Teamsters dont deserve a Cabinet pick like Labor nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer

Teamsters union boss Sean O’Brien is pushing with all the political weight he can muster to make Lori Chavez-DeRemer the next secretary of Labor.Despite President Trump’s nomination of the former congresswoman, whose Senate confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday, Republicans shouldn’t let O’Brien get his way.Recall O’Brien’s political machinations in the lead-up to the 2024 election.Blue collar workers in general, and his members in particular, were swinging Republican, but O’Brien was and remains an avowed Democrat.Though he saw which way the wind was blowing, O’Brien held off on an endorsement.

In exchange for his union’s official backing, he demanded Trump’s support for an end to popular right-to-work laws.Polls consistently show that 80% of Americans, including 79% of active union members, think that union dues should be voluntary.That’s what right-to-work laws ensure, and in fact it’s their only purpose.They guarantee that no worker can be forced to pay dues to a union if he or she doesn’t want to, and that union bosses can’t take workers’ money without permission.Trump didn’t budge, and O’Brien declared his union would make no presidential endorsement at all.

Its official announcement complained, “Trump would not commit to veto national ‘right to work’ legislation if he returned to the White House.”O’Brien had a weak hand: The union’s internal polling showed its members backed Trump over Harris by a large margin.Trump had already won over the Teamsters rank-and-file.He didn’t need O’Brien.But the Teamsters boss hasn’t given up on his aim to quash worker freedom, and getting Chavez-DeRemer confirmed will help him secure that goal. A one-term former GOP congresswoman from Oregon, Chavez-DeRemer stands out only because she co-sponsored a slew of union boss-boosted bills in a failed attempt to keep her seat in the House.Unlike Trump, Chavez-DeRemer eagerly backed the PRO Act, a bill that bans right-...