Former Oregon Congress-woman Lori Chavez-DeRemer appeared to be heading for confirmation as President Donald Trump’s labor secretary as this issue went to press March 4. But her answers under questioning in a two-hour Senate confirmation hearing may have put to rest any hopes that she’ll break the mold and be a workers’ rights crusader in a Republican administration. 

In her two years in Congress representing Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District, Chavez-DeRemer stuck out as a Republican who worked to cultivate relationships with unions. She even co-sponsored union-backed legislation like the PRO Act, a bill to make it easier for workers to unionize. But Chavez-DeRemer lost re-election to Democrat Janelle Bynum last November. And in her Feb. 19 Senate confirmation hearing, she repeatedly walked back her support for the PRO Act.

In the hearing before the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor, Pensions) Committee, Democrats pushed her for commitments on workers’ rights, and asked over and over if she would defy Trump if he asked her to do something illegal. Republicans, meanwhile, made it clear that her past support for the PRO Act was a problem if she wanted their votes to confirm her appointment. With some Republicans pledging to vote against her for being too pro-union, Chavez-DeRemer tried to play it safe by dodging question after question.

“Yes or no, do you still support the PRO Act?” asked Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who made it clear he fiercely opposes it.

Chavez-DeRemer replied that it’s up to Congress to write the laws, and she’s no longer in Congress. The bill was imperfect, she said, but representing Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District, she said, she wanted to be “at that table.”

“I respect the right of the right-to-work states,” she added.

The PRO Act is considered to be organized labor’s top-priority legislation. It passed the House in 2020 and again in 2021 when it was under Democratic control, but those lawmakers knew it didn’t have support to pass in the Senate. If it ever passes both chambers and is signed by the president, the PRO Act would be a game-changing pro-union reform of federal labor law. It would ban mandatory anti-union meetings, impose fines on employers who fire workers for supporting a union, ban permanent replacement of strikers, and require binding arbitration if union and employer can’t agree on a first contract. It would require employers to recognize a union when a majority of workers signed union cards, instead of giving them a chance to delay and defeat the union by insisting on an election. It would remove the right of so-called “right to work” states to ban any union contract that requires workers to pay union dues. It would end the ban on sympathy strikes and make it legal for unions to boycott businesses for selling scab-made goods. It would narrow the definition of independent contractors so employers couldn’t get out of recognizing a union. And it would make franchisers jointly responsible with franchisees for respecting workers rights.

In the 2023-2024 Congress, Chavez-DeRemer was one of just three Republicans to co-sponsor the PRO Act. But at her confirmation hearing, she wouldn’t say if she still supports it, and under questioning she disavowed piece after piece of it.  

The PRO Act’s joint employer rule would harm franchisees, Cassidy said. Chavez-DeRemer replied that she didn’t support the joint employer rule. The PRO Act would harm independent contractors, Cassidy said. Chavez-DeRemer said she supports independent contractors, that the PRO Act wasn’t perfect, and “these are the conversations that we needed to be having.”

“The PRO Act is designed to prevent illegal behavior on the part of employers, so that workers can make a free choice,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). “Do you support the PRO Act?”

“I support the American worker,” Chavez-DeRemer answered.

“I’m gathering that you no longer support the PRO Act,” Sanders replied.

Later, when Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) criticized the PRO Act for eliminating right-to-work, Chavez-DeRemer said she doesn’t support that aspect of the law. When Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the PRO Act would eliminate secret-ballot union elections, Chavez-DeRemer said she did not support that either.

What about the federal minimum wage? The federal minimum wage is the only minimum wage in 20 states and has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for 16 years. Does Chavez-DeRemer support raising it? She wouldn’t say, saying that’s up to Congress to decide.

Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) pointed out that the Trump administration is refusing to spend money that Congress has appropriated, including for programs in the Department of Labor. 

“If you receive a directive to violate appropriations laws and withhold funding for workers, what will you do?” Murray asked.

Chavez-DeRemer said she’d follow the law, and doesn’t believe the president would ask her to break the law.

Her answers in the hearing splashed cold water on initial hopes that Chavez-DeRemer might signal a new direction after mostly anti-union appointments in Trump’s first term.

Adam Shah is national policy director for the labor-backed workers’ rights nonprofit Jobs with Justice, and formerly worked in the Labor Department’s civil rights division. Shah was at first intrigued by Trump’s nomination of Chavez-DeRemer, given her pro-union reputation. Polls show public support for unions at the highest level in 60 years, and Trump and others have shown interest in cementing gains Republicans have made with working class voters. Maybe in his second term, Trump would break with the Republican party’s past hostility to unions?

Shah says that hope was immediately dashed when the president tapped anti-union billionaire Elon Musk to lead a purge of the federal workforce — and those cuts extended to already understaffed agencies within the Department of Labor.

“They aren’t going to allow a secretary of labor to take pro-union and pro-worker policies, even if she was inclined to,” Shah told the Labor Press. And she may not even be inclined to, based on her answers in the hearing, Shah said.

“I was left very worried that she will not stand up for workers when there’s a conflict between that and what either Donald Trump or Elon Musk want her to do.”

Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination was opposed by the fanatically anti-union National Right to Work Committee and had support from several unions, including the Teamsters, American Federation of Government Employees, and the Transport Workers Union. 

After the hearing, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said in a press statement that he wouldn’t be voting for her: “As a proud supporter of the PRO Act,” Wyden said, “I took special note of Lori Chavez DeRemer’s bizarre disavowal today of her previous support for this vital legislation. Her reversal is blatantly anti-worker and calls into question whether she’d be anything more than another tool of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”

“What we need,” said Sanders before his committee vote against her, “is a Secretary of Labor who is going to stand up and say we are going to take on powerful special interests, we are going to stand with the working class of this country. Unfortunately … Lori Chavez-DeRemer is not that person.”

The Feb. 27 HELP Committee vote was 14-9 to advance her nomination. One Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted no. And three Democrats voted yes: Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), and Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire). 

What exactly is a labor secretary?

Since 1913, U.S. presidents have had a “secretary of labor” as part of their cabinet. Like other cabinet members, the secretary of labor is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and oversees an executive agency, in this case the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). With over 16,000 full-time employees and an annual budget of about $15 billion, the DOL is responsible for enforcing federal labor laws and administering federal labor programs. It has as many as two dozen sub-agencies. Here are some of the most important.

• Wage and Hour Division (WHD) enforces minimum wage, child labor, overtime, and family and medical leave laws. 
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates wage and employment data like the unemployment rate and the consumer price index.
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces workplace safety rules, either directly or by overseeing state OSHA programs like those in Oregon and Washington.
• Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) enforces laws governing union elections and union financial disclosures.
• Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) regulates employer-provided benefit plans like pensions and health insurance to prevent fraud and make sure they’re stable and run in the interest of beneficiaries.
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) serves as a public insurance company collecting premiums from pension plans and paying benefits when some plans become insolvent.
• Employment and Training Administration (ETA) oversees state unemployment insurance programs and apprenticeship programs, runs Job Corps, and disperses workforce training grants.
• Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) helps veterans transition into civilian employment and enforces laws protecting veterans’ employment rights.
• Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) administers workers’ compensation programs for federal employees, longshore workers, coal miners, and nuclear energy workers with occupational illnesses.