Well, this is ominous

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The Wall Street Journal:

Hard to believe, but Donald Trump on Friday night nominated a favorite of teachers union chief Randi Weingarten as his Labor Secretary. Why would Mr. Trump want to empower labor bosses who oppose his economic agenda and spent masses to defeat him?

Mr. Trump’s regrettable choice is Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Ms. Weingarten on Thursday tweeted her support for the freshman Republican. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the Republican National Convention, has also been pulling for her. In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump said she’ll work toward “historic cooperation between Business and Labor.” But Ms. Chavez-DeRemer has backed union giveaways like the Pro Act, which are not “cooperation.”

Stephen Kruiser:

I'll get to the Pro Act in a moment. For the moment, let us focus on the fact that Randi Weingarten is a vile human being. She was the face of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and championed keeping them closed far longer than even the other tyrants thought was necessary. Weingarten wrecked a generation of public school children, forcing them into a brutal game of "catch up" that many will never win.

Then she lied about her role in all of that. 

She's Team Trump with the Chavez-DeRemer choice though: 

When one of the most clinically insane leftists in America thinks that a Republican politician did a good thing, it means that the Republican just did a clinically insane leftist thing. 

For any conservative who had high hopes for the Trump 47 administration, Weingarten's approval of Chavez-DeRemer's nomination undoes a lot of the goodwill that had been built up. That's not the worst thing about this choice, however. Chavez-DeRemer (an annoying name to type repeatedly, by the way) is one of only three Republicans in the House to support the execrable PRO Act. Its full title is: The Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act. 

The PRO Act is a sop to Big Labor that got its start with California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) back in 2018. AB5 was a major effort to upend the freelancer-driven gig economy — specifically rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, which had long been targets politicians who are funded by labor unions. My Townhall Media colleagues in California would have been adversely affected by AB5 as well. The bill was so noxious that the left-leaning California electorate passed a proposition in 2020 that carved out exceptions to AB5. 

AB5 was one of the worst ideas to come out of California's progressive fever dream, and the PRO Act seeks to make a version of it federal law. 

The PRO Act is the latest attempt in Big Labor's years-long effort to do away with secret ballots in union voting and do things via an insidious process called "card check" which, per the Wall Street Journal, will implement "a coercive process whereby organizers confront employees individually and relentlessly, at work and at home, until they sign a petition card. If the union can collect cards from half of the workforce, it gets certified without a vote." In other words, it legalizes union thuggery. 

Card check was one of the big issues that we were fighting against back in the Tea Party days. It remains such a high priority for the unions that they're still working on making it law over a decade later. 

…. This choice … is so stunningly awful that I have to wonder how many other lefties have his ear. 

It's a most sobering thought. 

(Some) Republicans don’t like the nomination,

Trump’s labor pick is ‘toxic’ anti-conservative RINO who is too close to unions, critics allege: ‘Not serious’

But, as usual, the RINOs love her:

[She] received the full-throated support from House Republican leadership for her Labor Secretary nomination, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN). 

And from Reason:

Will Trump's Labor Secretary Pick Be a Big Win for Public Sector Unions? Opinion

As a member of Congress, Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R–Ore.) teamed up with Vice President Kamala Harris and teachers union bosses to push a proposal that would effectively override state-level reforms to limit the power of public sector unions—like those championed by Republicans in Wisconsin and Florida.

That might seem like it would make Chavez-DeRemer an unlikely choice for secretary of labor in a Republican administration. But President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering giving her exactly that gig.

Politico reported earlier this week that Chavez-DeRemer was "in the mix" to run the Labor Department, and she has the backing of some high-profile labor union leaders including Teamsters President Sean O'Brien. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), tweeted approvingly of Chavez-DeRemer's consideration for the job on Thursday.

The outpouring of support for Chavez-DeRemer from labor unions probably reflects her record as one of the most pro-union Republicans in Congress. She's one of three House Republicans to endorse the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), a grab bag of big labor agenda items that would extend some of California's awful independent contractor regulations nationwide, abolish so-called "right to work" laws in the 27 states that have passed them, and expand the powers of the National Labor Relations Board, among other things.

She's also one of a handful of Republicans to cosponsor the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which is best described as a federal power grab that allow public sector labor unions (like the AFT) to force their will on states that have limited the power of those unions. As Dominic Pino notes at National Review, the bill would "effectively rewrite labor-relations law in roughly half of the states, many of them Republican-governed, which currently either prohibit collective bargaining by public employees or don't explicitly authorize it."

And jut to round out the day and signal the return to business as usual, Trump added this additional nomination today: Trump picks Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as nation's next surgeon general. Fox News thinks she’s just wunnerful; I have my doubts. Not as horrible an appointment as selecting a pal and ally of Nancy Weingarten, but everyone in the public health business during COVID has no credibility in my mind.

Was all the sturm und drang during this election year for naught?