POLITICO is teasing that pro-union RINO and former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer is being pushed on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team for U.S. Secretary of Labor. Chavez-DeRemer has the endorsement of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, which automatically sets off alarm bells for every freelancer, independent professional, entrepreneur and small business owner.
Advertisement
Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) is in the mix to be Trump’s Labor secretary and, notably, has the backing of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, according to three people familiar with the conversations granted anonymity to share private discussions.
O’Brien is privately raising Chavez-DeRemer’s name as a top pick for the role. GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have also advocated for Chavez-DeRemer for the job directly with President-elect Donald Trump and his team, according to another person familiar with the matter.
Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokesperson, confirmed that O’Brien supports Chavez-DeRemer for the role, saying “we think she would be an excellent choice.”
Oh, Hell No. Independent Contractors did not work to get rid of the Biden-Harris administration’s assault on us through the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board only to get more of the same and potentially worse. Lori Chavez-DeRemer would be nothing but Julie Su 2.0. The 2024 election helped many freelancers, independent professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners coalesce as one-issue voters: This wholesale attack by a Democrat administration showed us that we needed to lay aside the Red and the Blue and vote for our livelihoods. Independent professionals are uniting again to ensure that a potential Chavez-DeRemer nomination goes nowhere.
Advertisement
Fight for Freelancers co-founder Kim Kavin, who partnered with other independent professionals to sue the U.S. Department of Labor over the ultimate freelance-busting tactic thrown at us by the Biden-Harris administration — the final Independent Contractor rule — addressed OH Sen. and VP-elect JD Vance with our concerns. Vance has expressed support for unions but has also made it clear that he does not support the PRO Act.
My colleague Bonchie is also rallying the troops. The majority of writers on Team RedState, as well as other publications, are independent contractors; so any support of this woman and her policies would be co-signing the death to our professional lives.
Oregon Republican Congress-woman Lori Chavez-DeRemer added her name July 15 as a co-sponsor of a bill that would make it easier for U.S. workers to unionize and get a first union contract.
Known as the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, H.R. 20 is also co-sponsored by Oregon Democrats Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Val Hoyle, Andrea Salinas, and Southwest Washington Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. But Chavez-DeRemer’s co-sponsorship stands out because only two other Republicans in this Congress have signed on.
The PRO Act has been touted as a top union legislative priority since it was first introduced in 2019. When Democrats had the majority in the U.S. House, the bill passed in 2020 and again in 2021. But representatives knew when they voted for it that it was unlikely to get a vote in the Senate, because in 2020 the Senate had a Republican majority, and in 2021 it had the slimmest possible Democratic majority. Even in the best of conditions, self-imposed filibuster rules allow a two-fifths minority to block most legislation in the Senate.
Given today’s Republican majority in the House, co-sponsoring the PRO Act is even more symbolic because the bill is considered to have no chance of a vote. When the current version of the PRO Act was reintroduced in January 2023, it was assigned to the House Education and Workforce Committee, which created a special committee web page to denounce the bill, calling it “a radical union boss wish list.”
Advertisement
So why did she do it? This sponsorship came after March 2024, when a team (of which I was a part) from the Independent Women’s Forum lobbied on the Hill about the harm caused by the U.S. Department of Labor’s final Independent Contractor Rule and to petition key congressmembers to support the Congressional Review Act (CRA) which would rescind it. In the meeting with Chavez-DeRemer’s staffer, he played a song and dance about how the congresswoman’s family were small business owners; yet he was decidedly cool in offering her support for the CRA.
Chavez-DeRemer further showed her disdain for independent professionals and small business owners when, on the day that the House Education and Workforce Committee co-chair Kevin Kiley (R-CA) brought the CRA (HJ Res116) up for a vote, the congresswoman chose to vote NO.
Chavez-DeRemer lost her seat because of this two-faced approach to governance, particularly toward independent professionals who are fighting tooth and nail to maintain the freedom to work as we choose and thrive in the work that we enjoy. What this looks like is that Chavez-DeRemer merely wants a soft landing back to D.C. If we have anything to do with it, it will not be this position and will not be on our watch.