U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer speaks at a press conference with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and other House Republicans, more than a month into the ongoing U.S. government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 4, 2025. (Reuters/Annabelle Gordon)
Share
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned on Monday amid allegations of misconduct at the department.
Her deputy, Keith Sonderling, will serve as acting secretary, the White House said.
“While my time serving in the Administration comes to a conclusion, it doesn’t mean I will stop fighting for American workers. I am looking forward to what the future has in store as I depart for the private sector,” Chavez-DeRemer said a statement.
Her departure makes her the third to leave U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet in recent weeks. Kristi Noem was fired as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March and Pam Bondi left as attorney general less than a month later.
Trump had been weighing a broader cabinet reshuffling as he grows increasingly frustrated with the political fallout from the war with Iran, five people familiar with internal White House discussions told Reuters earlier this month.
Chavez-DeRemer took the helm of the agency in March 2025 after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for two years. Her nomination received bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations were among the unions that supported Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination.
At the time, the AFL-CIO praised her “history of supporting the freedom of workers to organize, join unions and other fundamental values of the labor movement.”
Neither union provided immediate comment when reached about Chavez-DeRemer’s departure.
Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure was fraught with allegations of misconduct at the department that resulted in the resignations of her chief of staff and deputy chief of staff.
The department’s inspector general has launched an investigation into Chavez-DeRemer and her aides, including claims that they sent personal text messages and requests to young staff members, according to the New York Times.
—
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose, Gram Slattery and Andrea Shalal, Editing by Caitlin Webber)
