It’s clear that President Donald Trump is kicking butt and taking names, not just on the immigration front, but in terms of labor. As my colleague streiff reported, Trump has fired the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who brought us the evil joint-employer rule (now struck down), and Acting Chairman Gwynne Wilcox, another union stooge who was appointed by former President Joe Biden to further his big labor overreach.
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However, independent professionals and small businesses are still on edge, particularly with Trump’s pro-union pick for Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. As RedState has reported, Chavez-DeRemer’s record of sponsoring the PRO Act and advocating for more union encroachment to the detriment of workers should be disqualifying for this role, and the fact that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and several others are not sold on her as labor secretary is heartening. Chavez-DeRemer’s pro-union bona fides will no doubt have Democrat senators rallying behind her confirmation, along with the Republican “moderates.”
NEW: Senate Republicans cast a wary eye on Trump’s nominee for labor secretary
They have issues with Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s support of the PRO Act, which is backed by organized labor.
RAND PAUL: “I’m not going to support her.”
RON JOHNSON: “It’s concerning.”
JOHN HOEVEN: “I’m…
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 28, 2025
NEW: Senate Republicans cast a wary eye on Trump’s nominee for labor secretary
They have issues with Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s support of the PRO Act, which is backed by organized labor.
RAND PAUL: “I’m not going to support her.”
RON JOHNSON: “It’s concerning.”
JOHN HOEVEN: “I’m a right-to-work guy.”
Business community is unhappy and mystified by the pick: “Yeah, that came out of left field.”
HAWLEY wants Republicans to be open to her after Trump courted labor in his 2024 bid: “if we want to really be a working person’s party, we’re gonna have to do something for working people.”
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With these mixed signals from the executive and the legislative branches, what should independent professionals and small businesses expect to come over these next four years? I consulted with Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation, to get an inside baseball viewpoint on the ongoing fight to pursue the work of our choosing without government interference, hindrance, or union encroachment. Our conversation was detailed, and clarifying in its focus.
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Since the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, which ruled it unconstitutional to force public sector employees to pay union dues or be coerced into union membership, labor statistics show that unions have stalled and continue to lose ground. The new age of employment and self-employment has opened up different avenues and forms for working Americans, ones that encourage freedom and flexibility. A January 25 news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics delivered the sobering facts on how little draw union membership has for the American worker.
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The union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions—was 9.9 percent in 2024, little changed from the prior year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.3 million, also showed little movement over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union members.
So, with all due respect to Sen. Hawley, the working class is much more expansive than union shops, and a majority of Americans have no need or desire to solely pursue that form of working relationship.
Next, we previewed Trump’s cabinet picks for the Department of Labor and the politics behind the spurious choice of Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Mix wisely directed the conversation on what independent professionals and small businesses should be keeping an eye on, no matter who is in the secretary slot, as well as some positives in terms of the rest of the department’s leadership and landscape.
WATCH:
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Mix ended our conversation with this encouragement to independent professionals, small businesses, franchises, and workers who have been battling it out to have their voices heard and their contribution to the engines of the economy respected.
We survived the last four years; that in itself is hopeful enough, I mean, we got through that and we’ve got a new opportunity here. Look, I think the Congress, the fact that the Senate now has a little different management, this is a good sign.
