Trump made a surprise pick following some heavy lobbying from the Teamsters union, choosing Republican congresswoman from Oregon Lori Chavez-deremer. She will be his labor secretary. Chavez-deremer was one of few Republicans to co-sponsor the Pro act, [00:00:15] which protects and strengthens workers rights to organize. It is a pro-labor pick, and this is a victory for Sean O'Brien of the head of the Teamsters who advocated for spoke at the RNC, as you mentioned, and went in big for this. And he got Sean O'Brien did got opposed by much of the conservative movement. [00:00:32] Competitive Enterprise Institute, Grover Norquist group all came out against Sean O'Brien's in dreamer and Trump went with him. And I think we all know why. He said, hey, you know, I'm going to do something for my friend Sean O'Brien, which is great. [00:00:47] And as you just heard from Faiz Shakir, of all people, he's the head of pro-labor media organization More Perfect Union, and I'm really happy to hear his commentary there because I agree, I agree with him wholeheartedly. So he joined MSNBC to explain why Trump's choice for labor secretary. [00:01:06] Representative Lori Chavez-deremer could be a win for workers, and it's because of the fact that she absolutely is pro-labor, even as a Republican House member. Now, she was one of only three Republicans in the House to co-sponsor the Pro act, [00:01:26] which, of course, would gut these so-called right to work states, which makes it incredibly difficult for workers to organize their workplace. It essentially strips unions of the necessary resources they would require [00:01:42] in order to carry out advocacy on behalf of their workers, labor contract negotiations, things like that. And so I'm really happy to see that Trump's transactional nature worked out to the benefit of the Teamsters and of workers in this particular case. [00:01:59] And that is if dreamer does end up getting confirmed and I don't really see why she wouldn't. Chris Murphy, a Democratic lawmaker, also applauded this pick, and she stood alone as the only Republican Republican, by the way, to vote against [00:02:15] the small business before bureaucrats act. And that would have increased the amount of revenue a company would need to make in order for the NLRB to get involved in labor disputes when they arise for the company. Now, Chavez, Dahmer's father, was also a teamster, and she has [00:02:34] absolutely courted union support. She has also co-sponsored 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 on to several letters supporting unions [00:02:51] 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. So look, I've looked into her. I wrote about her recently for my Substack, and I think [00:03:10] that she doesn't just talk to the talk. She walks the walk. And her record shows that. But I want to jump ahead and talk a little bit about Sean O'Brien, head of the Teamsters, who definitely dealt with quite a bit of backlash from the Democratic Party over his decision to speak at the Republican National Convention. [00:03:29] He spoke as one of the headliners on the first night of the convention. He also got a lot of backlash for his refusal to have the Teamsters endorse a presidential candidate in this election cycle. Democrats feel entitled to the Teamsters endorsement, [00:03:44] but that didn't happen this time around. And he did that. He made a bet for two reasons, in my opinion. Number one, the majority of Teamsters members actually supported Trump over Harris. But I think the real reason was O'Brien was smart enough to see the writing on the wall. [00:04:01] He probably knew that Trump was going to win. And so he probably also recognized that Trump is a very transactional individual. And by avoiding an endorsement for Kamala Harris, that would give him some leverage to actually make a suggestion for Labor secretary [00:04:17] pick for the Trump administration. And he's the one who recommended Chavez-deremer for this position. And Trump, you know, gave him the reward of of naming Chavez-deremer for labor secretary. So this is good news, guys. [00:04:32] And I'm actually really proud of, Sean O'Brien for being willing to walk through fire in order to get a win in an upcoming Trump administration. Right. Okay. So first, I want to talk about Representative Lori Chavez-deremer. [00:04:48] I officially endorse her. Okay. Does that mean anything? I don't know. But I do it because I think that I want people to understand that the populist left and the populist right stand united on this issue. She is by far the best choice we could have possibly had in a Trump administration. [00:05:04] And yes, I agree with Anna wholeheartedly. Tip of the hat to Sean O'Brien, who did a brilliant job with this. Now I want to tell you about her. And Anna outlined some of the things that she's in favor of for unions and labor, etc. And she's for the Pro act, which is unprecedented for a Republican legislator [00:05:21] to have been in favor of the Pro act. So that's amazing. And that obviously tells you something. By the way, people wrote in like Charlie Zhou on, Super Chat saying, well, she voted she was against some of the NLRB rulings, whether I was probably against some of the NLRB rulings. [00:05:37] I don't know which ones you're referring to in specific. And he said he voted. She voted against Medicaid different times, etc.. She was a Republican. She's a Republican. Yeah. Let's be clear about that. Yeah. Right. So I'm not vouching for every vote she's ever had and everything she's ever done. Right. [00:05:52] But what I'm saying is it's not even close. This is by far the best person we get from a from a Trump administration. And so take the win. Now, let me explain to you guys who her opponents are and who's backing her. Her opponents are the Chamber of Commerce. [00:06:09] Americans for prosperity. That's the Koch brothers group. Grover Norquist, that's Americans for Tax Reform. That's the richest people in the country that always want corporate tax cuts and tax cuts for the wealthy