APABA Commends the Nomination of Julie Su as U.S. Deputy Labor Secretary

CONTACT: Arnold Lee, arnoldlee.apaba@gmail.com

Los Angeles, CA - The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles County ("APABA") commends President Joe Biden for nominating California's own Labor Secretary Julie Su to serve as the Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.

Appointed as California's Labor Secretary in 2019, Secretary Su has been on the forefront of protecting workers' rights and served as California Governor Gavin Newsom's advisor on labor policy, including worker safety and protection from the COVID-19 pandemic. Before serving in her current post, Secretary Su worked as a civil rights attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles (formerly Asian Pacific American Legal Center), the nation’s largest non-profit civil rights organization focused on issues affecting the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. For nearly two decades, Secretary Su has fought against workplace discrimination and unfair labor practices. Notably, Secretary Su represented 74 Thai garment workers who were forced to spend 18-hour days sewing clothes behind barbed wire at a sweatshop in El Monte in Bureerong v. Uvawas. Secretary Su received APABA’s Public Service Award in 2011 and APABA’s Trailblazer Award in 2020, both for her tremendous work in paving new laws protecting human trafficking survivors and workers' rights.

Secretary Su's appointment as Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor will help move our nation's labor policies in the right direction.