Even as Donald Trump says he will battle for America’s workers, the acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, is voicing fears that Trump will undo many of Joe Biden’s pro-worker policies, which include protecting workers from extreme heat and extending overtime pay to millions more workers.
In an interview with the Guardian, Su said that Trump might fall far short on delivering for workers considering the first Trump administration’s many anti-worker policies and in light of his having Elon Musk and other billionaires advising him. “It’s one thing to say you’re pro-worker, and it’s quite another thing to do it,” Su said. “You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class. You can’t be pro-Elon Musk and pro-worker.”
Musk, who has become one of Trump’s top advisers, is vehemently anti-union and seeking to have the National Labor Relations Board declared unconstitutional. He once said: “I disagree with the idea of unions.”
Su expressed concern that the Trump administration, with all its billionaires and business magnates, might give short shrift to poor and working-class Americans. “When you look at the track record of some of the people in the next administration, and then you look at the lack of representation of working-class and middle-class folks, I’m worried that the perspectives of those who struggle, of those who rely on government to act not just in the interest of the privileged, are not well-represented – while union-busters are.”
Su – who became acting labor secretary nearly two years ago after serving as deputy labor secretary – voiced pride in the Biden administration’s accomplishments for workers. She pointed to the $1tn infrastructure bill, Biden’s strong backing of unions, the regulation to protect workers’ lungs from silicon dust, the increase in factory jobs and the first-ever regulation to protect workers from dangerous heat. (With the senator Joe Manchin opposing her, she never got a Senate majority to confirm her as labor secretary.)
As for other achievements, Su pointed to her behind-the-scenes role in helping secure good union contracts for Boeing workers and dock workers on the east and west coasts. She also cited her department’s enforcement efforts – since Biden took office, it has collected more than $1bn for workers victimized by wage theft.
“This president has prioritized working people in everything that he’s done,” she said. “This president has had a very strong commitment to unions.”
Su warned that the second Trump administration might be as anti-union as the first. “The first time they were here, they had a virulently anti-union NLRB,” Su said. “In order to do what they said they’re going to do this time, which is to be pro-worker and pro-union, they’re going to have to do a 180-degree U-turn from what they did last time.”
Peter Robb, who served as the NLRB’s aggressively pro-business general counsel during Trump’s first term, is heading Trump’s transition efforts for the labor board. Trump’s pick for labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has had far more support from unions than most Republicans; several unions endorsed her last fall when she ran unsuccessfully for re-election to Congress from Oregon.
Su had some advice for her successor: “The American people need and deserve a strong labor department. There are places in this country where vulnerable workers depend on this department to breathe life into labor laws, and there are 15,000 career people who wake up every day and want to do that work. Having the support of the labor secretary to do that and use the full authority they’ve been given to make life better for workers, is really important. It’s also important to be a voice for workers.”
As for Musk’s ambitious plan to make $2tn in budget cuts, Su said her department already did not have enough money and further cuts would undermine its mission. “We do not have the resources that we need for this department’s important mission after the cuts of the last Trump administration,” Su said. She added that the department needed adequate resources “when workers tell us they weren’t paid the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, when 13-year-olds work in dangerous jobs and 16-year-olds work on dangerous equipment, when firefighters seek workers comp after a whole career of saving people’s lives, but are denied it”.
Su fears that Trump’s appointees will scrap the Biden administration’s first-ever national regulation to protect workers against extreme heat. Similarly, she worries that the Trump administration will reverse a rule that makes it harder for businesses to misclassify construction workers and others as independent contractors, often to skirt overtime and other laws.
Su, who won high praise for her innovative policies as California’s labor commissioner, vigorously denied that Biden’s loss in November meant that voters had rejected his pro-worker policies. Su said policies to ramp up manufacturing, build clean energy and rebuild infrastructure will take years to complete, and many voters didn’t yet feel the benefit. “We needed more time,” she said.
“President Biden wanted to fundamentally change the playbook of how the economy works for working people,” Su said. “He called the lie on the decades-old con of trickle-down economics.”
As labor secretary and as California’s top labor official, Su often devoted herself to helping the most vulnerable workers. “Too many workers continue to struggle, and a lot of those are workers of color and immigrants,” she said. “The rhetoric about immigrants, the flat-out lies about what immigrants and immigrant communities bring and contribute – those lies are terribly damaging. Anti-immigrant policies are anti-worker.”
Su condemned Trump’s talk of mass deportations: “You can’t be behind a mass-deportation policy and be pro-worker. Those policies make workers afraid and much more exploitable.”
Discussing the Los Angeles wildfires, Su – who grew up in Los Angeles county – said immigrant workers usually do the work cleaning up and rebuilding after hurricanes, fires and other disasters. “There is going to be a herculean effort needed in light of the devastating fires that are still raging in my home state,” she said. “Those workers who have done cleanup and rebuilding before are going to be the ones we rely on, and they, like all workers, should be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
“A policy of mass deportations,” she added, “will get in the way of that important work and make the people doing that work more vulnerable.”
If Trump is serious about helping workers, Su maintained, he should continue her department’s efforts to enforce labor laws aggressively, whether minimum wage, child labor or occupational safety laws.
“The last administration slashed the Department of Labor’s enforcement capacity. You can’t eliminate and slash [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] and wage-and-hour and mine inspectors and keep workers healthy and safe,” Su said. Trump’s nominees “say we’re going to cut red tape and regulation, but the people who rely on strong regulation are the most vulnerable people in our communities, including working people,” she said.
Su voiced frustration that conservative judges have overturned labor department regulations, including Biden’s rule extending overtime pay to 4 million more workers. She complained that those who “benefit from the gap between the rich and the poor” have “figured out a way to stymie progressive and worker-friendly actions”.
She talked of one worker she met who said that thanks to Biden’s overtime expansion, she was going to receive a pay increase that would enable her to pay her rent and have a little left over for her daughter. But a federal judge in Texas, a Trump appointee, overturned Biden’s overtime expansion.
“Much of what we put in place are fundamental policies to lift up people who are struggling to get by,” Su said. “I think about these people who think it’s a game to strategize and take away these kinds of protections. It’s a tragedy.”
Su decried the repeated efforts by Republicans, business lobbyists and conservative thinktanks to block efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been frozen at $7.25 for 15 years.
“Industry lobbyists continually challenge policies that are good for working people,” Su said. “You can’t say you’re pro-worker and support them. It’s unconscionable to stand in the way of policies that put more wages into workers’ pockets.”
