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Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, as 2023 comes to a close, I rise to mark a year of historic progress for working people in our country.

Since President Biden took office, we have created more than 14 million jobs, including 1.5 million jobs created in manufacturing, construction, and engineering. Meanwhile, unemployment has been under 4 percent for 22 months in a row--the longest stretch in over 50 years. And, across the country, we are seeing the labor movement reclaim its strength.

After decades of declining union membership, working people are coming together to demand their fair share of the economic success our country is experiencing--success they make possible. None of this is happening by accident. These victories are thanks, in large part, to the commitment of the Biden-Harris administration and, to give credit where credit is due, to the work of Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su.

Since assuming the top role at the Labor Department earlier this year, Acting Secretary Su has played a critical role in supporting workers and finding consensus to move our economy forward. In June, just months after taking over the Department, she helped avert a potentially disastrous strike at ports all along the west coast. Had major ports come to a screeching halt, our country would have experienced massive supply chain disruptions, costing our economy billions of dollars. Such a shutdown would have been particularly chaotic for Hawaii, where the vast majority of our goods is shipped to the State.

Gene Seroka, the director of the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port in the country, said Julie was ``a constant and reassuring voice of reason that has helped to keep both sides at the bargaining table and focused on resolution.''

In October, Acting Secretary Su helped settle a labor dispute between Kaiser Permanente and nearly 75,000 of its union employees who staged the largest healthcare strike in our Nation's history. After weeks of bargaining, Kaiser and its employees had failed to reach an agreement, endangering the care they provided to millions of Americans across our country. At the invitation of both parties, Acting Secretary Su flew to California to sit at the bargaining table and encourage both sides to continue talking in good faith. To help bridge the gap between labor and management and keep the lines of communication open, Acting Secretary Su was regularly moving from room to room, serving as a critical liaison in the negotiations.

With her help, Kaiser workers reached a historic deal that included a record 21-percent wage increase over 4 years. Both sides agreed she was critical to reaching a deal, with the union calling her support ``instrumental'' and Kaiser's senior vice president of labor relations saying that Julie was ``able to get us to articulate where we have commonalities, not about a particular package, but about our interests in the employees, and in healthcare.''

That is what Julie does. She helps people find common ground, setting workers, businesses, and our economy up for success.

But, even after that historic success, many continue to doubt Acting Secretary Su's acumen, with one labor economist going so far as to question her skills as a mediator. Let's face it: It is not unusual for so-called experts to question the leadership qualities of women, with little evidence to substantiate their criticisms.

In spite of her detractors, just weeks later, Julie Su helped mediate a truly historic deal between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three auto companies, resolving the most significant auto strike in modern American history. Like Kaiser workers, with Acting Secretary Su's support, autoworkers secured a transformational contract--a contract that will see UAW salaries rise more in the next 4 years than they have in the previous 20.

Shawn Fain, the newly elected UAW president, showed his mettle in these negotiations as the country watched. Significantly, he, too, praised Julie Su's leadership, citing her work to build trust between labor and management and encouraging them to focus on their shared goals.

In addition to these and many other settled labor disputes, Acting Secretary Su is leading major initiatives to make life better for working people in our country and grow the middle class--from expanding overtime protections to strengthening apprenticeships and work training programs and much more.

Julie Su's work speaks for itself. She listens; she finds consensus; and she helps those around her stay the course for as long as it takes. What more could we ask of a Secretary of Labor?

Still, there are those who question Julie's ability to do the job, either ignoring or willfully dismissing her track record of successes. To be blunt: Sexism, racism, and double standards applied to women of color are all too common in spite of their denials all around. Julie Su has been doing the job of the Secretary of Labor for months, and she has been doing it well. But still, some of our colleagues cling to baseless criticisms, insisting she is unfit to serve. It is unfair to Acting Secretary Su and to the millions of workers whose lives she has helped to improve. Like the committed public servant she is, Julie perseveres, focusing on the important work of her Department.

Along with millions of working people all across our country, I am grateful for all she and the Biden-Harris administration have done for workers, businesses, and our economy. This administration and Acting Secretary Su understand that workers are the force that keeps our country moving forward. With their continued leadership, I look forward to more wins for workers and our economy in the years ahead.

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