and hate the workers. Almost all the corporate Republicans are against her. [00:06:25] All the Murdoch enterprises, Fox News, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, all coming out against her. Most of cable news coming out against her. Okay. These are excellent enemies to have 100%. Totally agree. So now who's on her side? Well, we just showed you is former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders and a [00:06:46] lot of not just progressive Democrats, but more mainstream Democrats like Patty Murray are on her side saying, oh my God, I can't believe Trump picked her. Yes. My answer is yes. Maybe that will sway some of the Kamala Harris people like, oh, don't worry, some establishment Democrats are also on her side. [00:07:02] Does that make you feel better? Okay. And so but that's not all. Not only is Sean O'Brien and the Teamsters on her side, but almost all the unions are on her side, including the teachers union. Randi Weingarten et cetera. If you're asking for a pic better than what all the unions and Randi Weingarten [00:07:21] and the teachers union, etc. Say is great and that they're thrilled to have, not only are you unreasonable, you probably have that this thing that I didn't think actually existed, but I'm now beginning to believe. - Does Trump Derangement. - Syndrome? Oh, it totally exists. Like if you say Trump is giving us exactly what we want and I hate it. [00:07:41] No, brother, you lost the plot at some point, right? Sorry, but that makes no sense at all. Take the frickin win. And if you don't, and you fight her, and you join the goons like Mitch McConnell and Grover Norquist and Karl Rove and Charles Koch, and they. [00:07:56] And you defeat her. What you're going to get is an infinitely worse labor secretary that is going to do massive damage to the workers in this country. And, by the way, the populist right at this point, because Trump picked her, is with us in fighting back against the Koch brothers and Mitch McConnell. [00:08:14] So if you think I lost the plot, no, you lost the plot. If you're on the side of Mitch McConnell and the Koch. Brothers, I want. To end with more from Faiz Shakir, who has worked closely with Bernie Sanders in the past. And like, this is not some secret, you know, corporate Republican. [00:08:31] Okay. Faiz Shakir is as left wing as you can get, especially in terms of workers rights and making working conditions better for Americans in this country. So with that in mind, let's take a look at more of what he had to say while on MSNBC. The hostility that surrounds her is real. You got Elon Musk, you got Russell. [00:08:50] We were just talking about you've got Wall Street hedge fund guy Scott Bessent. These are not people who are ready to go flying with the pro-labor agenda. So she's got her work cut out for her. But it is at least one voice at a table where she is outgunned by a very Wall [00:09:05] Street friendly people who's going to have at least a labor voice. And there's moments where, of course, I think it could be helpful when workers go on strike. I will just note that, you know, in order to support the Labor Secretary, you also need an NLRB National Labor Relations Board support. And so who Donald Trump picks for that needs to complement this direction [00:09:22] if we're going to carve into being a pro-labor. Yeah. And I agree with Faiz Shakir when it comes to the NLRB. And by the way, I mean, in his first term, Donald Trump didn't have any of the influence that he's currently getting from Sean O'Brien. [00:09:38] So hopefully Sean O'Brien is working with Trump in deciding who will serve in the NLRB, because I think that this role is important. And look, I would love nothing more than for Trump to prove everyone wrong by having a good National Labor Relations Board, [00:09:56] a pro-labor labor secretary, especially when before he named her as labor secretary in his new administration. You know, there were all these stories being published, including one in the Washington Post that talked about how the upcoming Trump administration is going to gut labor. [00:10:13] Doesn't seem like he's looking to gut labor if he's willing to appoint, you know, a pro-labor labor secretary like Chavez-deremer. Okay, last couple of things here. Look, I know his record in the past on labor has been terrible, so we're not naive about it. So could he go back in that bad direction? [00:10:30] Yes. Of course. Yeah. If he picked another labor secretary, he would definitely go in that direction since he picked this labor secretary. We're hoping that maybe he doesn't go in that direction. So please encourage that. And as I said, Faiz was the campaign manager for Bernie in 2020. It's not like, oh, every progressive in the country [00:10:46] just got hoodwinked overnight, right? Right. No, we know their track record really well in terms of these candidates. And we're telling you this one is a good one. The idea that you should maximal, be maximalist in your resistance to Trump and even disagree with him on things that he agrees with us on is irrational. [00:11:04] And I and I can't stand it. It makes no sense. Which leads me to my final point, which is, look, Sean O'Brien had a lot of courage to do what he did and what you don't know. But I do, because I've been through it, is that that burns a lot of your bridges, [00:11:20] and it spends a lot of your political capital, and he would be persona non grata in Democratic circles after giving that speech at the RNC. And so it would cost him. I would be very surprised if it didn't cost them personally. It didn't cost them his contacts. [00:11:35] It didn't cost him a lot behind the scenes, but he took that step because he thought he could get something positive like this out of it. And he was right. And when someone is right, you should give them credit where credit is due. So thank you Sean O'Brien and Teamsters for getting us this pick. [00:11:51] Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:12:10] and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.