OPINION: Labor Secretary Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Is a Trojan Horse to Complete the Union Takeover of DOL

Independent professionals and small businesses were hoping to breathe a sigh of relief that President-elect Donald Trump’s win of the presidency would bring an end to the freelance busting by the Democrats and the United States Department of Labor. We were buoyed by the thought that after increasing years of opposition by labor unions and regulatory agencies, we perhaps could finally be free to do our chosen work without threat or reprisal. The nomination of soon-to-be-former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) for Labor Secretary quickly deflated that hope. Trump appears to have made a Faustian bargain with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who delivered a speech at July’s Republican National Convention, the first time any union boss had appeared at any Republican convention. 

As is their wont, labor unions generally throw their lot behind the Democrats. While some saw this as a positive sea change, independent professionals and small business owners saw it for what it was: a warning knell. While Trump’s first administration had the back of independent professionals, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business, this Trump campaign and potential administration was seeking to show itself friendly to the unions. In doing this, it seems the new administration might be selling out the 64 million Americans who simply want to be left alone to pursue economic happiness without encumbrance. With the nomination of Chavez-DeRemer, this was confirmed. O’Brien took credit for pushing her to the Trump transition team as a pick, and he championed her on his X account.

Thank you @realDonaldTrump for putting American workers first by nominating Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer for US Labor Secretary. Nearly a year ago, you joined us for a @Teamsters roundtable and pledged to listen to workers and find common ground to protect and respect labor in… pic.twitter.com/C6jZw1PqkB

— Sean M. O’Brien (@TeamsterSOB) November 23, 2024

Thank you @realDonaldTrump for putting American workers first by nominating Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer for US Labor Secretary. Nearly a year ago, you joined us for a @Teamsters roundtable and pledged to listen to workers and find common ground to protect and respect labor in America. You put words into action. Now let’s grow wages and improve working conditions nationwide. Congratulations to @LChavezDeRemer on your nomination! North America’s strongest union is ready to work with you every step of the way to expand good union jobs and rebuild our nation’s middle class. Let’s get to work! #TeamsterStrong

For O’Brien, “putting American workers first” means eliminating independent professionals and small businesses. Many of us hire those very workers O’Brien claims he wants to put first. How does destroying our enterprises serve this? As Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe wrote:

As workers continue to leave Teamsters’ rank-and-file, O’Brien’s end game in appealing to Republicans is overturning state right-to-work laws, which grant workers the freedom to choose whether to join a labor union, a longstanding “priority” for the Teamsters and the rest of Big Labor, most recently through passage of the so-called Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

If O’Brien can entice the potential Republican administration to stand down on pro-worker union reforms in exchange for a likely inconsequential non-endorsement, he will not so much have proven his skill as a negotiator as revealed the GOP’s naivete.

Now that Chavez-DeRemer has lost her congressional seat, she is in the perfect position to inflict more damage. Many freelancers see her as O’Brien’s Trojan horse to influence the resurrection of the PRO Act and to see the regulatory version embodied in the Biden-Harris final independent contractor rule enforced. As a freshman congresswoman, Chavez-DeRemer was a co-sponsor of the PRO Act and another piece of legislation that are a direct attack on independent professionals. This gives a window into how she could potentially head the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Michael Watson of Capital Search also said as much. 

O’Brien likely hopes that a Chavez-DeRemer–led Labor Department would continue the policies of Biden administration Acting Secretary Julie Su, which have targeted independent contractors and franchised business owners, two nemeses of Big Labor.

Along with being one of three Republicans who co-sponsored and voted for the PRO Act, Chavez-DeRemer was also one of eight Republicans who co-sponsored the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, another ruse to erode business protections and inject big labor interference in the employer/employee relationship. 

But one of the most pivotal clues that Chavez-DeRemer had little interest in seeing independent professionals and small businesses thrive is her short tenure on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In March, the Biden-Harris DOL dropped the final independent contractor rule, which incorporates the worst tenets of the PRO Act and California’s AB5, which destroyed the livelihoods for 600 different professions. CA Rep. and committee co-chair Kevin Kiley drafted H.J. Res. 116, a joint resolution Congressional Review Act to rescind this dictatorial rule. As with any bill or resolution, it passes through committee first before being presented to the full House for a vote. On the morning the committee was set to vote, Chavez-DeRemer did not bother to show up. 

As the voting record above shows, she was present that day to vote on other bills before the House, yet she somehow disappeared from the Education and Workforce Committee when a critical “Yes” vote was needed.

From that act and others, it became clear that Chavez-DeRemer’s sole purpose of being a part of the committee was to polish her pro-labor credentials. Chavez-DeRemer missed other committee meetings and press avails, particularly the ones that could be construed as in alignment with her fellow Republicans on the committee.

Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer continues to walk a fine line between appealing to labor unions and business interests that typically back Republicans.

In July, she became only the third Republican member of Congress to cosponsor the sweeping pro-union bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and she has courted union endorsements in her reelection campaign while talking about her father’s experience as a member of the Teamsters union. But when her fellow Republicans on the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee held a series of union-bashing meetings over the past year, Chavez-DeRemer didn’t show up and join Democratic representatives in speaking up for unions.

Chavez-DeRemer spokesman Aaron Britt didn’t say why she missed those five meetings but defended her record on labor issues in a statement. 

“Lori’s opponents are trying to attack her undeniably strong pro-labor record because they are terrified of the independent coalition of support she has worked hard to build throughout her first term,” Britt said. “There’s a reason Lori has collected endorsements from nearly a dozen labor unions – she has worked tirelessly to earn their trust by fighting for registered apprenticeships, fair wages, safe working conditions and much more.”

Independent journalist Chelly Bouferrache lives in Chavez-DeRemer’s Oregon district and had a chance to interview her closer to November 5. Boufferache said: 

“I seriously don’t think she wanted to win. I talked to her maybe two weeks before Election Day. She was down [in the race]. I did a news story on her coming to Lebanon [OR], and she was very… unbothered. It shocked me.”

Perhaps Chavez-DeRemer had already cozied up to O’Brien and union interests and was confident that she’d have a feathered bed back in D.C. Bouferrache noted that Chavez-DeRemer “is able to make strong coalitions with people quickly. She’s extremely personable.” 

By working all the angles, Chavez-DeRemer has proven she is a consummate politician. This does not mean she will be a competent Secretary of Labor.

Independent professionals are so preoccupied with building our businesses and doing the essential work we do that our significant contribution to the nation’s economy gets overlooked and ignored — including by President Joe Biden and President-elect Trump. Any time the term “working class” is thrown around, it’s always in reference to the unions, which make up less than 10 percent of Americans. Sixty-four million Americans (and growing) who contribute $1.3 trillion of income to the economy should not be ignored, dismissed, or slated for destruction; yet, here we are.

So, sadly, it’s back to battle stations for independent professionals as this nomination does not bode well for us. We fought hard in front and behind the scenes to get rid of Democrat pro-union barnacles like Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, on top of battling the Biden-Harris regime to remove the threats of the PRO Act and the final Independent Contractor rule. Chavez-DeRemer has proven that she is not on the side of independent professionals or workers; she is on the side of union bosses and herself. Chavez-DeRemer is simply another union activist trussed up and planted to take control of the levers of power in order to destroy the independent contractor model and economic freedom for all Americans.

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