Staff decry ‘constant turbulence’ under Trump’s labor secretary, as she blames ‘deep state’ in resignation

The secretary of the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, resigned this week after several controversies surrounding her brief tenure at the helm of the agency. But labor officials say even though her troubled reign is over, the US labor authority remains in a state of “constant turbulence”.

Chavez-DeRemer was under investigation over claims she had an affair with a subordinate and allegedly misused travel funds, and that her aides allegedly steered grants to politically connected figures. Her husband was banned from the agency’s headquarters over allegations of sexual assault by at least two staffers.

In a post on Instagram and X announcing her resignation, Chavez-DeRemer denied the allegations and claimed “the allegations against me, my family, and my team have been peddled by high-ranked deep state actors who have been coordinating with the one-sided news media and continue to undermine President Trump’s mission”.

Chavez-DeRemer is the latest official in the Trump administration to leave their leadership role in recent weeks, following the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem.

Omar Algeciras, vice-president of AFGE Local 2391, which represents workers at the Department of Labor, where Algeciras also works, criticized Chavez-DeRemer’s statement on her resignation.

“Labeling these workers as ‘deep state’ dismisses the mission and the people who carry it out every day,” said Algeciras.

“Career staff have kept this agency moving despite constant turbulence. As a union leader, I see first-hand how employees continue to deliver for workers across the country under difficult conditions,” he added. “This resignation creates an opening, but without stable leadership, respect for the workforce and a clear commitment to the mission, the challenges facing the department will continue.”

He claimed Chavez-DeRemer never signed a harassment policy statement for the agency, despite it being a requirement. The Department of Labor did not respond for comment on this allegation.

Under Chavez-DeRemer, the US Department of Labor shed about 20% of its workforce due to buyouts, resignations and firings. The agency also eliminated millions of dollars in international grants.

Last year, several workers at the agency told the Guardian that morale had “plummeted” amid the cuts, deregulatory efforts, and threats to and intimidation of staff, including a memo threatening workers for speaking to the media.

In January 2026, the Guardian spoke with union leaders who criticized the Department of Labor’s shift on social media to posts that they said echoed Nazi rhetoric. After the criticisms, the social media staffer at the agency was moved to the Department of Homeland Security.

Labor experts and leaders also criticized Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership at the labor department, where she oversaw significant cuts to the agency’s workforce and rollbacks of worker protections and regulations.

“Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer sat by as her department’s budget was slashed, as worker protections for other agencies were dismantled, supported the Trump administration’s attempt to annihilate the federal workforces’ unions and placed a three-story portrait of the president on the [labor department] building,” said Cathy Creighton, director of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations’ Buffalo Co-Lab, in a statement.

Creighton cited a deregulation agenda announced by the agency in July 2025 that included rescission of overtime and minimum wage protections for homecare and domestic workers, rolling back farm worker labor protections, and withdrawing a rule that would prevent employers from paying workers with disabilities a sub-minimum wage.

Congressional Labor caucus co-chairs Donald Norcross, Mark Pocan, Steven Horsford and Debbie Dingell issued a joint statement strongly criticizing Chavez-Deremer’s leadership at the agency.

“Secretary Chavez-DeRemer advanced the administration’s anti-worker agenda, facing removal only for the scandals she was involved in, and not the decisions she made that reduced oversight of workplace safety and enforcement of labor laws, leaving workers more vulnerable to injury, wage theft and exploitation,” said the congressional members in a statement. “Her tenure leaves workers with less protections and greater economic insecurity.”

Chavez-DeRemer was nominated with strong support from the Teamsters, with the union’s president, Sean O’Brien, pushing her to be nominated to the position shortly after Trump won the 2024 election in November. Trump was photographed with Chavez-DeRemer and O’Brien during the announcement of the nomination.

“The Teamsters are grateful to President Trump for putting American workers first by nominating Representative Chavez-DeRemer to this important role,” said O’Brien in a statement in February 2025.

The Teamsters did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation.

The US Department of Labor did not respond to multiple requests for comment.