Nate Gowdy/Mother Jones
On Monday night, after the triumphant entrance of former president and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, Teamsters Union general president Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican National Convention.
“I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did,” O’Brien said. “Today, the Teamsters are here to say: ‘We are not beholden to anyone or any party.’”
As president of the 1.3 million member union, O’Brien has proved to be willing to work with Republicans even as the rest of the labor movement has rallied around Democrats. While the AFL-CIO, NEA, and UAW endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, O’Brien met privately with Trump and donated $45,000 to the Republican National Committee’s convention fund. (According to the Washington Post, it was the Teamsters’ first major donation to the GOP in years, though they also donated $135,000 to the Democratic National Convention last December.) O’Brien’s appearance at the RNC further signaled his willingness to break from recent Teamsters history—the union supported Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020.
But, on an economy-themed night at the convention, O’Brien did not endorse Trump and it’s unlikely his union ever will. O’Brien did praise Trump’s “backbone” for inviting him, over the objections of anti-labor Republicans. And, in the wake of the attempt on Trump’s life, O’Brien said, “He has proven to be one tough S.O.B.”
The Teamsters president, who has described himself as a “lifelong Democrat,” faced criticism from within his union over his budding relationship with Trump. As Mother Jones recently reported:
O’Brien’s critics from within the union argue that his appearance at the RNC will set a dangerous precedent at a potential turning point for American labor. Teamsters vice president at-large John Palmer has repeatedly publicly rebuked O’Brien’s involvement with Trump. In a recent op-ed in New Politics, he wrote that O’Brien’s speech at the RNC “only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and President I’ve seen in my lifetime seem palatable.”
On Monday night, O’Brien acknowledged that the Teamsters and the GOP seldom agree on issues, but said that a “growing group” is willing to consider the union’s perspective. He named both Missouri senator Josh Hawley and vice presidential nominee, Ohio senator J.D. Vance. Hawley and Vance have both appeared at picket lines despite a history of opposing pro-union policies. Vance spoke out against the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would strengthen collective bargaining rights.
Not all of O’Brien’s points landed well with the convention’s audience. His urge for both parties to put “American workers first” elicited cheers, but the crowd’s enthusiasm waned as he described the need for legal protections for unionizing workers and labor law reform. “The biggest recipients of welfare in this country are corporations, and this is real corruption,” O’Brien said.
Trump, in particular, has proven to be weak on pro-union policies. As Mother Jones previously reported his administration dealt a series of blows to organized labor:
[Trump] reshaped the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law and investigates unfair labor practices. Led by a Trump appointee, the NLRB made what the Economic Policy Institute described as an “unprecedented” number of decisions “overturning existing worker protections.” The rulings constrained employees’ ability to form unions, organize at the workplace, and bargain with management.
Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court have supported a series of anti-labor rulings. In 2018, the court rejected a legal precedent that allowed public-sector unions to collect mandatory fees from nonmembers to support the cost of collective bargaining—a crucial source of revenue. Earlier this year, the Court sided with Starbucks in a case involving workers fired while they tried to form a union. The decision overturned an NLRB order to reinstate the workers.
It’s unclear if O’Brien will be given a chance to speak when the Democrats meet next month in Chicago. On Monday afternoon, O’Brien told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto that he had not received a reply to his request to speak at the Democratic National Convention. “Crickets,” he said to Cavuto.
Later that day, Reuters reported that the Teamsters’ leadership is considering endorsing no one in the 2024 presidential race, because of “deep internal divisions” within the union. Such a decision would be a rebuke to Biden, who has campaigned on his pro-labor record. A Teamsters spokesperson told Reuters that no final decision has been made.
“At the end of the day,” O’Brien told the crowd gathered in Milwaukee, “the Teamsters are not interested if you have a D, R, or an I next to your name. We want to know one thing: what are you doing to help American workers?”
