President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he has chosen congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon to serve as his labor secretary.
Trump said Chavez-DeRemer has worked "tirelessly" with business and labor to build the U.S. workforce and support Americans.
"I look forward to working with her to create tremendous opportunity for American Workers, to expand training and apprenticeships, to grow wages and improve working conditions, to bring back our Manufacturing jobs," Trump said in a statement.
Reaction from powerful business groups, including the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, was swift Friday night against Chavez-DeRemer over her support for the PRO Act, which would have protected employees’ rights to organize if it had passed. Backed by President Joe Biden and already passed by the House, the PRO Act would upend all right-to-work laws in all 27 states that have enacted them.
“We were alarmed by press reports that President-Elect Trump is considering Rep. Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor,” Kristen Swearingen, chair of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, said in a statement.
The Pro Act “has been repeatedly rejected on a bipartisan basis by Congress and opposed by business groups representing almost every industry,” Swearingen said.
Chavez-DeRemer, who was elected to Congress in 2022, lost her seat to Democrat Janelle Bynum earlier this month.
Newsmax contributed to this report.