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California ranks at or near the bottom of countless economic indicators. But one list they are near the top of is out-migration. More than 500,000 people have moved out of California over the last two years, driven away by bad public policy that invariably puts the interests of organized labor above those of workers, small businesses and the economy as a whole.
California labor law is by any measure an abject failure, but on Thursday, April 20, the U.S. Senate is beginning consideration of taking that failed model national when President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Labor, Julie Su, comes before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Su previously served as California secretary of labor prior to joining the Biden Administration in 2021.
The Senate should reject Su, and Congress should pursue a better path forward, laid out in the Employee Rights Act by South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott and Georgia Republican Rep. Rick Allen.
BIDEN'S PICK TO LEAD LABOR DEPARTMENT A LEADING PROPONENT OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY
As California labor secretary, Su championed and enforced Assembly Bill 5, which instituted a convoluted and unworkable test to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or a traditional employee.
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 01: U.S. President Joe Biden links arms with Julie Su, his nominee to be the next Secretary of Labor during an event in the East Room of the White House March 1, 2023. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
AB 5 wrought havoc in the state by depriving tens of thousands of freelance workers the independent status and entrepreneurial opportunity they cherish. It created confusion about employment status for countless more, as hundreds of industries have sought exemptions from the law. It also has exacerbated supply chain issues due to California’s importance as a major shipping and delivery hub.
Freelancing has grown significantly in recent years, particularly through the pandemic. Today, more than 70 million Americans work as independent contractors, and federal data shows that the vast majority enjoy their independent status over traditional employment.
That is why Scott and Allen just introduced legislation to ensure that independent contracting is protected by federal law from bureaucrats like Su at the Department of Labor or the National Labor Relations Board who want to regulate it out of existence. The Employee Rights Act will protect joint-employment relationships like franchising and subcontracting, which are also under attack from Biden’s regulators.
In California, Su supported "sectoral bargaining" that allows a panel of bureaucrats to determine wages, working conditions, and other factors for every single business across an industry. She even created an armed labor police force and bragged about plans to arrest employers for violations of state labor code.
The Employee Rights Act codifies protections for union workers where regulators tilt the playing field in favor of union leadership.
The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), appointed by Biden, has urged the board to follow the lead of House Democrats’ so-called "PRO" Act. That will functionally do away with secret ballot elections for union organizing, allowing unions to be certified by "card check" in which workers can be pressured to vote on the union directly in the presence of union organizers.
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The PRO Act also mandates that workers’ personal information like home address and cellphone number be given to union organizers without employee consent, and the NLRB recently shortened the timeframe in which they must do so. Testifying in favor of the PRO Act in 2019, former AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that unions need this information to confront workers "at their home" and "at the grocery store."
By contrast, the Employee Rights Act allows workers to decide for themselves whether their personal information is shared with unions and makes it unlawful for unions to misuse this data.
In California, Su supported "sectoral bargaining" that allows a panel of bureaucrats to determine wages, working conditions, and other factors for every single business across an industry. She even created an armed labor police force and bragged about plans to arrest employers for violations of state labor code.
These protections ensure that workers’ representation at work is selected the same way as their representation in Congress — by secret ballot free from intimidation.
The Employee Rights Act requires unions to receive permission from employees before using their union dues for political purposes or ideological causes. Since 2010, unions have spent nearly $2 billion in member dues on progressive political causes without receiving prior consent from employees.
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These employee protection provisions enjoy overwhelming support from the American people, including union households, yet in 2021 the Biden administration rescinded a Department of Labor rule that allowed workers greater transparency to see how union leaders were spending dues.
Given her track record in California, it has become abundantly clear that Su would not only continue the Biden administration’s trend of bad labor policy but significantly accelerate it in even more radical ways. American workers simply cannot afford for that to happen, which is why the Senate should reject her nomination for secretary of labor and Congress should pass the Employee Rights Act.
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