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julie su
Mamdani Taps 'Unafraid and Unbought' Julie Su as First NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice
"What a thrilling day for the working class of New York City," said one local labor leader.
Dec 19, 2025
In a move cheered by advocates for the working class, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Friday that former acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su will serve as the city's first-ever deputy mayor for economic justice.
"Welcome to a new era, Julie Su," Mamdani, a Democrat, said in a social media post announcing the appointment. "As former US secretary of labor, Julie played a central role in fighting for workers, ensuring a just day's pay for a hard day's work, and saving the pensions of more than a million union workers and retirees."
Speaking at a Friday press conference in Staten Island with Mamdani and Deputy Mayor for Housing nominee Leila Bozorg, Su said: "In the richest city in the richest country in the world, no one should be treated as disposable. Dignity on the job is not a privilege but a right, justice is not abstract but it is felt in a paycheck you can live on, a schedule that you can build a life around, a workplace where your voice matters, and a city that has your back.”
Su, who had previously served as California labor secretary and deputy US labor secretary, was nominated by former President Joe Biden to permanently lead the Department of Labor. However, Republicans and some right-wing Democrats in the US Senate blocked her appointment, so Biden installed her in an acting capacity, in which she served from March 2023 until the end of the Democrat's administration in January.
During her tenure, Su championed gig workers; fought to preserve pensions for retirees; pushed for workplace protections from Covid-19 and environmental harms; and helped negotiate labor agreements for healthcare professionals, flight attendants, and others.
Su will now work with Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as he seeks to deliver on his campaign promises of free public childcare and municipal buses, a freeze on rent-stabilized housing, and city-owned grocery stores to residents of the nation's largest city.
"What a thrilling day for the working class of New York City to have the first-ever deputy mayor for economic justice to ensure that our issues are front [and] center at every level of city government," New York Taxi Workers Alliance executive director Bhairavi Desai said in a statement.
"With the appointment of the esteemed Julie Su—who is unafraid and unbought by corporate interests—Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is cementing the highest, uncompromised, and effective standards for a better life for New Yorkers abandoned and betrayed in decades past," Desai added.
The NYC Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO said on Bluesky: "Big news! Julie Su as deputy mayor for economic justice brings deep experience enforcing labor law, fighting wage theft, and standing up for working families."
"She’s known and respected across the labor movement, including here in NYC," the council added. "Looking forward to working with a proven champion for workers at City Hall!"
Service Employees International Union international president April Verrett said on X that Su "has spent her career standing with workers and holding powerful interests to account."
"Bringing her into City Hall says New York is done talking and ready to throw down for the people who keep this city moving," she added.
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'Not Us—They Are!' Union Leader Rejects Fox News Spin on Port Strikes
"People never gave a shit about us until now, when they finally realized that the chain is being broke now."
Oct 02, 2024
Amid concerns over fallout from the dockworker strike at ports up and down the East Coast, the head of the International Longshoremen's Association stressed in a Fox News appearance Tuesday that it's greedy companies, not 45,000 striking workers, who are to blame for any economic impacts that may follow from the labor dispute.
"They don't care," ILA president Harold Daggett said of shipping companies. "It's not fair. And if we don't put our foot down now, they would like to run over us, and we're not gonna allow that."
The Fox reporter then said, "You are gonna grind the economy to a halt here on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast."
Daggett fired back: "Not us—they are! Don't spin it now because you're Fox News... They have the capital to settle this thing."
Longshoreman President Harold Daggett praises Secretary of Labor Julie Su, and attacks the corporations whose greed has seen them make $400 billion in profit by jacking up prices since the start of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/IO2hizqpOX
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) October 1, 2024
Reuters reported Wednesday that "the strike, the ILA's first major stoppage since 1977, is worrying businesses that rely on ocean shipping to export their wares or secure crucial imports. It affects 36 ports—including New York, Baltimore, and Houston—that handle a range of containerized goods ranging from bananas to clothing to cars."
As the Fox reporter emphasized the impacts of the strike, Daggett said, "Now you start to realize who the longshoremen are, right?"
"People never gave a shit about us until now, when they finally realized that the chain is being broke now," he continued. "Cars won't come in. Food won't come in. Clothing won't come in. You know how many people depend on our jobs? Half the world!"
"And it's time for them, and time for Washington, to put so much pressure on them to take care of us," he added. "Because we took care of them, and we're here 135 years and brought them where they are today and they don't want to share!"
The ILA members walked off the job just after midnight on Tuesday, following the collapse of negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). The union is pushing for annual raises and protections from automation in the six-year contract.
Democratic President Joe Biden has power to break the strike—thanks to the anti-union law known as the Taft-Hartley Act—but has said he doesn't plan to do so. The ILA has welcomed the involvement of Biden's acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, whom Daggett called "terrific."
"We took care of them... and brought them where they are today and they don't want to share!"
In a Wednesday statement, the union leader said that his members "are grateful for the wisdom, courage, and leadership" of Su.
"Our ILA rank-and-file members will continue to strike for fair wages and their share of the foreign ocean carriers record billion-dollar profits and we are grateful to have the support of the U.S. Labor Department," Daggett declared.
His comments came in response to Su saying Tuesday that "over the last week and more, I have spent hours on the phone and in meetings with the parties urging them to find a way to reach a fair contract. This country's port workers put their health and safety on the line to keep working through the pandemic so we could get the goods we needed as Covid raged and these workers will help communities recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene."
"As these companies make billions and their CEOs bring in millions of dollars in compensation per year, they have refused to put an offer on the table that reflects workers' sacrifice and contributions to their employer's profits," she added. "The American economy has defied all expectations thanks to the Biden-Harris administration's leadership. There is room for both companies and their workers to prosper. The parties need to get back to the negotiating table, and that must begin with these giant shipping magnates acknowledging that if they can make record profits, their workers should share in that economic success."
