WASHINGTON—Trade unions offered mixed reactions to Republican President-Elect Donald Trump’s most recent two Cabinet nominees: Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., who lost her re-election bid to a labor-endorsed Democratic state lawmaker in an anti-MAGA tide in Oregon, and retired Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., the second Fox “News” commentator Trump wants in his Cabinet.
In general, reviews for Chavez-DeRemer to be Labor Secretary were more positive, but with the caveat that despite her pro-worker views and votes—unusual for a congressional Republican in this era—worker policy will be crafted by Trump ideologues in the White House, not at the Labor Department.
Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three Republicans in the House to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions. She was also one of the eight GOP House members to support public sectors workers’ right to organize on the job.
The Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, issued a statement saying, “While her support for these labor reforms is encouraging, if Chavez-DeRemer is confirmed, she will be Secretary of Labor for a president who steadfastly pursued an ambitious anti-worker agenda during his first term in office.”
Chavez-DeRemer has claimed “working-class Americans finally have a lifeline” with Trump in the White House, but the EPI argued that “if workers truly have an ally in Chavez-DeRemer, she will advance policies that improve workers’ lives,” like protecting overtime pay, funding the Department of Labor, and ensuring health and safety in the workplace by shielding OSHA from MAGA attacks.
Trump administration labor policy, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler warned, will draw on the heavily anti-worker Trump campaign platform, a.k.a. Project 2025. That’s the tome of radical right schemes to disassemble government and concentrate power in presidential hands, written by ideologues marshalled by the corporate-backed Heritage Foundation.
Already analysts and prospective Trump officials predict policy and pronouncements, especially in executive orders which don’t need congressional approval, will spew out of the White House in the next four years. And not just on labor and workers’ issues.
But it’ll be up to agencies, under Cabinet officers’ direction, to implement the manifestoes—while Trump and his deconstructionist team of corporate plutocrats Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy carry out the capitalist class’s demands for government and regulatory destruction.
Former lawmaker Duffy drew more flak. Though he voted more often with labor—20% of the time—in his eight years in Congress from western Wisconsin than Chavez-DeRemer did in her one term (10%), his stands against key pro-worker legislation were strident, said the one group that extensively reviewed his record, Railroad Workers United. The rank-and-file organization of workers from all rail crafts criticized Duffy’s high-profile anti-worker rhetoric and votes.
The two nominations almost round out Trump’s proposed cabinet. The incoming president from Florida, who is also a convicted felon in his native New York, was already forced to withdraw one high-profile nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who was under House investigation for money laundering, child sex trafficking, and other crimes. Trump replaced Gaetz with fellow Floridian Pam Bondi, one of his lawyers during his Senate impeachment trials.
“Lori Chavez-DeRemer has built a record in Congress” on the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, Shuler noted, “but Donald Trump is the president-elect, not Rep. Chavez-DeRemer. 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.”
This wouldn’t be the first time a Republican White House handed down policy and personnel diktats on labor issues.
When Elaine Chao became George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor in 2001, reporters asked her after she addressed her first—and only—-AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, if she would take a position on a specific labor issue. “That’s above my pay grade,” Chao replied.
During Trump’s first term, at his—and his Heritage staffers’—demand, Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin forced the U.S. Postal Service board to hire right-wing Republican donor Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General. DeJoy’s first campaign contribution decades ago went to ultra-racist Sen. Jesse Helms. The Heritage ideologues’ aim is to privatize the USPS and turn it, and its revenue, over to Wall Street. Since his takeover, DeJoy and his corporate cronies slowed down first-class mail, and they plan to do it again, the Postal Workers union has warned.
Such White House control prompted Shuler’s warning about how much clout Chavez-DeRemer would have.
“Despite having distanced himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, President-elect Trump put forward several Cabinet nominees with strong ties to Project 2025. That 900-page document has proposals that would strip overtime pay, eliminate the right to organize, and weaken health and safety standards,” she said.
“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 working people 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.”
Laborers President Brent Booker was cautious about the White House’s role in directing a DOL headed by Chavez-DeRemer but said his union “hopes to see Chavez-DeRemer defend recent strides workers have made, including strengthened prevailing wage rules, OSHA enforcement, and tough penalties for employers who exploit and steal from workers.” Project 2025 stands in the way of all of those priorities.
The Laborers are “determined to stand in the way of anyone who would try to rollback our wages, benefits, and rights as we are committed to working with anyone who will work with us to protect and strengthen what we have won over decades of advocacy,” Booker concluded.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer and validated Trump to a prime-time television audience, predictably praised Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination.
In an op-ed in Compact, O’Brien he called her “the exact type of champion for the American worker Republicans should get behind if they are serious about becoming the working-class party.” He pushed her nomination to head DOL.
Ironically, Chavez-DeRemer’s stands on the two bills Schuler referenced draw opposition from the extreme right, led by the corporate-funded National Right to Work Committee. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who will unseat pro-worker independent Bernie Sanders as Labor Committee chair in the coming GOP Senate takeover, wants to know if Chavez-DeRemer will keep backing the PRO Act or come to her right-wing senses.
For Railroad Workers United, there are no doubts about where Transportation Secretary nominee Duffy stands when it comes to fighting for workers.
In Congress, “Duffy consistently opposed measures beneficial to labor rights and worker protections. His voting record includes opposition to increasing the federal minimum wage, enhancing workplace safety regulations, and expanding collective bargaining rights.
“Duffy’s alignment with corporate interests over worker welfare suggests a potential continuation of policies that may undermine the rights and well-being of rail workers. His lack of direct experience in transportation policy further exacerbates concerns about his ability to effectively address the complex challenges facing the rail industry.
“The appointment of a Transportation Secretary with a history of opposing labor-friendly legislation necessitates a unified and steadfast response to ensure the voices of rail workers are heard and their interests are prioritized in the corridors of power.”
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