The National Employment Law Project (NELP) recognizes Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer is a somewhat unexpected nominee to serve as Labor Secretary. Her steady support for workers’ right to collectively bargain, and her recognition that the deck is stacked against workers who want to join a union, puts her at odds with virtually all other Republican Members of Congress. Her support for the Richard Trumka PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act demonstrates an understanding of the importance of unions, collective bargaining, and protections for working families.
However, Chavez-DeRemer’s moderate stances cannot mask the broader Trump administration agenda she would serve—one that threatens to roll back hard-won worker protections. Her nomination should not be used to project an image of a labor-friendly administration while pursuing policies that jeopardize the rights of workers, particularly people of color, women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, and those with disabilities.
“Chavez-DeRemer’s record suggests she understands the value of policies that strengthen workers’ rights and economic security,” said Rebecca Dixon, President and CEO of NELP. “But the Trump administration’s agenda is fundamentally at odds with these principles, threatening to roll back workplace protections, undermine collective bargaining, and prioritize corporate profits over the needs of working people. This is where her true commitment to workers will be tested.”
Across the political spectrum, workers overwhelmingly support pro-worker policies such as paid leave and higher minimum wages. Six in 10 Trump voters identified the economy and jobs as the most important issue facing the country. To use Chavez-DeRemer’s support for unions and workers’ rights to collectively bargain to mislead the public while enacting harmful policies would be a betrayal of workers’ trust.
Moreover, the Department of Labor is not charged with enforcing labor law, but rather enforcing wage and hour laws, health and safety protections, unemployment insurance, workforce development programs, and retirement security.
Her record on these issues is not well defined, but she is not a co-sponsor of any bills that would provide key protections for workers like raising the minimum wage, expanding overtime protections, providing for paid leave, wage equity, or greater protections against harassment on the job.
If, as President Trump claims, her role is to “grow wages and improve working conditions,” then Chavez-DeRemer and this administration must prioritize expanding overtime protections for millions, raising the federal minimum wage after nearly two decades of inaction, addressing worker misclassification, and safeguarding health and safety on the job, including protecting workers from heat stress. These efforts must include all workers, regardless of immigration status. Anything less would undermine their stated goals.
Trump’s Project 2025 agenda directly attacks workers’ rights and the Department of Labor’s mission. It seeks to roll back wage and overtime protections, weaken workplace safety standards, install anti-worker judges and Justices, reduce the federal workforce, and erode the right to organize. It also threatens to remove pro-worker National Labor Relations Board members mid-term, replacing them with corporate-aligned appointees, further tipping the scales toward corporate interests at the expense of working families. Immigrant workers will face compounded harms under this agenda, including the threat of mass deportations and intensified worksite immigration enforcement.
“Workers and labor advocates are focused on building the future we need—an abundant good-jobs economy where every job provides fair wages, safe conditions, and opportunities for stability and growth, regardless of who you are or where you work,” Dixon added. “A labor secretary must respect worker power and collaborate to protect hard-won rights, not enable policies that prioritize profit over people.”
Trump’s rhetoric divides workers, targeting immigrant families to stoke racism and distract from policies that fuel corporate exploitation. Workers and advocates are already fighting back, united in a multiracial labor movement and building a good-jobs economy that values equity and justice for all. NELP calls on Rep. Chavez-DeRemer to be a Labor Secretary who embraces those values and goals. If she instead does the bidding of Project 2025, we will stand with workers to oppose those policies every step of the way.
