Compliance News | President-Elect Trump Identifies Outgoing Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer as His Intended Secretary of Labor

On November 10, 2024, President-elect Trump announced that he intends to nominate Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Secretary of Labor for his upcoming term.  Ms. Chavez-DeRemer has served in Congress as representative for Oregon’s 5th congressional district.  She was elected to the office originally in 2022, but lost her reelection bid last month.  She is a member of the Republican Party.

She is viewed as perhaps the most moderate of the individuals that President-elect Trump has identified for appointments in his upcoming second term; and is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate with significant bipartisan support.

The daughter of a Teamsters member, she is seen as an ally and supporter of organized labor, with her nomination seen as an acknowledgement by Trump of the support he received from rank-and-file union members in the most recent election.

In particular, Sean O’Brien, the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has praised her selection.  It is speculated that O’Brien had a role in encouraging President-elect Trump to select her for the role.  O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer and is thought to have driven the Teamsters’ decision not to endorse Vice President Harris in this year’s presidential election, despite the Biden administration being perceived as the most pro-labor presidential administration of the last 50 or more years.

Ms. Chavez-DeRemer is known for the following policy positions:

• She was one of only three House Republican cosponsors of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021 (“PRO Act”). The Act would do the following:
  • Establish a private right of action for the illegal firing of pro-union employees and establishes corporate official liability for these firings as well.
  • Weaken state “right-to-work” laws.
  • Reestablish Obama-era limitations on the ability of companies to fight and delay Union elections by allowing a union vote to proceed without first litigating bargaining unit composition and voter eligibility.
  • Ban captive audience meetings and requires companies to allow use of company email for organizing unless there are compelling business reasons to disallow use.
  • Require prompt disclosure of anti-union activities and other reporting loopholes.
  • Establish a mediation and, if necessary, arbitration process to ensure that workers and employers obtain an initial collective bargaining agreement when workers first organize and require that employers bargain in good faith to avoid delays.
  • Establish the “ABC test” as the federal standard for classifying workers as employees or independent contractors.
• She was one of only eight House Republican cosponsors of the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would require states to adhere to minimum collective bargaining rights standards for their public service employees.

Despite showing an overall pro-labor outlook, her record shows less support for employer diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) initiatives.  Specifically, she voted in support of a congressional resolution that disapproved of the Department of Labor’s proposed regulations that explicitly endorsed consideration of “the economic effects of climate change and other environmental, social, or governance factors” (“ESG”) by an ERISA plan fiduciary in assessing the risk and return factors of a particular investment or investment course of action.  She also voted in favor of the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act, which would place limits on retirement plan fiduciaries in considering factors other than the financial risk and return of the plan’s investments.

In Congress, she served on the Committee of Education and the Workforce, and its Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.

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