Source: In These Times
by Hamilton Nolan
“Before she was Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice in New York City, before she was President Biden’s Labor Secretary in Washington D.C., even before she led California’s Labor Department, Julie Su had a long career as a civil rights attorney. It was in that role in 1995 that Su served as lead attorney in the El Monte Thai garment slavery case, which would lead to a landmark ruling in favor of 72 Thai nationals who had been enslaved in a sweatshop, winning them $4 million in stolen wages and legal status, and eventually leading to the creation of the ’T visa’ for victims of human trafficking. Su had successfully argued that manufacturers should be held liable for wage theft, part of a broader campaign around the El Monte case which Su has said, ’turned my life upside down and changed me forever.'” (03/11/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/julie-su-zohran-mamdani-thailand-new-york-city-union-labor-rights