Photo by US Department of Labor on Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0: https://bit.ly/3ZPiUvR

A coalition of business associations in West Virginia and Arizona sent letters to their Senators on Wednesday, asking them to oppose the nomination of Julie Su for Secretary of Labor.

The letters to Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) express “alarm” over Su’s “anti-small business record” in her home state of California and at the federal level. The letters were signed by 17 local business associations across a wide variety of sectors including construction, trucking, retail, energy, franchising, manufacturing, and hospitality.

“Based on Ms. Su’s record in public service, we are deeply concerned about the potential of her leadership of the U.S. Department of Labor,” the organizations wrote. “During her time as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Ms. Su supported a devastating law known as A.B. 5 that threatens the livelihood of independent entrepreneurs and franchisees.”

Su’s AB 5 was deeply unpopular among Californians, with nine-in-ten of the state’s freelancers opposing the law. By a 17-point margin, Californian voters eventually approved a ballot referendum to allow sweeping exemptions for app-based rideshare and delivery drivers because the law was unworkable for the industry. If Su were allowed to bring a similar framework to the federal level, she would threaten the livelihoods of countless Americans and raise taxes on approximately 7.5 million workers.

“Additionally, as Deputy Secretary of Labor, Ms. Su has supported state legislation (A.B. 257) to empower an unelected board of government appointees to dictate the wages and working conditions of independently owned restaurants in California,” the organizations continued. “We are concerned that Ms. Su would seek to nationalize California’s harmful policies, harming independent workers that play a critical role in the [state’s] workforce.”

Despite Julie Su claiming at her Senate confirmation hearing today that she is a friend to small business, actual small businesses who would be impacted by her policies are adamantly opposed to her nomination.

Read the West Virginia letter here: https://www.atr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/WV-Letter-on-Su-nomination-April-2023.pdf

Read the Arizona letter here: https://www.atr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AZ-Letter-on-Su-nomination-April-2023.pdf