Literally no one cares what the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce thinks about a President Biden cabinet nomination, but the chamber just released a statement in support of the nomination of Julie Su for U.S. Labor Secretary anyway.
Here’s the statement which popped into my email: “The L.A. Area Chamber Board voted to support the nomination of Julie Su for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. Ms. Su has a distinguished career of being an innovative and inclusive leader. She has strengthened relationships with employers and deepened collaboration for better results. As Deputy Secretary she understands the important work ahead. We enthusiastically support her nomination.”
Julie Su, if you remember, was the former California Labor Secretary. In that capacity, she did absolutely stellar work overseeing the Employment Development Department.
Oh wait: “On Su’s watch the EDD sent more than $31 billion in unemployment claims to prison inmates in California, out of state, and even out of the country. Su confirmed that in 2020 alone, fraudsters stole at least $11.4 billion in California unemployment benefits. As it happens, fraud was not a new problem at EDD.”
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Then there’s Julie Su’s history of support for and enforcement of the job-destroying Assembly Bill 5.
Last week, the Independent Drivers Association sent a letter to senators warning them, “We are concerned that Ms. Su would continue to pursue an ideologically motivated agenda toward worker classification that ignores the thousands of small-business truckers who depend on the ability to work as an independent contractor. Make no mistake, if Ms. Su were to advance the same policies that she championed in California, it would force hundreds of thousands of truckers to change their business model and put their livelihood in jeopardy.”
That is how a business group should be talking.
But not the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Already politically toothless in Los Angeles, they’ve issued a gibberish statement for the appearance of influence. If that’s the vision of the local business group, no wonder Los Angeles has so many problems.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com