New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D.) on Friday announced that former U.S. acting labor secretary Julie Su, who presided over mass welfare fraud as California labor secretary, will join the New York City government as the city’s first deputy mayor for economic justice.
"Welcome to a New Era, Julie Su!" Mamdani wrote on X. "As former U.S. secretary of labor, Julie played a central role in fighting for workers, ensuring a just day’s pay for a hard day’s work and saving the pensions of more than a million union workers and retirees."
Su, who served as former president Joe Biden’s acting labor secretary for two years, has been controversial since her time overseeing California’s Employment Development Department, where she presided over an estimated $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment payouts. During the state’s pandemic lockdowns, Su froze checks on unemployment claims and failed to stop payments to suspicious accounts, leading to an estimated $31 billion in fraudulent payouts. Her tenure left California’s unemployment insurance fund in a nearly $20 billion hole.
The officials Mamdani has tapped to staff his government have been highly controversial. On Thursday, one of his appointees, Catherine Almonte De Costa, resigned after a series of anti-Semitic social media posts she made were unearthed in which she ranted about "money hungry Jews" and defunding NYPD "piggies." In 2012, she also declared that "Far Rockaway train is the Jew train." She deleted the posts on Thursday after the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey demanded accountability.
During Su’s confirmation as U.S. labor secretary, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) questioned Su’s competence in light of the fraud that occurred under her watch. "Julie Su has an extensive record of partisan activism and promoting policies that undermine workers to the benefit of politically connected labor unions," Cassidy said. "A qualified Secretary of Labor needs to successfully handle negotiations, manage a department properly, and refrain from partisan activism. I haven’t seen evidence of Julie Su’s ability to do any of those three things."
When asked about Su’s history, Mamdani said, "I’m aware of the deputy mayor’s record, and I’m very excited to have her."
"I can say that in looking at our deputy mayor’s record and looking at how she stood up for workers across the country, it is a moment of incredible excitement for myself and the entire team to have her," Mamdani said.
