Trump’s Pick for Labor Secretary Won’t Neutralize the Damage His Administration Will Inflict on Workers

I’ve been tearing my hair out for three weeks as President Trump nominates one candidate after another, both unqualified and malicious. But one nomination stands out for its relatively good taste. Lori Chavez Delemera former Republican representative from Oregon and the daughter of a Teamsters member, became Secretary of Labor.

Chavez Delemer narrowly lost re-election in a battleground district where being seen as a supporter of union rights was an advantage, but he is one of the few outgoing Republicans in Congress to advocate for workers over big business. He is one of the few members of Congress who has supported him. He positions himself as a supporter of labor unions. During her re-election campaign, she said: With more union support than her Democratic opponent, Janelle Bynum. Given these positions, her nomination to a cabinet full of anti-labor billionaires and largely following Project 2025’s cartoonishly regressive policy stances is an odd fit.

Labor unions praised the nominationThere were particularly strong words of support from the Teamsters, whose leadership was friendly with Trump in the lead-up to the election. AFL-CIO issued a statement promoted the candidate’s record; Staunch progressives in Congress, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, also expressed support.

Conservatives, meanwhile, are raising eyebrows at the arrival of a Republican labor secretary who is certainly not sympathetic to right-to-work laws. She supported the PRO Act, which aims to make union organizing efforts easier. And he seems to support raising the minimum wage. national review‘ editors claimed the nomination was ‘meaningless’. of washington examiner narrowed down the selection. right-leaning Coalition for a Democratic Workplace expressed concern. and several Republican senators He suggested that it may be a struggle to gain approval.

What is going on here? Why would someone like Trump, who made his fortune by being tough on workers, do this? People who brag about their lack of contractors. The previous administration, with strong support from three labor secretaries, rolled back overtime protections for workers. And who made small talk with Elon Musk about striking workers and nominated a pro-union figure to be his secretary of labor?

The answer is in the numbers. In November of this year, President Trump somewhere around 45% Of the votes of people living in union households. good 50% or more Most of Trump’s voters were blue-collar or service industry workers. For Harris, the equivalent figure was just over 40%. Furthermore, in cities on the West Coast where there are many labor unions, Democratic turnout plummeted. For example, in Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes Portland and surrounding areas, Democratic votes declined by nearly 16 percent.

The drop in Democratic turnout was similar in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and suburban areas around Seattle. And while it didn’t prevent Harris from easily winning the Electoral College votes of California, Oregon and Washington, the prospect of a future in which Democratic control of those three states is less assured than before. I could see a glimpse of the possibility. In recent decades.

Inland, the same goes for union strongholds Las Vegas and Phoenix, both of which have fewer Democratic voters in 2024 than they did in 2020, resulting in Harris winning in the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona. This contributed to the ruin of his chances.

All of this gives President Trump an unlikely perspective and speaks to the scale of his ambitions to reshape America’s political landscape not just for four years but for future election cycles.

Of course, Mr. Trump is not truly pro-labor or pro-union. To suggest otherwise is to willfully ignore his dismal track record on labor policy and his tendency to surround himself with the apostles of corporate greed. But despite these realities, he has managed to carve out a perception of himself as a benefactor and protector of blue-collar America’s values, which makes Trump a Juan Peron-style figure. leaving the door ajar to a future that could produce a new president. A strongman government supported by a few well-supported unions (the Teamsters are at the top of the list) and their leadership.

This makes Chavez-Dellemer’s nomination smart politics. That would be an opportunity for Democrats to gain ground in Super Blue union-heavy states up and down the West Coast, as well as the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona. And that is easy political sop Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer, dined with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and in the weeks after the election lobbied for Chavez Delemer to be the next Secretary of Labor. It is reported that. .

It’s also a relatively low-hanging fruit, allowing President Trump to appear pro-labor without actually shifting the policy agenda in a pro-union direction. Most recently as Dan La Bolz I wrote counter punchEven with a mildly pro-labor secretary, the damage caused by a voraciously anti-union National Labor Relations Board and numerous appointees who support Project 2025’s efforts to lower overtime pay and workplace safety standards. cannot be neutralized. Access to benefits such as medical care and nutritional assistance programs.

Chávez Delemer was an unexpected choice, and her nomination will undoubtedly be a ray of light in a dark political landscape. But it would be foolish to think too quickly about what this nomination means. President Trump has not had a Jesus moment on labor issues. Rather, he and his team are opportunists at heart, concluding that they would benefit from befriending the Teamsters and promoting the candidate of their choice to be the next Secretary of Labor.