Biden—who blocked a rail strike in 2022 but then last year became the first sitting president to walk a picket line—put out a similar statement in support of longshoremen on Tuesday, saying on social media that "it's time those ocean carriers offered a strong and fair contract that reflects ILA workers’ contribution to our economy and to their record profits."
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the November election, piled on with a Wedneday campaign statement highlighting that "this strike is about fairness. Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown. The longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits."
Harris pointed out that her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, "wants to pull us back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize," noting that "as president, he blocked overtime benefits for millions of workers, he appointed union-busters to the [National Labor Relations Board]—and just recently, he said striking workers should be fired."
"Donald Trump makes empty promise after empty promise to American workers, but never delivers. He thinks our economy should only work for those who own the big skyscrapers, not those who actually build them," she added. "As president, I will have workers' backs and finally pass the [Protecting the Right to Organize] Act. And I will fight for an opportunity economy—where every person has the chance not just to get by but to get ahead."
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With US Workers on the March, Southern States Take Aim at Unions
GOP leaders in the region are "truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement," said one critic.
Apr 26, 2024
Since six Southern Republican governors last week showed "how scared they are" of the United Auto Workers' U.S. organizing drive, Tennessee Volkswagen employees have voted to join the UAW while GOP policymakers across the region have ramped up attacks on unions.
The UAW launched "the largest organizing drive in modern American history" after securing improved contracts last year with a strike targeting the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. The ongoing campaign led to the "landslide" victory in Chattanooga last week, which union president Shawn Fain pointed to as proof that "you can't win in the South" isn't true.
The Tennessee win "is breaking the brains of Republicans in that region. They're truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement," Thom Hartmann wrote in a Friday opinion piece.
"The problem for Republicans is that unions represent a form of democracy in the workplace, and the GOP hates democracy as a matter of principle."
"The problem for Republicans is that unions represent a form of democracy in the workplace, and the GOP hates democracy as a matter of principle," he argued. "Republicans appear committed to politically dying on a number of hills that time has passed by. Their commitment to gutting voting rolls and restricting voting rights, their obsession with women’s reproductive abilities, and their hatred of regulations and democracy in the workplace are increasingly seen by average American voters as out-of-touch and out-of-date."
Just before voting began in Chattanooga, GOP Govs. Kay Ivey of Alabama, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Greg Abbott of Texas claimed that "unionization would certainly put our states' jobs in jeopardy" and the UAW is "making big promises to our constituents that they can't deliver on."
The next nationally watched UAW vote is scheduled for May 13-17 at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama.
"Workers at our plant are ready for this moment," Mercedes employee Jeremy Kimbrell said last week. "We are ready to vote yes because we are ready to win our fair share. We are going to end the Alabama discount and replace it with what our state actually needs. Workers sticking together and sticking by our community."
As workers gear up for the election, the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 72-30 for a bill that would withhold future economic incentive money from companies that voluntarily recognize unions rather than holding secret ballots. The state Senate previously passed a version of the legislation but now must consider it with the lower chamber's amendments.
The Associated Press noted that "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed similar legislation on Monday" and that Tennessee already has one on the books.
With his signature on Senate Bill 362, "Kemp's aim is to thwart future organizing attempts by workers at automotive plants in Georgia, such as those operated by Hyundai Motor Group," according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As the newspaper detailed:
Georgia has been a right-to-work state since 1947, when Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, allowing workers to refuse to join a union or pay dues, even though they may benefit from contracts negotiated by a union with their employer. Just 5.4% of workers in the state belonged to a union in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, protects the right for workers to form a union and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.
The new Georgia law is expected to be challenged in court, labor experts have said.
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su told the AP on Thursday that she is not sure if the department will challenge the laws, given the National Labor Relations Board's responsibilities, but she stressed that "there are federal standards beneath which no worker should have to live and work."
In terms of joining a union, "that choice belongs to the worker, free from intervention, either by the employer or by politicians, free from retaliation and threats," Su said. "And what we are seeing is that workers who were thought to be too vulnerable to assert that right are doing it, and they're doing it here in the South."
The U.S. labor chief also slammed "unacceptable" union-busting efforts by companies and suggested that protecting the right to unionize is part of President Joe Biden's "promise to center workers in the economy."
"He has said he's the most pro-worker, pro-union president in history, and we are going to make good on that promise. And that includes making sure that workers have the right to join a union," Su said of the president.
Biden's commitment to workers and unionizing rights has caught the attention of GOP leaders. The governors' joint statement nodded to the UAW's January endorsement of the president, who is seeking reelection in November, and South Carolina's leader attacked the administration earlier this year.
During his January State of the State speech, McMaster declared that "we will not let our state's economy suffer or become collateral damage as labor unions seek to consume new jobs and conscript new dues-paying members. And we will not allow the Biden administration's pro-union policies to chip away at South Carolina's sovereign interests. We will fight. All the way to the gates of hell. And we will win."
News From the States reported Friday that "of all the foreign-owned automakers in South Carolina, BMW would be the most likely mark in the near term if enough of its workers show interest. The massive plant near Greer—the manufacturer's only U.S. production facility—employs some 11,000 people, twice the number of workers at Volkswagen in Tennessee and Mercedes in Alabama. It has operated in the Upstate for nearly 30 years and is in the process of adding electric vehicle lines."
However, a UAW spokesperson told the outlet that they don't yet have the numbers for the BMW and Volvo facilities in the state, and Marick Masters, a Wayne State University professor who studies the union, said: "I don't think they're writing anybody off but they know the history of unionization. And I would say South Carolina is a very inhospitable place for unions."
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