Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer backed pro-labor legislation. So why did Trump nominate her to join his cabinet?
Confirmation hearings are now set for Feb. 19, 2025, for Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Chavez-DeRemer seems to be a departure from the more problematic cabinet nominees of the new Trump administration.
She seems pretty positive toward organized labor – especially for a Republican. Her selection suggests a move by the Trump administration to court organized labor, even while pushing policies that labor membership and other working Americans tend to oppose.
To be sure, Chavez-DeRemer does not have that much experience. She’s a one-term member of the House of Representatives from Oregon. She lost her reelection bid last fall.
But she also had support from some labor unions in her district, even if the Democratic candidate had more. When it comes to policy, she was one of only three Republican co-sponsors of the PRO Act, which aimed to make it easier for workers to form unions. She also supported another bill that would protect the social security of public sector workers also receiving a government pension.
A pro-labor track record
Compared to her GOP colleagues, in fact, Chavez-DeRemer stands out as one of the strongest advocates for labor in the Republican Party – but the bar is low. One measure worth noting is her AFL-CIO score of 10%. This means she sides with the policies of the AFL-CIO, representing a broad swath of the policy positions of America’s unions, 10% of the time. In comparison, the typical score for a Republican member of Congress is 6%. The average House Democrat scores 99% by the same measure.
The nomination of Chavez-DeRemer has led some analysts to suggest that Trump is trying to signal his willingness to work with organized labor and union members. However, as was the case when the president of the Teamsters spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, political alliances are made of more than signals. The Republican Party has long made it clear that it opposes the goals of unions, and unions themselves. A prototypical example of this stance was when President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike in 1981, seeking higher wages and shorter hours. So simply saying you support union workers is not enough when it is unclear what that support means in real terms.
In fact, there’s no evidence that the Trump administration has, or intends to have, a commitment toward organized labor, or the rights of U.S. workers. All of the evidence we have suggests the opposite.
Project 2025 takes aim at U.S. labor protections
The new administration has stuck closely to plans laid out in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint mapping out much of the new Trump administration’s policy moves. In labor policy, for example, Project 2025 outlines concrete ways to empower employers, and make it more difficult for workers to unionize. For workers, these sweeping changes emphasize ending mandatory overtime pay, a Biden administration ruling from April 2024; abolishing the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), the arm of the Department of Labor that plays a key role in keeping U.S. workers and workplaces safer; and allowing younger people to join the workforce. In each of these instances, employers would have more discretion to require workers to work for less pay, or possibly work under conditions that are more dangerous.
For unionization, Project 25 proposes banning “card check,” a mechanism to organize a union, as well as weakening (or eliminating) the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB determines whether a violation of labor law has occurred, and has significant expertise over complicated and technical laws. At present, because Trump illegally fired a board member of the NLRB, there aren’t enough members to form a quorum and actually meet. Typical courts lack both the time and the expertise to adequately weigh in on labor decisions – which, of course, may be the point.
What is Trump’s end goal on labor matters?
Chavez-DeRemer, thus, is poised to enter an administration that has clear, if chaotic, plans for the future of U.S. labor. As a press brief from the AFL-CIO suggested, it remains to be seen what she could do under such an anti-worker administration. There are also questions about why Trump selected Chavez-DeRemer in the first place. Was it to appear to be an ally to labor? Was it to give cover for new, more restrictive, labor policies? Did the nominee appear eager to take a U.S. Department of Labor in a new Trumpian direction, or ignore mass layoffs of federal employees?
Of course, the Trump administration is very much a personalistic regime. This leaves Chavez-DeRemer very little room to do as she wishes, if indeed she wanted to in the first place.
How will the hearing go?
Typically, in Senate confirmation hearings the nominee is confirmed. In the current Senate, Republicans have the votes to confirm nominees on their own. However, some of the new Trump nominees have faced sharp criticism for their lack of qualifications and antagonism toward their respective departments. Yet even the far more controversial nominees have made it through the confirmation process in the past month.
It’s possible that Chavez-DeRemer is too pro-labor for Senate Republicans like Rand Paul (R-Ky.). This could create tension within the GOP on how strongly to oppose organized labor.
We’ll see – Chavez-DeRemer will no doubt face tough questions from Democrats and Republicans alike in this week’s confirmation hearing.
Laura C. Bucci is a 2024-2025 Good Authority fellow.
The post What to make of Trump’s choice for labor secretary appeared first on Good Authority.