It’s not pro-worker to be pro-union. Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer failed to understand that and lost reelection. Don’t reward her with a cabinet post.
Politico reports that Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R., Ore.) is Teamsters president Sean O’Brien’s choice for secretary of labor, and O’Brien is said to have met with Republicans on the Hill on Tuesday. Chavez-DeRemer would be a poor choice for Trump, and not only because she’s O’Brien’s choice.
Chavez-DeRemer is one of only three House Republicans to have supported the PRO Act, which has near unanimous support among Democrats and is the top legislative priority of organized labor. Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, led by Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (N.C.), have castigated it as the “Pro-Union Bosses Act.”
The bill would have the effect of overturning the right-to-work laws on the books in 27 states, most of them Republican-governed. It would curtail independent contracting, along the lines of California’s A.B. 5, and franchising. It would give union organizers greater access to workers’ personal information and remove their right to a secret-ballot election for unionization. It’s organized labor’s last gasp at political relevance in an economy where 94 percent of private-sector workers aren’t union members, following decades of decline that even the most ardent media cheerleading cannot reverse.
It’s not as though congressional Republicans don’t have an alternative. The Employee Rights Act would protect secret-ballot elections, independent contracting, and franchising and prohibit union intimidation and the collection of personal information, while continuing to allow states to enact right-to-work laws. It has 84 Republican co-sponsors, and the latest two were added within the last week.
Yet rather than support that bill that would build on conservative labor-policy successes, Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three Republicans who supported the PRO Act instead.
Did her anti-conservative stance on labor policy at least help her politically? Nope. She only served one term in the House before losing reelection this year.
It’s no surprise that O’Brien supports her. He has made the PRO Act a litmus test for political candidates, and it would make his life as a union president much easier if it became law. The secretary of labor can’t pass a law, of course, but he or she can issue regulations and guidance that could effectively enact portions of the PRO Act.
Trump should feel no obligation to O’Brien, who, despite commissioning two polls that both showed a majority of his members supported Trump for president, refused to endorse Trump in the election. Nearly all of the Teamsters’ political spending is on Democrats and left-wing advocacy. Contrary to their working-class image, one of the Teamsters’ fastest-growing local unions represents higher-education workers in California, while truck drivers have been voting to decertify the union.
Trump’s instincts defending right-to-work have been solid. He needs to nominate a secretary of labor who agrees with him on that, not someone who supported legislation that would undermine it. Other rumored possible nominees, such as Trump’s first-term deputy secretary Patrick Pizzella or Virginia labor secretary Bryan Slater, would be better choices.
It’s not pro-worker to be pro-union. Lori Chavez-DeRemer failed to understand that and lost reelection. Don’t reward her with a cabinet post on Sean O’Brien’s recommendation.