Su has what it takes to be secretary of Labor

A Senate confirmation vote is looming on the nomination of acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to assume the cabinet post of secretary of Labor. A frequent criticism of the nominee seems to be a perception of a lack of experience in handling complex issues and labor negotiations.

As the leader of the nation’s busiest container port and someone who has worked with Su on some of this country’s most challenging labor issues, I find that assessment to be uninformed. 

I’ve known Julie Su since 2019, when she was the newly appointed secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. At the time, we had a conflict in the port community over the introduction of autonomous equipment on the docks. With workers taking to the streets in protest, the port community needed help.

Su fully engaged on this issue. We spoke often with her, as did the leaders of the union, the employers and other stakeholders. While hers was an unofficial voice in the proceedings, her impact was important and she played a vital role in bringing all parties to a successful agreement.  

That wasn’t the only time we benefitted from Julie Su’s experience and insight. As California’s Labor secretary, she and her team worked with us to develop innovative training programs to help young Californians develop meaningful careers in the port. She also supported our vision to build the nation’s first goods movement training campus at the port. 

When the events of the 2020 pandemic created a global supply chain crisis, the Port of Los Angeles became an international symbol of the challenges we all faced. With more than a hundred ships anchored offshore waiting to unload, with trucks and trains onshore overwhelmed with the surge of imports, and with inland warehouses filled to overflowing, we became the focal point of efforts to restore function to a strained U.S. supply chain. 

We had high-profile visits from President Biden and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, and right with them was Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su. She helped engage port authorities, labor unions, trucking companies and drivers, and the private sector in creating solutions. With her help, we focused on the best outcomes for the U.S. economy as well as the women and men employed in moving goods in and out of the country.

More recently, during ongoing labor negotiations between dockworkers and terminal management, Su has been a constant and reassuring voice of reason that has helped to keep both sides at the bargaining table and focused on resolution. 

Across the Los Angeles region, one in nine jobs — nearly one million — are connected to the Port. More than 200,000 companies depend on us. We reach importers and exporters in every congressional district in every state in the Union.

Today, the Port of Los Angeles plays an outsized role in the national economy. To make this complex logistics system work smoothly, the port depends on many stakeholders, including the thousands of men and women who work in and around our docks. 

There’s nothing partisan in the idea that we need to help working Americans build a decent quality of life, any more than saying it’s partisan to want employers to be profitable and build our economy. At a time when inflation and cost-of-living pressures make it harder for America’s middle class to feel like they are making it, and supply chain challenges make it harder for American companies to compete globally, we need to make sure that everyone who works in and relies on our national goods movement industry is moving ahead.

For years, Su has helped the Port of Los Angeles and the country at large do just that. She is a consensus-builder whose impact has played out in real time throughout the supply chain industry. 

For these reasons among others, no one is better suited, nor better qualified than Julie Su for the job of secretary of Labor. 

Gene Seroka has served as executive director of the Port of Los Angeles for nine years. He has more than three decades of experience in the maritime industry and has held leadership positions across the globe in addition to his work in the United States. He has served on four federal committees focused on enhancing the speed, efficiency, and resiliency of the U.S. supply chain.