In August 1995, federal agents broke down the doors to a garment sweatshop in El Monte, Calif. What they found was horrific: 72 Thai workers, almost all women, forced to work 18-hour days in a small room with boarded up windows. They earned 2 cents per pocket. By the time the agents closed the sweatshop, some had worked there for years.
When prosecutors won convictions against those who ran the shop, many saw a case closed—a terrible wrong made right. Julie Su saw a fight that was just beginning.
Su was a young, first-generation lawyer with immigrant parents. She saw human beings in limbo: women who spoke little English, didn’t have jobs and were far from family. She knew real justice wasn’t only putting those responsible behind bars. It was supporting the workers who had been ruthlessly exploited and taking on the entire system that did it to them.
She led an historic case against the clothing companies, winning more than $4 million in back wages. She helped the workers get visas to remain in the United States and aided many in finding fair jobs. It is a study in what leadership looks like: someone who wouldn’t stop until the powerful were held accountable and the vulnerable were supported.
Years later, that same leader is in a fight we need to help win. After the departure of her predecessor, Marty Walsh, Su is the acting secretary of labor—and as President Biden’s...
For the past several months, a coordinated digital campaign has targeted community archivists in Bangladesh who document and preserve audiovisual material related to the July 2024 Student-People’s...