Many in organized labor groaned Tuesday in response to news that President-elect Trump would pick former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to head the Transportation Department.
During her time at the Labor Department during President George W. Bush’s administration, Chao pushed through numerous rule changes to counter corruption and fraud, such as vastly expanding union disclosure requirements.
Many labor leaders regard Chao, the only Cabinet member to serve all eight years of the Bush administration, as having run a vendetta against unions while giving businesses a pass.
“Paging @jwjnational — what ever happened to ShameOnElaine.org?” tweeted Josh Goldstein, spokesman for the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, referring to the anti-Chao website unions ran during Bush’s administration. The link now leads to a website in Chinese. Jobs with Justice, a labor-backed activist group, has the @Jwjnational Twitter address.
“Let’s remember that Chao is on board of Wells Fargo — guilty of cheating millions @ForgoWellsFargo,” tweeted Stephen Lerner, a former organizer for the Service Employees International Union. Wells Fargo was fined by federal regulators and came under congressional scrutiny for creating 2 million fake accounts for customers as staffers tried to meet sales targets. CEO John Stumpf resigned in the wake of the outrage.
Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pushed through changes to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act that forced unions to be more accountable to their individual members. They required that union officers disclose their potential conflicts of interest and report on payments from union trusts. Those rules helped the Office of Labor Management Standards uncover fraud, resulting in 929 convictions, and recovering more than $93 million on behalf of union members.
Most of the rules were rolled back under Chao’s successor under President Obama, Democrat Hilda Solis. Obama’s administration said that limiting the union disclosure requirements “promote[d] transparency.” The announcement of the rollback in the Federal Register stated the rollback’s purpose was “to avoid overburdening unions and their officials with unnecessary reporting requirements.”
Unions attacked Chao on several fronts while she was secretary. She was criticized for budget cuts to the Mine Safety and Health Administration that resulted in fewer inspections, arguing they contributed to two disasters in West Virginia and Kentucky in 2006 that resulted in the deaths of 17 miners. Her picks to staff the agency were also slammed.
“At DOL Elaine Chao hired author of ‘How to close down the Department of Labor.’ Now will she try to close down the DOT?” Goldstein tweeted. He was referring to Chao hiring former Heritage Foundation analyst Mark Wilson, who wrote a paper in 1995 calling for closing the department and moving its key functions to other Cabinet agencies.
While the Transportation Department doesn’t affect unions as directly as the Labor Department does, the Cabinet post still has considerable impact on labor policy since the transportation industry is heavily unionized. Her appointment also would affect the construction industry since the department is heavily involved in contracting to build and maintain the nation’s transportation infrastructure.
Unions that would have to deal directly with Chao should she be confirmed were circumspect. “No comment,” said Tom Owens, spokesman for the coalition group America’s Building Trades Unions.
One union, the International Association of Firefighters, praised Chao, telling Bloomberg News that she would be a “strong partner.”
