Labor of love

With the nomination of Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su to replace outgoing Secretary Marty Walsh in the top job, President Biden has selected a capable leader to guide the department at a pivotal moment. The position of labor secretary has of course long been a key one, but it is a role that by necessity must evolve for the contemporary era, concerning itself ever more with recent and coming convulsions in the very definitions of labor and productivity.

As acting secretary, ideally losing the “acting” after a deserved Senate confirmation, Su will take the helm at a time when scenarios once relegated to sci-fi — the real-time automatic monitoring of employees, artificial intelligence bosses with the power to reprimand and even fire, mega-firms buying entire swaths of industries with a view towards data-driven cost-cutting — are looking all too real.

Her tasks will encompass regulating employer-employee dynamics that might look very different than they have in years past, in industries that didn’t exist a few years ago and might not yet exist today. That means being a visible and assertive labor secretary, not one passively responding to the changes as they come but actively taking positions to cultivate the United States’ greatest asset — its workforce — and help smooth the transitions to new industries and economic models while cutting down on exploitation and massive inequality.

For that, she will surely be called an innovation-stifler or what have you, but neither Su nor the larger administration should let such inane taunts compromise her mission. Despite some grumbling to the contrary, economies generally do better when workers are afforded some security and the benefits of increased productivity.

This doesn’t mean that she should be reflexively on the side of stultified or wasteful labor organizations — and there is plenty of featherbedding out there — but should be aware of the reasons why unionization is on the rise, and help craft a regulatory environment where workers are empowered whether or not they make the choice to organize their workplaces.