. Mourad, “Julie Su spent two-and-a-half years displaying her contempt for the individual employee’s freedom of choice in her capacity as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

“She has even been described as an ‘architect’ of California’s constitutionally dubious, pro-forced unionism A.B.5 law, and she led a no-holds-barred battle to enforce it.”

The clear aim of A.B.5 is to reclassify most independent contractors as traditional employees. Ms. Su and other A.B.5 enthusiasts claim contractors would prefer to be classified as payroll workers.

But when actual contractors have been surveyed about the subject, they’ve repeatedly told pollsters in overwhelming numbers they prefer their independent work arrangements.

Committee Survey Program Will Hold Big Labor Politicians Accountable in 2024

“Independent contractors have the flexibility to set their own hours and work for multiple clients,” explained Mr. Mourad.

“In the transportation industry, for example, many truckers have left traditional employment over the years to own their own rigs and be their own boss.

“But independent contractors aren’t subject to unionization, and Big Labor partisans like Julie Su simply can’t accept that reality.

“That’s why she led a relentless campaign to enforce A.B.5, even going after struggling businesses during the steep COVID-19 recession for supposedly ‘misclassifying’ their workers.

“And that’s why she is now leading a campaign at the federal level to criminalize independent contracting, so she can then pursue scorched-earth enforcement against those who violate the new nationwide standards.”

In addition to overseeing a war on the self-employed, Julie Su is now wielding her power as Labor Department chief to hurt independent-minded workers, businesses, consumers and taxpayers in a host of other ways.

For example, in August she put her final stamp of approval on a dramatic expansion of the wage-fixing, New Deal-era Davis-Bacon Act, which rigs the bidding for more than $200 billion in federal contracts every year in favor of Big Labor and against union-free hardhats.

“No wonder incumbent senators from key battleground states who voted for Julie Su in 2021 are now desperate to distance themselves from this disastrous Biden Cabinet pick,” observed Mr. Mourad.

“But National Right to Work is determined not to let them get away with it. Through our Survey 2024 program, we are prepared to remind vast numbers of West Virginians, Montanans, Arizonans and Mainers exactly how the Senate incumbents on their ballots next year have voted to promote compulsory unionism.

“Then they can either pledge convincingly to change their ways, or face the potential political consequences.”

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