The Teamsters’ RNC Gamble
A prominent labor union president has infuriated members by courting Republicans in hopes for more favorable policy.
It’s not every day that you see a teamster walk a tightrope, but on Monday night, Sean O’Brien, president of the mighty Teamsters union, was doing just that at the Republican National Convention.
On one hand, O’Brien was seeking to cozy up to Donald Trump, eager to stay on his good side in case he wins the presidency in November. But on the other hand, O’Brien gave a speech that was no doubt anathema to many Republican bigwigs and business donors: He said that far too many greedy corporations exploit their workers and that America’s laws make it far too difficult for workers to unionize and get contracts that lift their pay and benefits.
One can easily imagine O’Brien boasting afterward that he was Daniel in the lion’s den, speaking truth to pro-corporate power. But O’Brien’s decision to appear at the convention stirred furious criticism within the labor movement, especially when many union leaders insist that Joe Biden is the most pro-union president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some Teamsters slammed O’Brien’s plan to appear at the convention; they feared that he was unwittingly letting the Trump campaign turn him into a show horse, a trophy that they could hold up to make the case that Trump and the Republican Party have the Teamsters’ seal of approval and are thus true friends of America’s workers and unions—despite the Trump presidency’s many anti-worker and anti-union moves.
John Palmer, vice president at large of the 1.3-million-member Teamsters union, slammed O’Brien’s decision to speak at the convention. In an op-ed, Palmer wrote that it “normalizes and makes palatable the most antiunion party and president I’ve seen in my lifetime. … It is unconscionable for any labor leader to lend an air of legitimacy to a candidate and a political party, neither of which can be said to have done or can be expected to do, anything to improve the lives of the workers we are pledged to represent.”
O’Brien—a combative former Boston truck driver who became Teamsters president in 2022—certainly knows that during his four years as U.S. president, Trump and his administration repeatedly undermined the interests of workers and unions. Trump didn’t raise a finger to increase the abysmally low $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage. Trump rolled back regulations that protected coal miners and farmworkers. Trump fought hard to repeal Obamacare, a move that would have pushed up medical costs and taken away health coverage from millions of working families. Trump appointed fiercely anti-union officials to the National Labor Relations Board, who moved in many ways, large and small, to make it harder for workers to unionize. Trump’s three hard-right appointees to the Supreme Court have also been consistently anti-union. Trump once said that if Congress passed it, he would sign a National Right to Work Bill, a move that would badly weaken unions by letting workers opt out of paying union dues. Not stopping there, Trump once urged union members not to pay union dues—how can a union survive and fight for higher wages if its members don’t pay dues?
Early this year, O’Brien began flirting with Trump, having invited him to speak to the union’s executive board. James Curbeam, chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, denounced O’Brien’s move and called Trump “a scab masquerading as a pro-union advocate after doing everything in his power to destroy the very fabric of unions.”
In his Monday night speech, O’Brien paid no heed to Trump’s anti-labor record. His focus seemed to be on flattering Trump with the hope that Trump, if elected, would be nicer to the Teamsters and to all of labor. O’Brien’s other objective was to educate Republicans and a national audience about the injustices and tough times that millions of workers face.
“I see American workers taken for granted,” O’Brien said. With a powerful and at times angry voice, he proceeded to denounce corporate elites, including Amazon, saying “their loyalty is to the balance sheet at the expense of the American worker.”
O’Brien argued that the nation’s labor laws were pathetically weak. “Americans vote for a union, but can never get a union contract,” he said. “Companies fire workers who try to join unions and hide behind toothless laws that are meant to protect working people but are manipulated to benefit corporations. This is economic terrorism.”
As part of his tightrope walk, O’Brien told a hugely partisan MAGA convention that the Teamsters “will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition, ready to accomplish something real for the American worker.”
As O’Brien talked, the crowd was at times quiet, uneasy. But it roared with approval when he lauded Trump, saying, “President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud, and often critical voices, and I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don’t like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough S.O.B.”
In his speech, O’Brien also praised Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican representing Missouri, noting that Hawley had walked on several Teamster picket lines (just as Biden joined a United Auto Workers picket line last fall). O’Brien also lauded Hawley for criticizing C-suite executives for selling out the U.S. by shutting factories and gutting American jobs. “The Teamsters and the GOP may not agree on many issues, but a growing group has shown the courage to sit down and consider points of view that aren’t funded by big-money think tanks,” O’Brien said.
Teamsters officials defended O’Brien’s decision to speak at the convention, noting that the union has not endorsed a presidential candidate and that O’Brien sought invitations to speak at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. The Democrats have not invited him, at least not yet.
Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokesperson, said rank-and-file Teamsters would dictate any endorsement decision. She noted that the union has held “member roundtables” with Trump and Biden and conducted town halls at roughly 300 local unions to discuss issues and candidates. “We are getting our members’ input in a variety of ways and using that to inform whatever decision is made,” she said.
The vast majority of the nation’s major unions have endorsed Biden, and it would be a sizable blow to him if the Teamsters make no endorsement or back Trump.
Many Democrats are no doubt fuming that O’Brien is playing footsie with Trump even though Trump and his party opposed what was long the Teamsters’ No. 1 legislative priority, the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Relief Act, a bill that devotes $86 billion in federal funds to rescuing the pensions of over 2 million union members, including over 400,000 Teamsters. After the Democrat-controlled House passed the bill in 2019, Trump and the GOP-controlled Senate did nothing to advance it.
After Biden was elected, he successfully pushed to enact the Teamsters-backed legislation. The House approved it, with Democrats voting 235 to 0 in favor and Republicans voting overwhelmingly against, 29 to 168. The Butch Lewis Act was passed in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan that not one Republican senator voted for.
On Monday morning, O’Brien spoke to Republican delegates from Massachusetts and criticized Biden for failing to deliver on some things, such as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize. Biden pressed hard for the bill, which is the AFL-CIO’s top legislative priority, but unanimous GOP opposition prevented it from overcoming a Senate filibuster. In what seems like wishful thinking, O’Brien dismissed suggestions that it would be impossible to pass the PRO Act with Trump in the White House.
All in all, O’Brien’s showing at the RNC was a huge gamble. He seemed to dream that he could somehow persuade Trump and the GOP to stop being fiercely anti-union and often anti-worker as well. But maybe his hard-hitting speech could lead to some incremental change.
More likely, O’Brien has done Trump a huge favor by seemingly giving his union’s seal of approval to the GOP—helping Trump woo blue-collar workers, a pivotal voting bloc that could help ensure a Trump victory, especially in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If Trump wins and if his coattails bring GOP control of the House and Senate, that, despite O’Brien’s wishes, could be a disaster for labor unions. That would mean more anti-union appointees to the NLRB and Supreme Court, more efforts to kill regulations that protect workers, more years of failing to pass the PRO Act, and more tough times for America’s unions. O’Brien’s appearance at the Republican convention won’t prevent that.
Discover more from CaveNews Times
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.