Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he cannot support Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary, if she still favors the PRO Act, as he said it would override all the right-to-work state laws and result in a “transformation that would be such an assault on freedom of choice for employees, that you can’t imagine.”
Paul explained that 28 states have right-to-work laws, and when one compares the economics — unemployment, economic growth, and other factors, the right-to-work states “are just killing it.”
“Most of these are throughout the South. Kentucky became one about five years ago, but there’s at least 28 states, maybe a few more, that are right-to-work. And basically, just as you don’t have compulsory union dues, you can still have unions, you can still do collective bargaining, you just can’t force people out of the workplace if they don’t want to pay dues for political reasons.”
“And this is what the national right-to-work does. It would become a national law,” he said before turning to his issues with Trump’s labor secretary nominee, explaining that she supported something called the PRO Act.
“And the PRO Act would not only not have right-to-work nationally, but it would preempt and override all the state laws. It would repeal the state right-to-work laws. This would be a transformation that would be such an assault on freedom of choice for employees that you can’t imagine,” Paul warned, reminding listeners this would affect 28 states right off the bat.
Paul noted that he has yet to oppose any of Trump’s nominees, but as a supporter of the right-to-work movement, he said he cannot support her.
“This is pretty dramatic, and I have not opposed any of Trump’s nominees, but, you know, I lead the effort for a national law, and I’ve been a big supporter of the state laws, been close to the right-to-work movement for a decade or more, and so I can’t in good conscience support her since she supported the PRO Act,” he said, noting that he plans to ask her at Thursday’s hearing if she is willing to renounce her support of it. He said if she does renounce it, she will no longer receive support from any Democrats.
“But then there’s a question of whether or not she’ll pick up me or others, whether or not we believe she’s sincere. She’s in a tough bind. But, you know, they should have thought about this when they picked her, because there are a lot of other people that are pro-worker, pro-labor. You know, I’d be happy to have somebody who is in a labor union, frankly.”
“I know a lot of people who are truck drivers for UPS. I know people who are pilots for UPS. I know people who are in different types of unions. You could have easily picked somebody from it — that leads a union,” he said, “is friendly to unions … without picking somebody who wanted to get rid of all the right-to-work laws. So they just want one step too far.”
Paul said he has met with Chavez-DeRemer and described her as a “pleasant” person, noting he does not dislike her personally, but in order to get his vote she would have to “publicly profess that she’s no longer in favor of the PRO Act,” at the bare minimum. That aside, Paul said Trump has done a “tremendous” job with his nominees, noting that he would choose many of the same if he were in the same position as commander-in-chief.
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