Chavez-DeRemer’s pro-union views will be lonely in Trump’s anti-union White House

President-elect Donald Trump was praised for picking a union-supported Republican to lead the Department of Labor, even though she will likely serve in a cabinet full of anti-union zealots.

Trump nominated Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be Secretary of Labor on Nov. 22. She joined Congress in 2023, but lost her reelection bid this year to Democrat Janelle Bynum.

Chavez-DeRemer’s 2024 campaign was endorsed by a handful of labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Association of Flight Attendants. She is also one of the few House Republicans to support the PRO Act, a bill aimed at strengthening workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien celebrated the Chavez-DeRemer pick in an op-ed, writing that she “is the exact type of champion for the American worker that Republicans should get behind if they are serious about becoming the working-class party.”

But Chavez-DeRemer’s pro-union views will be lonely in a Trump administration, where many of Trump’s cabinet picks and top advisers have histories of opposing workers’ rights.

Vice president-elect J.D. Vance, for example, has a 0% score from the AFL-CIO. The score is based on how many pro-worker votes Vance has cast since joining the Senate in 2023.

In January, Vance and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who Trump has nominated to be Secretary of State, co-authored a new version of the TEAM Act, a bill that would allow for the creation of employer-led workplace committees that would function as “an alternative to unionization.” In order to allow for the creation of such committees, federal rules protecting collective bargaining would need to be weakened.

Vance and Rubio’s bill did not become law, but Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s policy blue for a second Trump term, calls for reviving the legislation.

Russ Vought, who is one of Project 2025’s principle authors, is Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Trump chose Brendan Carr, another Project 2025 author, to serve as chair of the Federal Communications Commission.

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice, has supported right-to-work laws, which prohibit requiring workers to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. Critics argue that right-to-work laws dilute union power and lead to poorer working conditions.

In 2011, Bondi joined a letter opposing a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint against Boeing. The NLRB, which protects workers’ rights and oversees collective bargaining, had accused Boeing of moving operations to right-to-work states to sidestep union influence and pay lower wages.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee to be Ambassador to the United Nations, co-sponsored the National Right-to-Work Act last year. Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, co-sponsored the bill as well. It has not yet received a full House vote.

Billionaire Elon Musk, an unofficial Trump adviser who has reportedly played a role in picking cabinet nominees, has also expressed anti-worker sentiments.

In 2018, Musk made a social media post warning Tesla workers at a plant in Freemont, California that they would lose their stock options if they voted to unionize. 

SpaceX, Musk’s space technology company, was the subject of a NLRB complaint in July when eight employees claimed they were fired for speaking critically about Musk. In retaliation, SpaceX signed onto a lawsuit last month challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB.

Musk was asked about his unions last year at a New York Times event.

“I disagree with the idea of unions …” Musk said. “I just don’t like anything which creates a lords and peasants sort of thing.”

While Chavez-DeRemer had some union support in 2024, it was not universal. Bynum’s campaign was endorsed by AFSME, AFL-CIO, SIEU, and the United Auto Workers.

A Trump transition team spokesperson did not respond to questions for this story.