Labor pains and pleasures

It could have been worse. But if we want so hard to believe good news that we rush to judgment, let that judgment at least be tentative, pending earned permanency.

The widespread fear that President-elect Trump's secretary of labor would be an intractable union antagonist and demagogue apparently has not materialized. The "right to-work" union busters feel bitter and betrayed by the selection of former Congress Member Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Oregon), who appears not only to be a selection that we can live with, but one we might plausibly have ourselves sought.

Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers president, said that Chavez-DeRemer's "record suggests real support of workers and their right to unionize" and expressed "hope that it means the Trump administration will actually respect collective bargaining." Even Weingarten's adversaries admit that she is a solid and savvy labor leader who is nobody's fool.

The AFL-CIO’s president, Liz Shuler, also acknowledged Chavez-DeRemer's "pro-labor record in Congress," where she participated in bipartisan caucuses, opposed school vouchers and vocally supported legislation that upheld workers' rights. She is also against neutralizing and rendering impotent the Department of Education and other presently autonomous agencies.

A few months ago, Shuler had predicted that Trump's appointees for labor relations would be severely underfunded. She told Capital & Main that it would be "a CEO's dream and a worker's nightmare.”

Quality of character can be elucidated by the depth of foes one has provoked. The "Coalition for a Democratic Workplace," an industrial alliance of union-busters that stands for the opposite of what its name suggests, said, "We were alarmed by press reports that President-elect Trump is considering Rep. Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor". 

The National Right to Work Committee was also incensed by her nomination, after their lobbying in favor of other aspirants who pushed for massive automation, suppression of the minimum wage, and we can presume, sneezing more than twice during the flu season as grounds for firing.

The Wall Street Journal accuses Trump of picking "unions over workers,"  trotting out the spoiled canard that a united front for protecting workers somehow acts inimically to their interests.

The Americans for Prosperity's vice president slammed Chavez-DeRemer's nomination, spouting that Trump "completely undid and undermined his own agenda and movement by picking a teachers union hack.”

Now there's a condemnation to make us proud! The AFP doesn't mention that a broad spectrum of labor unions, such as the Teamsters, are also pleased, if not infatuated, with the nomination.

During her single congressional term before being ousted as a Republican maverick, she was one of just three Republicans to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO), which was vehemently resisted by members from 27 states where reactionary "right to work" laws hold sway. 

That's a big deal. It took courage, perhaps at the expense of ambition.

The PRO Act is conducive to the growth of vibrant union membership. It strengthens protected speech in workplaces and boosts the National Labor Relations Board's power to assess monetary penalties against abusive employers who violate labor law. 

The act was aggressively opposed by what are euphemistically called "pro-business" and "states' rights" apostles, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Heritage Society's notorious "Project 2025," which the Trump administration has disavowed — perhaps unreliably.

The Associated Press reports that "Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored another piece of legislation that would protect public-sector workers from having their Social Security benefits docked because of government pension benefits."

Will Chavez-DeRemer be given free rein or will she be reined in by the dynamic tensions of behind-the-scenes politics?  

Will she submit to the demons who put short-term pragmatic objectives ahead of long-term ideals? Will she hold fast against temptations to be lured by false promises of personal gain in exchange for abandoning her core beliefs?

So far, the signs point in the right direction. 

She should vigorously enforce minimum wage laws, expand training and apprenticeships, carry out what will be the new law on tax-free tips and overtime, coordinate with other agencies to ensure health and safety in workplaces, maintain accurate labor statistics even if under pressure to play games with them, advance union organization among fast-food and gig  workers as well as those in e-commerce delivery services, contractors and franchises, and promote unionization among graduate students.

And, we fervently trust, acquit herself and her agency honorably in the imminent clash between migrants and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

President-elect Trump pledged to "achieve historic cooperation between business and labor that will restore the American Dream for Working Families.” Whether the existence of such "historic cooperation" would be verifiable by a deep-dive investigation is doubtful, but the American Dream, though often boastfully trotted out as a sentimental incentive to patriotism, possesses validity to those of us who have experienced it.

If Chavez-DeRemer's nomination raises any red flags, they have yet to be unfurled. Trump's advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy vowed “mass headcount reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”    

Bureaucracy is not necessarily limited to union members, but these billionaires have been commissioned to rewrite the definitions to their taste. There is no way to cut the federal workforce by the numbers and percentages they project without mass slaughter.

Donald Trump is a man who prompts extravagant passions one way or the other. He is neither the nation's redeemer nor its führer. 

But let's not kid ourselves: he's a dominant kingpin and will remain so at least until the next election spin cycle. We can never entirely put our differences aside, nor should we distance ourselves from them. But we must take a break from cartoonish simplifications, whether in the form of worshipful allegiance or sub-visceral loathing.

Trump is neither fascist nor our national and cultural liberator. There are conflicting elements in his individualism. He's been a populist, a multi-headed rogue, and even an erstwhile philanthropist. Some say that he has done nothing wrong; others that what he has done is unforgivable. 

We polar opposites must nonetheless agree to abide in vigilant skepticism and stay uncompromisingly on top of the issues and principles in which we believe, for the sake of the nation and the greater good.

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” Appointing Lori Chavez-DeRemer counts as one stroke. Will there be another?