The prospect of former Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer becoming the new head of the Department of Labor (DOL) has confused and even riled some pro-business organizations.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chavez-DeRemer to serve as the next Secretary of Labor. This position will require her to enforce the laws that dictate how employers and employees behave in their work environments.
But pro-business organizations are not happy with this cabinet pick; many view Chavez-DeRemer as a union-friendly Republican who could thwart any efforts to roll back the many Biden-Harris pro-union efforts made over the last four years.
Chavez-DeRemer, who boasts that her father was a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has a strong relationship with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. Politico was the first to report that O’Brien was lobbying the Trump transition team to nominate Chavez-DeRemer by meeting with House Republicans in D.C. to talk with them about “working-class issues.”
O’Brien has been walking a tightrope between the Democratic and Republican parties. He was widely scorned this past summer for accepting an invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention. “Our GREAT convention will unify Americans and demonstrate to the nation’s working families [that] they come first,” then-candidate Trump said when O’Brien agreed to speak at the RNC.
“When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world. Sean, I look forward to seeing you represent the Teamsters in Milwaukee. Together we can Make America Great Again.”
O’Brien was the first Teamsters union president to ever speak at the RNC and countered his critics by saying that unions should be open to talking with both political parties. Now with the onset of another Trump presidency, the Teamsters president is heralding Trump’s pick of Chavez-DeRemer to serve as the Secretary of Labor. Statistica reports that only 46% of union households voted for Trump, but O’Brien appears to believe that with a DOL headed by Chavez-DeRemer, working-class issues will be heard. In a November 22 tweet, O’Brien wrote: “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for putting American workers first by nominating Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer for U.S. Labor Secretary. Nearly a year ago, you joined us for a
@Teamsters roundtable and pledged to listen to workers and find common ground to protect and respect labor in America. You put words into action. Now let’s grow wages and improve working conditions nationwide. Congratulations to @LChavezDeRemer on your nomination! North America’s strongest union is ready to work with you every step of the way to expand good union jobs and rebuild our nation’s middle class. Let’s get to work! #TeamsterStrong.”
So far, other labor union activists have been cautious about the Chavez-DeRemer pick. “Lori Chavez-DeRemer has built a pro-labor record in Congress, including as one of only three Republicans to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and one of eight Republicans to co-sponsor the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler acknowledged in a statement. “But Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States — not Rep. Chavez-DeRemer — and it remains to be seen what she will be permitted to do as Secretary of Labor in an administration with a dramatically anti-worker agenda. Despite having distanced himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, President-elect Trump has put forward several cabinet nominees with strong ties to the 900-page document that has proposals that would strip overtime pay, eliminate the right to organize, and weaken health and safety standards.
“The AFL-CIO will work with anyone who wants to do right by workers, but we will reject and defeat any attempt to roll back the rights and protections that working people have won with decades of blood, sweat, and tears. You can stand with working people, or you can stand with Project 2025, but you can’t stand with both.”
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tweeted that “[Chavez-DeRemer’s] record suggests real support of workers & their right to unionize. I hope it means the Trump admin will actually respect collective bargaining and workers’ voices from Teamsters to teachers.”
A statement from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) reports that Chavez-DeRemer has been pro-union but notes that if she becomes the DOL head, she would be working alongside other notorious Trump anti-union nominees. “Many of those nominees helped draft Project 2025, a handbook for the second Trump Administration, which proposes to allow management-run fake unions, repeal of overtime pay and minimum wage laws, elimination of health and safety standards, and abolishing the rights of public sector workers to join unions,” the CWA said. “[Elon] Musk has called for the wholesale elimination of federal regulations, including those that protect workers from abuse, exploitation, and harm.
“Promoting the welfare and rights of working and retired Americans is the central purpose of the U.S. Department of Labor. The two most recent labor secretaries, Marty Walsh, and Julie Su, have done an outstanding job advancing that mission. We are counting on Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to hold the line for working people and reject attempts by anti-worker extremists in the Trump Administration and Congress to enact Project 2025 and endanger workers’ livelihoods and lives.”
“The real issue here is, is she being set up to be Trump’s labor-hatchet person?” the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists’ Dwight Kirk told the Amsterdam News. “Because we know –– just by what he has said and what he did in his first term with the anti-worker people he appointed, the anti-worker policies that were pursued at the National Labor Relations Board and other places –– we already know what his inclination is.
“Having a person who has her kind of positive credentials doesn’t mean a whole lot if she doesn’t have the authority to pursue policies that are consistent with what she has voted for in the past as a member of Congress and with the backdrop of Project 2025,” Kirk added. “Also, I think Trump has made it very clear that he is going to be an ultra-advocate for the capitalist class and especially those who are ultra ultra-wealthy and they are not very hospitable to worker’s rights or anything that’s going to circumscribe their ability to extract the most profit and value from their workforce.
“So, it just kind of remains to be seen what her nomination and what her confirmation would actually mean in terms of labor policy. And Black people in particular should keep an eye on this.”
Right-to-work groups oppose Chavez-DeRemer
Trump followers and Republican Party supporters are upset about the Chavez-DeRemer choice. The pro-business Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) said the nominee’s vote for the PRO-Act showed that Chavez-DeRemer was more politically aligned with President Biden and left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders. “The PRO Act would deprive employees of their right to a secret ballot and their privacy in union representation elections,” CDW asserted. “It would also impose overly broad liability for ‘joint employment,’ limiting opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and create rigid standards for independent contractors, undermining workers’ ability to work independently.
“A Secretary of Labor should work to protect workers and employers’ rights and promote economic growth. Chavez-DeRemer’s support of the PRO Act raises legitimate concerns about her possible nomination. We hope President-elect Trump gives careful consideration to her past support of this anti-worker, anti-business legislation as he evaluates her candidacy.”
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) says Chavez-DeRemer’s support for the PRO-Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, enabling public service workers to collectively bargain, disqualify her for the role of labor secretary: “While it is hard to predict what she would do as a cabinet member, what we do know is not encouraging,” CEI wrote on its website. “In any event, cabinet secretary shouldn’t be a place for on-the-job training. Trump should keep on looking.
“The Labor Department was, in fact, one of the bright spots of the first Trump term. Any number of the veterans from that time, such as former Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia or Patrick Pizzella, who served prior to Scalia as acting secretary for a period, would be solid picks.”
And Mark Mix, president of the pro-business National Right to Work Committee, claims that “Chavez-DeRemer supports policies that go so far in the opposite direction that she would not be out of place in the Biden-Harris Department of Labor, which completely sold out to Big Labor from the start.”
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, the new chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said he will “need to get a better understanding of her support for Democrat legislation in Congress that would strip Louisiana’s ability to be a right-to-work state, and if that will be her position going forward.”