Labor advocates may not be dancing in the streets, but they at least seem to be emitting a small (very small) sigh of relief with the nomination of Lori Chávez-DeRemer for Secretary of Labor. I mean, it could have been much, much worse: think of other unemployed job-seekers like Kari Lake and Hershel Walker (remember him?). Former Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s CEO Andrew Puzder, who crashed and burned as Trump’s first term Labor Secretary nominee, was apparently also in the running.
Why the (very small) sigh of relief? Chávez-DeRemer has a fairly moderate record on labor issues, especially for a Republican. She actually co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act which would have made union organizing much easier, as well as the “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act” which would lower barriers for public safety workers to collectively bargain.
My sources on Capitol Hill tell me that she was mysteriously absent during many of the most anti-labor votes in the Education and Workforce Committee, chaired by anti-union, Communist-Under-Every-Democratic-Bed Virginia Foxx (R-NC).
But the main reason that she was nominated was undoubtedly her support from Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, Trump’s favorite union President. O’Brien, you may recall, had a prime speaking spot at the Republican National Convention, and then went on to endorse no one for President. Republicans made major lip service efforts this election to appeal to working class voters.
Chávez-DeRemer was a one-term Oregon Congresswoman who narrowly lost to Democratic state Rep. Janelle Bynum, despite endorsement by the local Teamsters, a United Food and Commercial Workers local and nine other local unions. (Her father was a Teamster.) The AFL-CIO gave her only a 10% score on her first (and only) term in Congress when assessing her voters “on issues important to working families.” She opposed bills that provided funding for Medicaid coverage and food assistance, and supported a bill that would have undermined unemployment insurance. (The AFL-CIO rating did not reflect her position on the PRO Act, because it never came to a vote.)
Proof in the Pudding
So, all of that is well and fine, but her past performance tells us less than nothing about what the future holds for the Trump administration’s support for, or war against workers’ rights and their safety in this country, nor the many laws enforced by the Department of Labor. Where will she stand on OSHA’s life-saving and much-needed heat standard, or standards covering infectious diseases and workplace violence? How hard will she crack down on child labor violators if those violators are friends of more powerful actors in the Trump administration? Will she fight against inevitable proposed cuts in the budgets of the Department of Labor, or OSHA or MSHA or the Wage and Hour administration? Where will she stand on the efforts by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to declare the NLRB unconstitutional?
Chávez-DeRemer’s past performance tells us less than nothing about what the future holds for workers in this country, or the laws enforced by the Department of Labor. Where will she stand on OSHA’s life-saving and much-needed heat standard, or standards covering infectious diseases and workplace violence?
And where will she stand on Schedule F, which would destroy civil service protections for federal employees? What are her positions on the anti-labor recommendations from Project 2025? On recommendations that small employers get a pass on a first OSHA citation, overtime protections, repealing the Davis-Bacon Act or making it easier for children to work hazardous jobs?
Although the Secretary of Labor doesn’t have any legal or political authority over the National Labor Relations Board or the fate of the PRO Act, in a perfect world the Secretary of Labor should be the Administration’s chief advocate for workers. Will she be that advocate?
Ultimately, of course, it doesn’t matter where she stands on all of these issues, but rather how subservient she will be to the MAGA ideologues in the White House. As AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said, “You can stand with working people, or you can stand with Project 2025, but you can’t stand with both.”
Even in the best of Democratic administrations, the Labor Department doesn’t carry a lot of weight in the White House when there is strong opposition to its initiatives from powerful White House staff or hostile Cabinet agencies. It’s hard to see her successfully fighting in the Cabinet Room or at OMB for stronger OSHA standards. At least not if she wants to keep her job.
And we haven’t even begun to discuss Elon and Vivek’s DOGE (Department of Government Elimination Efficiency) while likely will not find OSHA or any Department of Labor programs to be “efficient.” In a battle between Elon and Chávez-DeRemer, I know where I’d put my money.
