Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor, won Senate confirmation March 10 in a 67-32 vote. Democrats were split, and a few Republicans voted against her because she was seen as too pro-union.
A former mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon, Chavez-DeRemer courted union support during one term in Congress as a Republican representing Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District. She even cosponsored union-backed bills including the PRO Act, which would make it easier for workers to form a union and get a first contract. But she backed away from support for the PRO Act in her Feb. 19 Senate confirmation hearing.
Senate Democrats split on the nomination: 17 voted yes and 27 voted no along with independents Bernie Sanders and Angus King. Meanwhile, three Republicans also voted no: Ted Budd of North Carolina, and Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky. All four Oregon and Washington senators voted against her: Oregon Democrats Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Washington Democrats Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.
“I won’t vote for any cabinet nominee during Trump and Musk’s authoritarian administrative coup,” Merkley said, explaining his vote on the social media network Threads. “This cannot be business as usual. That includes Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination. I hope she’ll be a champion for workers; I would gladly partner with her on that work.”
“I’ll work tirelessly to help President Trump put the American Worker First,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a press statement after she was sworn in as labor secretary March 11. “As a small businesswoman and the daughter of a Teamster, I will act on my experience and work with business and labor to support good-paying jobs, grow our economy, and ensure every American can enjoy a comfortable retirement.”
How will she do that? Chavez-DeRemer hasn’t announced any specific policies she’ll undertake as labor secretary. Her first post on a newly created account on X.com may be a clue: “Hardworking Americans across the country have been stifled by over-regulation.”
As labor secretary, she’ll now oversee agencies within the U.S. Department of Labor that enforce child labor and occupational safety laws, dispense job training grants, oversee apprenticeship programs, and facilitate foreign guest worker visas.
I’ve never heard a good argument for being “too pro union. Maybe the anti union folks should just be honest and say “we value workers more the less we pay them “.
Union workers are loyal to their employers, pay more in taxes supporting valuable state/federal jobs/programs and they don’t require state assistance because they have benefits that support their families.
Red states are welfare states that drain federal dollars while blue states pour money into them subsidizing the less fortunate.