FEBRUARY BITS AND PIECES
WORDS OF CAUTION OVER TRUMP LABOR SECRETARY PICK PROVE TRUE
When Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) was first chosen by Donald Trump to be Secretary of Labor, some saw it as an act friendly to unions and a possible glimmer of hope. But many labor leaders, including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and National Education Association President Betsy Pringle were saying “not so fast.” They warned not too much should be made of the appointment. Trump “has threatened to take the unprecedented action of removing current pro-worker NLRB members in the middle of their term,” Pringle pointed out, “replacing them with his corporate friends. And he is promising to appoint judges and justices who are hostile to workers and unions.” (See item Union Leaders Urge Caution” on Labor News Page of this site.)
Their words didn’t take long to be proven true. At her Senate confirmation Feb.19, she clearly stated that she supports so-called “right to work” laws of many states that outlaw union shops in collective bargaining agreements, allowing workers receiving the benefits of those agreements to not belong to the union or pay union dues, thereby severely weakening the union bargaining position.
The reason for the guarded optimism of some over her appointment was that she was one of only three Republicans in the House of Representatives who sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act that would weaken these “right to work” state laws. Now she says that she signed onto the bill only because she “wanted to be at that table,” not because she was fully supportive of its provisions. When asked directly by anti-labor Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) if she still supports the PRO Act, she made it very clear that she did not. Paul is the lead sponsor of a National Right to Work Act currently in Congress.
SEVERAL UNIONS SUE TO STOP MUSK FROM ACCESSING PRIVATE DATA ON PEOPLE
Three Trump administration agencies were sued on Feb. 23 by several unions in an attempt to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE operation from getting into sensitive federal data on millions of Americans.
The suit, filed in a federal court in Maryland by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the National Federation of Federal Employees alleges that the Treasury Department has disclosed the contents of a government system that includes records on Americans’ tax refunds and Social Security benefits.
The suit also asserts that the Department of three agencies of the Trump administration Education has unlawfully disclosed data on the system that houses personal information on 43 million recipients of student loans. And people on Musk’s staff have been given the authority to access information from the Office of Personnel Management on people applying for federal jobs, as well as current and former federal employees.
