Dive Brief:
- President-elect Donald Trump appointed Nathan Mehrens, an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama’s pro-labor regulations, to his labor transition team, according to Politico. Mehrens was special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Labor Secretary under President George W. Bush from 2006 to 2009. Mehrens is currently general counsel and president of Americans for Limited Government, a conservative advocacy organization.
- Politico says Mehrens was especially critical of Obama’s Labor Dept. He staunchly opposed the “persuader rule,” requiring more disclosure of union-busting consultants and lawyers. He also attacked Obama’s executive order requiring contractors who want to work with the federal government to disclose past violations.
- Given Mehren’s anti-labor views, it’s no surprise that he’s also critical of the National Labor Relations Board. Politico reports that he called out the board for allowing graduate students to unionize in an August 2016 ruling, and warned college students’ parents that their children wouldn’t be safe on a unionized campus.
Dive Insight:
Mehrens, like most of Trump’s appointees, is transparent about his far-right conservative views. He once accused the Obama administration of making the shaming of employers one if its priorities. Politico says he called alternative labor organizations “Big Labor’s tax-deductible organizing scam.”
He reportedly told college students’ parents that a unionized campus would be filled with profanity and malicious conduct that would harm their children. Mehrens will likely double down on his anti-labor stances as a member of Trump’s labor transition team and push to undo Obama’s pro-labor regulations.