Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer continues to walk a fine line between appealing to labor unions and business interests that typically back Republicans.
In July, she became only the third Republican member of Congress to cosponsor the sweeping pro-union bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and she has courted union endorsements in her reelection campaign while talking about her father’s experience as a member of the Teamsters union. But when her fellow Republicans on the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee held a series of union-bashing meetings over the past year, Chavez-DeRemer didn’t show up and join Democratic representatives in speaking up for unions.
Chavez-DeRemer spokesman Aaron Britt didn’t say why she missed those five meetings but defended her record on labor issues in a statement.
“Lori’s opponents are trying to attack her undeniably strong pro-labor record because they are terrified of the independent coalition of support she has worked hard to build throughout her first term,” Britt said. “There’s a reason Lori has collected endorsements from nearly a dozen labor unions – she has worked tirelessly to earn their trust by fighting for registered apprenticeships, fair wages, safe working conditions and much more.”
Chavez-DeRemer’s 5th Congressional District seat could be pivotal to control of the House and is being targeted by national Democratic and Republican groups. Labor unions also are likely to influence the outcome. They are a powerful force in Oregon politics – each election cycle, they pour millions of dollars and thousands of hours of volunteer work to help primarily Democratic candidates get elected. As she fights to keep her seat in the closely divided district with more Democratic voters than Republicans, Chavez-DeRemer has made entreaties to organized labor.
She counts endorsements from at least 10 unions, including the 20,000-strong Teamsters Joint Council No. 37, which represents workers in various industries across the northwest and hasn’t supported a Republican congressional candidate in more than two decades.
The state’s largest unions, meanwhile, are starting to line up behind Democratic nominee Janelle Bynum, a state representative and owner of several McDonald’s franchises in the Portland area. Bynum last week announced that she received an endorsement from Oregon’s Service Employees International Union, SEIU, which represents 72,000 public sector employees and caregivers across the state. The state’s largest private sector union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, has more than 30,000 members and gave Bynum and her primary opponent their “greenlight” stamp, a non-exclusive indication that a candidate’s values align with the union’s.
Renato Quintero, a longtime leader for SEIU Local 49, said in a statement provided by the Bynum campaign that the health care and building service workers represented by the union support lawmakers who support working people.
“Janelle Bynum is the clear choice in this race – she has been with us on the picket line and in crafting policy at the Legislature,” Quintero said. “She has shown with her actions she is the working people’s candidate.”
Chavez-DeRemer backs some union priorities, misses meetings
Chavez-DeRemer’s July 15 endorsement of the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, which would weaken state “right-to-work” laws to allow unions to collect dues from all employees, increase penalties for employers who violate labor law and strengthen employees’ legal rights to join a union, came more than a year after the bill’s introduction and likely too late to make much of a difference. Republican leaders in the House have not granted it a hearing, and between an August recess, a month-long break before the election and holidays, the House has mere weeks left to work on legislation in 2024.
She was the only Republican to vote against House Resolution 3400, or the Small Business Before Bureaucrats Act. The measure proposed by Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good would increase tenfold the amount of revenue required before the National Labor Relations Board gets involved in labor disputes.
She also cosponsored bills supported by pilot and flight attendant unions and railroad unions, as well as a bill to allow workers to receive tax deductions for union dues. And she has written or signed onto several letters supporting unions in their negotiations, urging the Port of Portland to end restrictions on picketing at the Portland airport and asking for increased funding for the National Labor Relations Board.
But when other Republicans on the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee scheduled six meetings that devolved into union-bashing, Chavez-DeRemer did not attend and publicly support labor.
She missed a June 12 meeting, titled “NLRB Overreach: Trampling on Workers’ Rights and Fostering Unfairness,” which Good began by decrying “big labor bias” and saying that “the American working class knows that unions are a tired, outdated remnant of yesteryear.”
She wasn’t there for a May 22 meeting, “Big Labor Lies: Exposing Union Tactics to Undermine Free and Fair Elections,” during which Republicans on the committee claimed that unions are formed by a minority of workers and outside agitators overriding the will of the majority of workers.
She also missed a March meeting, “Safeguarding Student-Athletes from NLRB Misclassification,” a December 2023 meeting, “Protecting Workers And Small Businesses From Biden’s Attack On Worker Free Choice And Economic Growth” and a November meeting about which Good said the committee had a “mandate to stand up for America’s workers and fight back against the agenda of radicalized unions.”
Good began a May 2023 meeting about union elections by criticizing President Joe Biden for following through on his promise to be the country’s most pro-union president, saying “Biden’s federal bureaucrats regularly fall in line to promote union interests over workers and job creators.”
Democrats on the subcommittee spoke up for unions at each meeting. In May, an exasperated Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Georgia, noted that it was the fifth anti-union hearing over the past year.
“This is the fifth anti-union and anti-worker hearing that the majority has held this Congress, and it’s no coincidence that these are coming at a time when unions are successfully organizing and negotiating in some of the most difficult places in the country,” she said. “Instead of addressing the working conditions and the wages that are driving this wave my colleagues would rather change the rules, now that they feel that they aren’t getting their desired effect of suppressing union membership.”
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: [email protected]. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.
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Julia Shumway is deputy editor of Oregon Capital Chronicle and has reported on government and politics in Iowa and Nebraska, spent time at the Bend Bulletin and most recently was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix. An award-winning journalist, Julia most recently reported on the tangled efforts to audit the presidential results in Arizona.
