Issued December 15, 2021
December 15, 2021 – Today, SEIU members celebrate the Senate’s vote to confirm Jennifer Sung as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jennifer Sung has dedicated her career to protecting and defending the rights of workers and unions. Before law school, she worked as an organizer with SEIU Locals 74 and 1199 UHE, helping workers build their unions. As an attorney, Jennifer Sung represented unions and workers in a range of sectors, from factory and fast food workers to nursing home and home care workers, nurses, and teachers. Most recently, Judge Sung served on the Oregon Employee Relations Board.
Working people have been on the frontlines during the pandemic, and have made a clear demand of corporations and elected leaders: respect us, protect us, pay us. The confirmation of Jennifer Sung is a victory for these essential workers, who need and deserve federal judges who understand their experiences and will protect their rights at work.
While we celebrate this confirmation we also know that there continue to be too few judges currently serving on the bench with experience representing working people. American workers have been—and remain—the targets of a long-running, coordinated, and well-funded effort to strip them of their union rights. We need more judges who understand workers and their struggles!
We hope that Judge Jennifer Sung will be the first of many exceptional worker’s rights advocates that President Biden nominates, and the Senate confirms, to the federal bench.