POLITICO is teasing that pro-union RINO and former Oregon congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer is being pushed onto President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team US Secretary of Labor. Chavez-DeRemer has the support of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, which automatically sets off alarm bells for every freelancer, freelancer, entrepreneur and compact business owner.
Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) is in the race to be Trump’s labor secretary and particularly enjoys the support of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, according to three people familiar with the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss private discussions .
O’Brien privately touts Chavez-DeRemer as a top choice for the role. GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have also directly lobbied President-elect Donald Trump and his team for Chavez-DeRemer for the post, according to another person familiar with the matter.
Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokeswoman, confirmed that O’Brien is endorsing Chavez-DeRemer for the role, saying, “We believe she would be an excellent choice.”
Oh, no, the independent contractors didn’t work to repel the Biden-Harris administration’s attack on us through the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board, only to get more of the same and possibly worse. Lori Chavez-DeRemer would be nothing other than Julie Su 2.0. The 2024 election helped many freelancers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and compact business owners unite as one-issue voters: This all-out attack by a Democratic government showed us that we had to put aside the red and the blue and vote for our livelihood. Independent experts are once again joining forces to ensure that a possible Chávez-DeRemer nomination comes to nothing.
We have already exercised our power. We just don’t notice it. Many once true blue voters like me declined @KamalaHarris. I didn’t vote for anyone. Some went to third parties. Some even went to Trump. You can definitely say that @TheDemocrats lost because of their attacks on #Freelancer https://t.co/8i2KpLVode
— Bill Hinchberger (@hinchberger) November 18, 2024
Kim Kavin, co-founder of Fight for Freelancers, who has joined with other independent professionals to sue the U.S. Department of Labor over the Biden-Harris administration’s ultimate freelancer-busting tactic – the Independent Contractor Final Rule – weighed in OH Senator and Vice President-elect JD Vance weigh in on our concerns. Vance has expressed support for unions but also made it clear that he does not support the PRO Act.
Darling @JDVance,
You said during the election campaign that we must stop supporting failed policies like this #PROAct
Please say it @realDonaldTrump We want the protection he gave us in his last term *before*
DeRemer as Secretary of Labor would support this and harm ushttps://t.co/7cJaNJPLv8
— Kim Kavin (@thekimkavin) November 20, 2024
My colleague Bonchie is also rallying the troops. Most writers on Team RedState and other publications are independent contractors. Therefore, any support for this woman and her politics would mean the death of our professional lives.
This is the woman who co-sponsored the PRO Act. Trump shouldn’t let them near his government. Spread the word. pic.twitter.com/7YYdY9jlMG
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 20, 2024
Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon 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-time union contract.
Known as the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, HR20 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 its initial introduction in 2019. When Democrats had the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, the bill passed in 2020 and again in 2021. But lawmakers knew when they voted for it that it was unlikely he would get a vote in the Senate, as the Senate had a Republican majority in 2020 and had the smallest possible Democratic majority in 2021. Even under the best of circumstances, self-imposed filibuster rules allow a two-fifths minority to block most legislation in the Senate.
Given Republicans’ majority in the House today, co-sponsorship of the PRO Act is all the more symbolic since it is assumed the bill has 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 dedicated committee website to denounce the bill, calling it a “wish list of radical union bosses.”
So why did she do it? This sponsorship occurred after March 2024, when a team (which included me) from the Independent Women’s Forum lobbied on the Hill against the harm caused by the U.S. Department of Labor’s independent contractor final rule and enlisted key members of Congress in support the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which would repeal it. At the meeting with Chavez-DeRemer’s staffer, he performed a song and dance about the congresswoman’s family being compact business owners; Nevertheless, he was extremely frosty when he offered her his support for the CRA.
Chavez-DeRemer also showed her disdain for freelancers and compact business owners when she ran the day on which the House Education and Workforce Committee Co-Chair Kevin Kiley (R-CA) brought the CRA (HJ Res116) was up for a vote, the congresswoman chose to do so vote NO.
Chavez-DeRemer lost her seat because of this two-sided approach to leadership, particularly toward independent professionals who fight tooth and nail to maintain the freedom to work as we see fit and to succeed in the work we enjoy. It looks like Chavez-DeRemer just wants a pliable landing back in DC. If we have anything to do with it, it won’t be this position and we won’t monitor it.