Republican and Business Opposition
But it may not be smooth sailing for her confirmation. Inexperience, incompetence and sexual assault are clearly not disqualifiers for Trump’s Cabinet nominations, but being too close to labor may be. Especially if you endorsed the PRO Act.
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, the incoming Chair of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee which will hold the hearing on Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation, warned that “I 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.”
It could have been worse. We can hope that Chávez-DeRemer will side with labor on some issues, even if she never wins. But the appointment of a hard-line dedicated anti-labor ideologue who spends their time plotting and planning ways to weaken the labor movement and take away workers’ rights would have been worse.
On the other hand, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who has supported some labor-friendly legislation, called Chávez-DeRemer is a “great pick.” Hawley, however, doesn’t sit on the HELP Committee.
The New York Post reported that “President-elect Trump’s nomination for labor secretary is a “toxic” anti-conservative RINO with cozy ties to unions, outraged critics told The Post.”
“Rank and file labor was an important part of his coalition, but I don’t think [Chávez-DeRemer] is any good at all. People are very worried about her,” a person close to Trump said. “Business won’t like her, Chamber of Commerce won’t like her. This was not a great appointment.”
O’Brien thanked Trump Friday after the nomination “for putting American workers first by nominating Rep. Lori Chávez-DeRemer for US Labor Secretary.”
A GOP insider warned that her pro-union issues are certain to complicate her Senate confirmation. “There are going to be a lot of Republicans who can’t vote for this because it’s toxic for them,” the insider said. “The anti-right to work stuff. That is toxic for so many Republicans.”
Because the last thing you want is a pro-labor Secretary of Labor.
Some administration officials are trying to calm the business waters by reassuring opponents that the White House will appoint a Deputy Secretary of Labor more to their liking.
In Conclusion
The bottom line is that despite their strong support from the white working class, and increased support from workers 0f color, the Republican party — and especially the Trump administration — remain anti-worker and anti-labor at its core. And it’s extremely unlikely that Chávez-DeRemer will be able to change that.
Democrats on the HELP Committee must ask her direct questions about her support for DOL budgets, support for health and safety standard, workers rights and child labor. That will give us a feel for how strongly she will stand up to the anti-labor forces in the incoming administration.
The main “bright side” is that it could have been worse. We can hope that Chávez-DeRemer will side with labor on some issues, even if she never wins. But much worse would have been the appointment of a hard-line, dedicated anti-labor ideologue who spends every hour of their day plotting and planning ways to weaken the labor movement and take away workers’ rights.
And even if she doesn’t win the big battles (or any battles), a supportive “pro-labor” boss in a Republican Labor Department can raise the moral in the Department.
Those may be small things, but perhaps that’s all that we can hope for these days.
Jordan,
Not sure why you have any positive thoughts on this subject at all! She will be supervised by Elon Musk and Vivik. The Trumpers are focused on deregulation and OSHA is a regulator! Fair Labor Standards Act enforcement will go to hell quickly. A new NLRB General Counsel will be appointed, drowning all of the positive caselaw that has been floated over the past few years (joint employers; changes in representation rules, efforts to improve overtime provisions, etc.).
Singing in dark times, if any, will be singing about dark times (Brecht)!
P.
I fear you’re right. Just trying not to lose all hope. Never underestimate the potential for their incompetence and corruption to slow their backwards momentum.
