Teamster-Backed Labor Secretary Sides With Independent Workers
When then-President-elect Donald Trump nominated ex-Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) for labor secretary, Right to Work advocates immediately grew very concerned.
Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was one of just three Republicans to cosponsor the “PRO Act,” which would have ended all state Right to Work laws and decimated independent contracting in all 50 states.
Her 2023-2024 PRO Act support earned her the backing of Teamster boss Sean O’Brien, who personally lobbied the President for her nomination.
The Committee fought back, running targeted social media ads that denounced Ms. Chavez-DeRemer for opposing Right to Work, and for supporting the PRO Act’s destruction of independent-contractor jobs, a top objective for Teamster dons.
Union bosses despise freelance work because, unlike traditional employees, freelancers cannot be forced to join and/or pay dues to a labor union.
Right to Work supporters urged senators on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to ask the nominee about her past record, flooding their offices with phone calls and petitions.
Sens. Cassidy (R-La.), Paul (R-Ky.), Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Moody (R-Fla.) all asked Ms. Chavez-DeRemer whether she favored eliminating the Right to Work laws in their states.
While she misguidedly continued to oppose a federal Right to Work law, the pressure from senators forced her to recognize that the PRO Act’s blanket ban on Right to Work is political poison.
Big Labor senators bitterly complained about her withdrawal of support for this anti-worker power grab.
As a Cabinet Nominee, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer Hedged Bets on Independent Work
But when questioned about workers’ freedom to practice their trade outside the confines of a payroll job, the nominee hedged her bets.
Asked by Mr. Cassidy whether she would vow “to refrain from implementing any rules stripping independent contractors of flexibility they need to provide for their families and to simultaneously contribute to the American economy,” she did not give a yes or no answer. Instead, she said that she would “commit [herself] to understanding this,” and vaguely affirmed the value of flexibility.
“Lori Chavez-DeRemer had an opportunity to promise to restore the first Trump Administration’s protections for independent contractors, and to denounce the Biden Administration’s moves to reclassify workers as payroll employees so that they could be corralled into unions,” said Committee Vice President Greg Mourad.
“Instead, she oddly said she intended to ‘understand the issue’ in the future.”
Committee members were left wondering what the second Trump Administration’s policy on independent work would be.
Finally, in May the Labor Department announced it would no longer be enforcing the 2024 Biden rule — geared toward regulating independent work out of existence — while it crafts a replacement.
Trump Administration Takes First Step Toward Freelancer Freedom
Mr. Mourad responded to the move, calling it a “first step” for freelancers, such as the hundreds of thousands of independent truckers who own their own rigs and set their own hours.
He added: “Truckers are especially aware of the dangers of forced reclassification because of a California law known as A.B.5. It has prompted many independent truckers to leave the state rather than face being reclassified as payroll employees against their will.
“A driving force behind A.B.5 was the Teamster hierarchy. Teamster bigwigs hoped that freelance truckers would be forced into Teamster-controlled workplaces, where union dues could be extracted from their paychecks.
“An independent analysis by the firm MBO Partners estimates that the number of full-time independent workers in the U.S. more than doubled between 2020 and 2024, but the Biden rule, had it remained in effect, would have sabotaged workers’ ability to make this choice.
“This is one of a number of areas in which Sec. Chavez-DeRemer will have to choose between her Big Labor backers and the vast majority of workers, who prefer flexibility and freedom.
“The Committee will continue to turn up the heat on her to take the pro-Right to Work path.”
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