When a handful of House Republicans sank a slate of GOP labor bills last week, it not only marked an embarrassing blow to GOP leadership, but showcased the populist and pro-union sentiment that's shaking up the orthodoxy of national Republican politics.
The upshot is that the pro-union shift in the GOP may not have reached the majority of the party, but it’s grown enough that division over labor issues has multiple times upended GOP leaders’ priorities.
Six Republicans voted with all Democrats last week against a bill that would have changed the definition of “hours worked” to exclude voluntary training — sinking that bill in a surprise vote, and prompting GOP leaders to pull three other GOP labor bills that were teed up for the week that had gotten opposition from unions. More details on that floor drama here.
Five of the GOP defectors were more moderate members or in swing districts, and from areas with larger union presence: Reps. Rob Bresnahan (Pa.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Nick LaLota (N.Y.), Chris Smith (N.J.), and Jeff Van Drew (N.J.).
Van Drew told me that the bill clashed with the party’s attempt to address voter affordability concerns, and would mean people “would get paid less at the end of the day because of it.”
His reasoning demonstrated how being a “populist” on the right is in vogue.
“Now I am a Republican, but I'm a populist. I'm conservative. I believe in conservative values. But part of those values are not taking money away from people,” Van Drew said. “I don't want people making less money, and they would have. There’s other ways to help small business that we can do.”
The sixth defector, freshman Rep. Riley Moore (W.Va.), represents the deepest red district of the bunch — but is also representative of the up-and-coming sentiment in the GOP concerned about “reindustrialization” and increasing manufacturing in the U.S. That was the focus of his speech at the National Conservatism Conference last year.
Moore noted his previous experience as a welder when explaining his vote to me, and said he didn’t like the idea of “people potentially getting taken advantage of doing free training” because there could be “undue pressure” placed on them.
Bresnahan, another freshman who previously ran his family’s electrical contracting company, said that his company had bargaining agreements with nine different unions — and argued that those relationships were good for business.
“I would not have been able to grow my company by 400 percent if I did not have the relationship with skilled trades men and women that I can call up to be able to perform additional work and grow and take on additional projects,” Bresnahan said.
That rebellion on the House floor last week wasn’t an isolated instance of pro-union sentiment upending the Republican agenda in Congress.
A handful of moderate Republicans in November joined with Democrats to force a vote on a bill to restore union rights for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, repealing an executive order from President Trump that sought to end bargaining with unions at several agencies. The bill later passed with 20 moderate Republicans voting with Democrats in favor.
And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for months held up Trump’s nominees to the National Labor Relations Board. He had sparred in a confirmation hearing with Scott Mayer, who was Boeing’s chief labor counsel, over the company’s handling of a Boeing strike in the Midwest.
While some of the GOP labor rebellions have gone against Trump’s policies, the president has long aimed to rewrite the party’s approach to union workers and appeal to the working class and union members, particularly in the Midwest. Recall that Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention last year.
The GOP has a long way to go before it’s a consistent ally for unionized labor — but with the small band of rebels in Congress and reframing pushed by Trump, it’s certainly no longer a clear antagonist.