Corruption and incompetence. Didn’t you and David Michaels totally wipe out great efforts of OSHA reform and Reinvention that began with Clinton, carried on by Bush and then wiped out by two guys whom never run or implemented a safety or health program for a union or a business in you lives. Wiped out OSHA partnerships, alliances between labor, government and industry. Wiped out “negotiated” Rulemaking. In addition, your cronies pushing fake science..,Labor good at that…. A paper mask would never prevent deadly biological or chemical exposures aka wuhan warfare. 6 feet rule, shut downs….that go against everything any safety & health practitioner or industrial hygienists were ever taught. “Hierarchy of Contols”. Your tenure at Labor destroyed relationships and good initiatives that brough labor industry and government together. That’s right, you worked for SnObama. The Administration that has helped to fund Genocide for the World Economic Forum UN Agenda 2030 Depopulation of the world. How come you aren’t talking about that effort Jordan, if you are so concerned about our working force, rather than throwing down as usual a bunch of caca. The Labor Dept, OSHA was used to deceive the masses and is pushing poisonous vaccines, Historically, OSHA does not push anything that violates human or civil rights nor does it suggest to the public what products to put in their bodies, Totally overstepping authority and intent of OSH Act. So per usual, your rants don’t help any thing. Our workforce, what’s left of it is already in a major state of confusion due to the media, political, and social propaganda, inflation and higher cost of everything. All due to your master’s policies and warmongering. So why don’t you go out and get a real job in workplace safety and health and show us all how successful you will be in managing a safety program for a company or contractor and the. You can come back and write all about your success in improving working people’s lives or prevented any losses. You talk a lot about safety but have you ever done it? Or implemented research worldwide that are saving lives?
Hey Carolyn. Thanks for writing. Sorry to see you’re so unhappy with the state of things. I’ll try to respond to some of your accusations, although I fear you’re so far off the rails with some of them that it’s hard to know where to start. Nevertheless, in the spirit of setting the record straight in case someone believes some of this, I’ll try to respond.
1. “Didn’t you and David Michaels totally wipe out great efforts of OSHA reform and Reinvention…Wiped out OSHA partnerships, alliances between labor, government and industry. Wiped out “negotiated” Rulemaking. “ No. OSHA “Reinvention” was gone way before we got there, and good riddance for a number of reasons I won’t go into there. We did not “wipe out” partnerships, alliances or negotiated rulemaking. We changed some of the rules to require union participation where there were unions, and stopped some alliances where they weren’t achieving their goals. Otherwise we were supportive. Never a fan of official “negotiated rulemaking” for a variety of reasons (including poor results), but the beryllium rule was based on a an agreement between the USW and Materion.
2. “major state of confusion due to the media, political, and social propaganda,” If you’re really concerned about the “major state of confusion due to the media, political, and social propaganda” in our country, look no further than our incoming President and his cult for the cause. And inflation, as I’m sure you understand, was a world-wide phenomena coming off of COVID and Trump’s catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic didn’t help matters, especially for workers. (And Inflation is way down, which I’m sure you’ve also noticed.)
3. The Labor Dept, OSHA was used to deceive the masses and is pushing poisonous vaccines:” Sorry Carolyn, with that and your “Snobama” and genocide references, you’re heading way into Conspiracy Theory country. If you think a vaccine that has saved millions of lives with very few serious side effects is poisonous, that’s your right, but it doesn’t comport with the facts and has no place here. As you may know if you’ve read my posts, I was never a fan of the “Test or Vaccinate” rule, or how it was structured. Nevertheless, just to set the record straight, there was no “vaccine mandate.” No one was required to get a vaccine. Only those who weren’t tested needed a vaccine.
4. Why don’t you go out why don’t you go out and get a real job in workplace safety and health? Well, a bit late for that. I’m happily retired. But I do point out to employers (and OSHA) when I identify obvious OSHA violations in my neighborhood when I walk the dogs. But to your point, I have enormous respect for qualified and dedicated health and safety professionals — and always had a very good relationship with them. But it takes all kinds in this business. Health and safety professionals do a great job when enlightened employers invite them in. But there are far too many employers who don’t invite them in, or can’t afford them or just don’t care about safety. (And, unfortunately politicians who don’t give a damn about who gets killed in the workplace.) That’s where a lot of my efforts are focused.
We’re facing extraordinarily dire times in this country, especially for workplace safety. I think my efforts (and hopefully yours) will be focused not only on making individual workplaces safer, but also on fighting politicians who are attempting to undermine workers’ fundamental right to a safe workplace. Both are important.
So always glad to hear from readers and debate the facts, or strategies to keep workers alive and healthy, even when they disagree with me. But please try to stay away from the conspiracy theories and myths. There’s no place for that here. That’s why God created Twitter (or X or whatever….”)
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