NEW YORK — Union leaders have described President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead as a friend of organized labor. But as her confirmation hearing begins Wednesday, advocates for workers’ rights question whether will be able to uphold that reputation in an administration that has fired thousands of federal employees.
Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican member of Congress from Oregon and former mayor of a small city on the edge of liberal-leaning Portland, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, the first stop in her confirmation process.
During her , Chavez-DeRemer’s voting record earned her strong union support. Some political observers surmised that Trump picked her as his labor secretary as a way who are members of or affiliated with labor organizations. She is the daughter of a Teamster member.
Before she lost her in November, Chavez-DeRemer , legislation that would allow more workers to conduct union organizing campaigns and penalize companies that violate workers’ rights. The bill, one of former President Joe Biden’s priorities, passed the House in 2021 but didn’t gain traction in the Senate.
If confirmed as secretary, Chavez-DeRemer would be in charge of the Department of Labor’s nearly 16,000 full-time employees and a proposed budget of $13.9 billion in fiscal year 2025. She would set priorities that impact workers’ wages, ability to unionize, and health and safety, as well as employers’ rights to fire employees.
But it’s unclear how much power Chavez-DeRemer will be able to wield as Trump’s Cabinet moves to slash U.S. government spending and the size of . During his first month in office, the president froze trillions of dollars in federal funding and to most federal workers.
His administration last week started laying off who had not yet gained civil service protection. Billionaire Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, has called for .
“The Department of Labor is the agency where people in building are supposed to wake up every day thinking about how they can improve the lives of working people,” said Adam Shah, director of national policy at Jobs with Justice, a nonprofit organization that promotes workers’ rights. “It’s quite possible that no matter what the secretary of labor stands for, the billionaire embedded in the Trump administration, who is so keen on destroying the institutions, will be interested in gutting the Department of Labor.”
In January, Trump fired two of three Democratic commissioners serving on the , a federal agency that enforces civil rights in the workplace. He also fired the acting chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve as an NLRB member, as well as General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. Wilcox , arguing that federal law protects her from being arbitrarily dismissed.
Republicans have made inroads with working-class voters. Despite decades of labor unions siding with Democrats, and Trump’s , his populist appeal gained him votes from rank-and-file union members.
Many major unions, including the AFL-CIO and the , endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters , and Teamsters leader Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention. The Teamsters have endorsed Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination.
Some observers expect Chavez-DeRemer to receive more votes from Senate Democrats than some of Trump’s other Cabinet selections did. But the same positions that won her support from unions may make her a harder sell with business groups; the American Trucking Associations and the International Franchise Association said they hoped she would disavow her past support for the Pro Act by working to get it overturned.
Emily Twarog, an associate professor in the school of at the University of Illinois, said a question mark hangs over the labor secretary-designate even if she gets the Senate committee’s approval.
With the ongoing efforts by the current administration to limit or eliminate certain government functions, “how much will she actually be able to do to help workers in the Department of Labor if there’s limited funding and restrictions put on the work that can be done?” Twarog said.
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