A high Democrat and critic of Donald Trump says she is perhaps keen to throw her assist behind the president-elect’s selection for labor secretary, an indication of how one Trump nominee might scramble the standard political strains within the Senate affirmation course of.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) informed HuffPost it’s a “big deal” that Trump’s choose to steer the Labor Division, outgoing GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Oregon), endorsed the pro-union laws generally known as the Defending the Proper to Manage Act. Solely two different Home Republicans signed on to the invoice on this Congress.
Warren takes that as a hopeful signal for the nominee’s method to office points.
“If Chavez-DeRemer commits as labor secretary to strengthen labor unions and promote worker power, she’s a strong candidate for the job,” she mentioned in an announcement.
However Warren went on to say that the nomination — which might draw opposition from members of Trump’s personal celebration — is an early check for each the incoming president and the Senate GOP.
“Will Trump stand strong with workers or bow down to his corporate donors and the Republican establishment’s opposition?” she mentioned. “And if Republican Senators block Trump’s labor nominee for standing with unions, it will show that the party’s support for workers is all talk.”
“Will Trump stand strong with workers or bow down to his corporate donors and the Republican establishment’s opposition?”
– Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Trump’s labor secretary nomination
A reasonable one-term Republican who simply misplaced her Home reelection bid final month, Chavez-DeRemer is without doubt one of the outliers in Trump’s would-be Cupboard of loyalists, TV personalities and partisan bomb-throwers. She reportedly had the backing of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who cultivated a relationship with Trump throughout his newest White Home run.
Her PRO Act assist might be probably the most unorthodox line on Chavez-DeRemer’s resume. A sweeping plan to overtake the nation’s labor regulation, the laws would make it simpler to type unions and safe collective bargaining agreements, enhance penalties for unlawful union-busting by employers and roll again state “right-to-work” legal guidelines, amongst many different measures.
She additionally backed a invoice to develop union rights to extra public-sector employees — a proposal that had solely seven different Republican backers within the Home.
The Chavez-DeRemer nomination performs into the GOP’s tried rebranding as a pro-labor celebration, however her assist for union-friendly laws is perhaps an excessive amount of for some Republican senators to swallow. Essentially the most high-profile faces of that picture makeover — Vice President-elect Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) — have been keen to stroll a strike picket line however not co-sponsor the PRO Act, which has by no means handed the Senate.
“I have real questions about her vote for the PRO Act,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) informed HuffPost on Monday. “I don’t know her. I don’t believe we’ve ever met, but if she voted to repeal [state right-to-work laws], there’s some questions that need to be answered.”
Some anti-union teams that sometimes align with Republicans have denounced Chavez-DeRemer as a candidate for the labor position, with the Nationwide Proper to Work Committee saying she ought to “have no place in the Trump administration.”
Republicans will maintain a slim 53-47 majority within the incoming Senate. In the event that they face sufficient strain from enterprise teams to oppose her nomination, there’s a state of affairs by which Democratic backing might put Chavez-DeRemer excessive for affirmation — if Trump sticks by her.
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However having a union ally atop the Labor Division doesn’t essentially imply the company would pursue a pro-worker agenda. Labor secretaries can’t enact any main reforms with no inexperienced gentle from the White Home. To actually mark a brand new route for the GOP, Trump must break with all of the anti-union and deregulatory office insurance policies of his first time period.
Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.